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“This is someone who is charismatic, who is articulate, who I think has a warm and fuzzy kind of image to him,” said Myer Siemiatycki a politics professor at Ryerson University, in Toronto. “He’s knowable, he’s likable — that adds up to votes.”

Clemons, who turned 50 in January, is from Dunedin, Fla., and was raised by a single mother in a home not far from where the Toronto Blue Jays hold spring training. Having signed with the Toronto Argonauts in 1989, he quickly became the face of the franchise, and one of a handful of athletes who transcended their sport in the city.

A gifted orator and public speaker, Clemons is widely known for his charity work and for his various causes. He is also known for running behind schedule because of his habit of stopping to speak — or just as often, to both hug and speak — with people along the way.

At least once a day, Clemons said, those conversations touch on his political ambitions.

“It’s a tremendous compliment to suggest I would be worthy of public support on a mass basis like that,” he said during a telephone conversation last week. “The first reaction is humility.”

His second reaction: He will not seek public office this year.

“Life changes, different opportunities come,” he said. “I’m not comfortable with the idea of politics for at least five to seven years, if ever. And that’s a real key — if ever, because it’s not something that I’m determined to do.”