The older brother of Rob Ford, the former Toronto mayor who refused to resign after being caught smoking crack, is once again seeking the city’s highest office.

Toronto businessman and politician Doug Ford announced his candidacy Friday, putting him on path to challenge Mayor John Tory in next year’s municipal election.

“I am here to continue Rob’s legacy,” said Mr. Ford. “I will be running for mayor of Toronto.”

“I just have to say Robbie, this one is going to be for you,” Mr. Ford said, CTV reported. Rob Ford died of cancer in March 2016.

Mr. Ford, 52, served on the Toronto City Council from 2010 to 2014 during the same time his brother occupied the mayor’s office, and was rumored to be considering running in next year’s race.

Rob Ford, a former councilor in his own right, repeatedly came under fire while in office for a series of headline grabbing-antics and was stripped of most of his powers in 2013, but refused to resign in spite of evidence of abusing drugs and alcohol, including a widely publicized video showing him smoking crack cocaine.

He planned to run for re-election in 2014, but withdrew after doctors discovered a tumor in his abdomen subsequently diagnosed as cancerous. He died in March 2016 at the age of 46. In the interim his brother launched a mayoral bid of his own in 2014 but ultimately lost to Mr. Tory by more than 64,000 votes.

“Mr. Tory has failed to deliver on promises he made during the last election,” Mr. Ford said Friday. “I’m here to say enough is enough. I’m here to tell you as mayor, my number one job… is to save each and every one of you money.”

Mr. Tory, on his part, said voters in Canada’s most populous city would have to be hard pressed to elect another Ford into the mayor’s office.

“I think people will have to think long and hard about going back to the old way and the chaos that we saw three short years ago,” he said Friday.

“I will only say to people that we are in the midst of actually building a transit network across the city, meeting our affordable housing target, which wasn’t the case in previous years, getting along well with the other governments and people just have to cast their minds back to three years to dysfunctional city council, no relationships with the other governments, no consent transit debates, nothing actually getting done, cuts back in transit, and they will have to ask themselves if they want to go back to that,” Mr. Tory said, CTV reported.

Toronto’s municipal election is slated for Oct. 22, 2017. Mr. Tory previously indicated he’ll run for re-election, but candidates can’t formally register until next May.

Sign up for Daily Newsletters Manage Newsletters

Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.