

Chris Fox, CP24.com





Doug Ford says his mayoral platform will be “pretty well the same” as the one his brother had been running on prior to dropping out of the race.

Ford made the comment to reporters as he arrived at Mount Sinai Hospital to visit the mayor Friday afternoon.

“Considering I was part of putting Rob’s platform together and was part of the team for the last four years we are going to keep it pretty well the same,” Ford said.

Ford had previously promised to hit the campaign trail on Friday, however he did not attend a luncheon debate with Olivia Chow and John Tory and is not expected to be in attendance at another debate hosted at Ryerson University this evening.

Speaking with reporters, Ford said he would begin his campaign in earnest on Saturday by canvassing on his “home turf” in and around Kipling Avenue in Etobicoke.

Ford also confirmed that he will take part in a debate at the York Memorial Collegiate Institute on Eglinton Avenue Tuesday night, telling reporters that he will ready.

“I have been debating for four years down at city hall with a lot tougher people,” he said.

In other Ford campaign news, the mayor's chief spokesperson Amin Massoudi has confirmed that he is leaving city hall to join Doug Ford's team. Massoudi previously worked as Ford's executive assistant before moving to the mayor's office following a string of high-profile departures around the time that Toronto Star first reported about the existence of a "crack video."

Soknacki, Stintz strategists join Tory team

While Ford has been silent on the campaign trail, it has been business as usual for fellow candidates John Tory and Olivia Chow.

Earlier on Friday, two key strategists who worked on the campaigns for Karen Stintz and David Soknacki threw their support behind Tory.

Tory welcomed Stintz’s campaign chair Paul Brown and Soknacki’s adviser Gordon Chong outside city hall Friday morning, but did not specify the exact roles they will play on his campaign.

“To me this is important evidence of the fact that we are gaining momentum and that we are gaining new people to our cause to bring the city together and to create one Toronto,” Tory said. “I am just very happy to have them show this gesture of confidence in me, our campaign and perhaps more importantly what this campaign is about.”

Chong, a former councillor, was a member of Mayor Rob Ford’s transition team when he was elected in 2010 and authored a 2012 report on how to fund transit expansion in Toronto titled “Toronto Transit: Back on Track.”

In that report, Chong advocated parking taxes or levies and a special regional sales tax to pay for new infrastructure. On Friday, however, he told reporters that he believes Tory can in fact follow through on his SmartTrack proposal using Tax Increment Financing.

Under TIF, a government borrows money to fund the cost of a project and then pays it back using additional tax revenue generated by higher property values and increased development.

Fellow mayoral candidate Olivia Chow has criticized Tory for promising to fund the entirety of the city’s $2.5 billion share of SmartTrack using TIF, calling it unrealistic.

“What I know about TIF now is that over 40 states have done it and it works,” Chong said. “There are some failures like anything, but the successes outnumber the failures and I believe it can be done.”

Chow slams planned subway extension

Elsewhere on the campaign trail Friday, Chow held a press conference in Scarborough to reiterate her proposal to scrap a planned subway extension and revert to a previously approved seven-stop LRT for the area.

“A subway is a lot more expensive to operate and requires a certain number of passengers, so you are talking about $34 million in (additional) operating costs each year. We already see that in the Sheppard subway, which we are continuing to have to subsidize because not that many people use it,” she said. “I am here today to tell you that the light rail is a better solution. It means that Scarborough residents will get the transit now and that no one will be left behind.”

Later today, both Chow and Tory will participate in a lunncheon debate hosted by the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies. The candidates will also participate in a ProudTOvote debate at Ryerson University at 5:30 p.m. Doug Ford is not expected to participate in either debate.

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