TORONTO

DoFo arigato Mr. Robo-call.

A new Doug Ford robo-call has again raised the spectre of the former city councillor running against Mayor John Tory in 2018. This time, Ford has teamed up with Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti with a slew of new automated calls to Toronto residents inviting them to a town hall on taxes to be held Monday night.

The meeting is set for just a few days before council finalizes the 2017 budget.

Ford was coy about whether the call is another indication he will run in 2018.

“I’m definitely considering it,” Ford told the Toronto Sun. “Let’s just see where the chips fall and see where we go in the next year.”

Asked if the robo-call and town hall were a way of keeping his hand in politics in the run-up to the next municipal vote, Ford denied it.

“I don’t need to,” he said. “I swear to God, I get 10 constituency calls a day for federal issues, provincial issues, municipal issues. So, I’m still involved and I hear all these complaints. I don’t know who else can challenge John Tory. If you have anyone else in mind, tell me?”

Ford ran unsuccessfully against Tory in 2014 after his brother, the late Rob Ford, was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.

Ford said he’d gladly stack the accomplishments of his brother’s administration up against Tory’s. He accused the mayor of growing the city bureaucracy and increasing taxes.

“What has this guy done?” Ford says. “This guy’s done absolutely nothing. I’ll put our accomplishment list in the first year over what he’s going to do in the next two years. Ninety per cent of how he spends his day is (thinking about) how he’s going to raise taxes.”

Mammoliti said he asked Ford to help with the robo-calls and town hall because he’s concerned working city residents can’t offer feedback on the budget through regular channels.

“I don’t believe that City Hall has done a good job of consulting with Torontonians,” he said.

The townhall meeting will take place at the Julius Banquet Hall, 2201 Finch Ave. West, at 7 p.m.

Tory’s spokesman Don Peat slammed both Ford and Mammoliti, accusing them of using “alternative facts” to describe the mayor’s term in office.

Tory has delivered, as he promised in the 2014 election, two budgets with tax increases at the rate of inflation with a third on the way this week, he said.

“Toronto has seen enough of the Mammoliti-Ford act,” Peat said in a statement. “They turned City Hall into a circus for four years and voters clearly said they didn’t want to go back.”

sjeffords@postmedia.com