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Doug Ford defended himself Thursday for the cash-toss, saying he did not have time to go to Tim Hortons to pick up gift cards.

“I went there, I handed out the toys. I said folks, I apologize, I don’t like doing this rather than a Tim’s card, I didn’t have time, here’s $20. Go buy yourself a coffee,” he told reporters.

He said he handed out the “couple hundred dollars I had on me.”

The Etobicoke councillor argued he wasn’t trying to buy votes because he doesn’t plan to run in the next municipal election.

“I’m not running. I don’t need to buy votes. Rob doesn’t need to buy votes up there, that’s the last place he needs to buy votes. And we don’t believe in buying votes,” Ford said.

“I’m the last guy that’s corrupt,” he added. “Everyone knows the Fords are not corrupt. Maybe rough around the edges, maybe a lot of things, we are not corrupt.”

Councillor Ford has said for the past three years that he donates his whole salary to community projects, such as sprucing up parks, and that is where the money to buy the gifts for the children at Tandridge and the $20 he gave out came from. He said he also spent $800 on a bunch of turkeys at the request of another group.

But Councillor Perks said there are other, more transparent ways to give back. He has, for example, donated his salary raise back to the city, and the money then goes into a general pot.

“The spectacle of literally handing out cash, people will see that and lose faith, lose faith that all of us participate equally in our government,” he said. “It’s just corrupting. People come to Canada to get away from this kind of corruption.”