The first gathering of the six main mayoral candidates erupted into a war of words between former deputy premier George Smitherman and ex-non-profit executive Rocco Rossi.

The lively three hour question-and-answer session Monday night at Mary Ward Catholic Secondary School in Scarborough was never lacking for passion as the candidates held forth on public transit, road tolls, taxes and many other issues.

But the gloves came off after Smitherman, who had directed a series of jabs at Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone and his boss David Miller, took aim at Rossi’s plan to direct half of development fees from downtown projects toward troubled suburban neighbourhoods.

Smitherman said the plan reminded him of the divisive policies of former Ontario premier Mike Harris.

Loud applause followed but when Rossi next got to the mic, on a question about rooming houses, he let loose: Mr. Smitherman if he hadn’t blown $1 billion on eHealth and if he hadn’t made the single biggest sole-source deal in Canadian history with Samsung then maybe, just maybe his former boss would have had the money to continue to invest in this city

Smitherman retorted: “I have an experience and a track record and you have none.”

Despite organizers pleas not to stack the house with supporters, there were large camps of Smitherman and Rossi supporters and they howled during the exchange.

Earlier, answering prepared questions from students, Pantalone said Scarborough is the biggest loser in the provincial governments decision last week to delay $4 billion in funding for the Transit City plan to snake streetcar lines through the suburbs.

“Well go knocking on (Premier) Dalton McGuinty’s door and make sure the funding gets restored and well ask George to come with me in support of that,” said Pantalone, the lone defender of David Miller’s legacy on transit and many other issues.

Smitherman called Pantalone a 27-year-veteran of the status quo and said the St. Clair Ave. W. streetcar debacle showed the need for a skills-based board to help run it. He also repeated a call for TTC chair Adam Giambrone to step down, a comment that angered Rossi and partly led to the later bitter exchange.

Sarah Thomson, a magazine publisher, pushed her main platform of more subways across the city, paid for by road tolls.

My vision for Toronto is to complete our much needed subway system, she said, a mantra often repeated, even when the question wasn't transit-related.

Councillor Rob Ford said he would clean up the filthy, dirty TTC and make it an essential service, while his colleague Giorgio Mammoliti said he would try to upload the TTC to province and, failing that, focus on new subway lines rather than streetcars.

Rossi acknowledged he has taken heat for his stance that bike lanes shouldn't be on arterial roads but got one of the biggest cheers of the nights when he said he can't ask a motorist in gridlock to sit there staring at an empty bike lane.

Pantalone said its our kids, our sisters, our brothers who use bicycles, not Martians, and lanes should be put anywhere it’s safe.

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Smitherman said Rossi’s bike lane stance pits one segment of Toronto against another but was drowned out by boos and calls of “Answer the question.”

He shot back that free alcohol might have been extended to the Rossi camp just a little bit early, referring to an offer from the Rossi camp that supporters would be transported to the Q&A and given a drink ticket for a gathering afterwards. Rossi’s spokesperson later said he did not approve of the offer before it was sent out.