Picture this one-two punch: While the media clamour for the head of a scandal-plagued mayor, the coup de grâce comes from a new female premier who pressures him to quit.

That’s the dramatic scenario that played out in Quebec last year: Premier Pauline Marois humiliated Montreal’s embattled mayor, Gérald Tremblay, in a well-timed telephone call that prompted him to resign over a graft scandal.

If that high-level intervention worked in Quebec, why can’t Queen’s Park take similar action against Toronto Mayor Rob Ford amid allegations he smoked crack cocaine?

A good question — raised last week by Dwight Duncan, who until four months ago was Ontario’s deputy premier and long-serving treasurer. Speaking to a blue chip business audience, Duncan wondered why his former colleagues aren’t stepping in to make Ford step aside.

Is Premier Kathleen Wynne up to the job of dislodging Ford from his? Can the province save city hall from itself?

Legally and politically, the bar is high. And no barrier is bigger than the unspoken matter of mandates — his and hers.

Ford swept to power with a robust democratic mandate, winning more than 350,000 votes in the 2010 municipal election. Wynne owes the premier’s job to a mere 1,150 delegates who anointed her at a Liberal leadership convention last January, and has yet to face voters in a general election.

While Ford has lost his moral authority as mayor, Wynne’s own democratic legitimacy could become a flashpoint if she made a move to oust him.

It didn’t take long for Councillor Doug Ford, the mayor’s combative brother, to throw that grenade at an “unelected” Wynne last week, hours after she raised concerns about drift at city hall:

“You’re avoiding an election, you’re running from an election and you’re running from the people because you know you wouldn’t get re-elected,” he taunted.

It was a blunt warning from the mayor’s big brother, who keeps boasting about running in the next provincial election. But the bombast only goes so far.

Ford Nation went on vacation in the 2011 provincial election, and is about as potent a force now as Leaf’s Nation at playoff time. The new premier is enjoying a strong honeymoon in the GTA — every poll shows Torontonians back her strongly — while Ford is stuck in the doghouse with most voters.

Moreover, Wynne’s advisers insist she possesses full legal authority under our political system: She enjoys the confidence of her party, her caucus, and — at last count in last month’s budget vote — the provincial legislature.

Ontario’s cities are creatures of the province, owing their legal status entirely to the legislative assembly. The province doesn’t hesitate to take over wayward hospitals and school boards — imposing trusteeship over elected school trustees if they lose the public’s trust.

But Toronto city hall is no small-town school board. It is a mature level of government, as Wynne keeps noting, and the 2006 City of Toronto Act recognized that special status.

Either way, it’s part of the premier’s job description to ensure Toronto doesn’t tumble into a tailspin. Despite the mayor’s feeble claims that it’s business as usual at city hall, his office is in disarray and the city is in disrepute. The scandal has even become a distraction at Queen’s Park, where a recent Wynne news conference was dominated by questions about Ford’s future:

“I will act when it is appropriate having followed due process,” she said repeatedly.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

But the premier noted pointedly that Ford has not been convicted of anything:

“Right now, there is no clear path of action for the province. That is the reality. We are paying close attention.”

What would it take for Wynne to step in? By law, the province could order a new election only if city councillors failed to meet for 60 days.

Short of that, could the premier use her powers of persuasion to prod Ford into resigning, replicating the Quebec scenario?

It’s worth remembering that Marois didn’t invoke any legal authority when she telephoned Montreal’s mayor last year. She simply shamed him into submission and resignation.

Can anyone in Toronto fathom Ford taking the hint — or even taking the premier’s call? The question answers itself.

That’s not to say Queen’s Park shouldn’t remain vigilant. The OPP must be ready to step in on this issue if Toronto’s police show any sign of deferring to the same mayor from whom they take direction.

But barring a conviction, don’t expect the province to solve our city’s problems. Torontonians, including politicians, civic and business leaders, will have to do it for themselves. The onus is on them — on us — to come together in isolating and sidelining a discredited mayor, so that he is relegated to the role of a one-man rump on council, tailed by his big brother.

Big sister can’t do it for us.

Read more about: