Even as his brother Rob Ford wages war on Mayor John Tory in an unofficial start to the 2018 Toronto election, a peeved-sounding Doug Ford says Tory will not help the Fords clear about $800,000 in campaign debts.

On the weekend Doug Ford, who replaced his ailing brother for the final two months of last year's mayoral race, told CP24 that he spent $900,000 -- about $600,000 of it out of his own pocket.

Doug Ford says Rob, who was elected to his old Ward 2 Etobicoke North council seat, has a debt of about $200,000 from his $500,000 campaign.

“I asked John straight out if he’d be able to support us when he won,” said Doug Ford, who was hoping Tory would appear at a May 14 fundraiser the Fords are holding to clear their debt.

“But that’s John’s choice and if he doesn’t want to help out that’s fine.”

Keerthana Kamalavasan, a spokesperson for Tory, told the Star in an email: "The mayor was never asked to attend and has a full schedule the evening in question."

Tory offered a more candid explanation in an afternoon news conference. If he helped Doug Ford pay for ads that attacked his crediblity, the mayor said, it would "call into question whether I was thinking straight."

"Anybody thinking for just a moment about the prospect of my going out and raising money which would finance in effect, quite directly, the running of ads that called into question my character, my integrity and so on, must think that I fell off some sort of a turnip truck pulling into downtown Toronto.

"I was honoured and privileged, and it was my idea to have a fundraiser for David Miller when he beat me for the mayoralty in 2003. Why? Because I didn't think that a sitting mayor should be saddled with a campaign debt and because during that campaign he never once attacked me personally, nor did I attack him.

"I was pleased to do the same for Jane Pitfield when she had a debt when she ran against David Miller. I was pleased to do the same for Rob Ford and for Rocco Rossi when they had debts after the last campaign, of which I was not a part.

"But I think to expect me to go out and do that in this case where all that money that I'd be helping to raise was used to attack my character and attack my integrity, I believe completely unfairly, I think is expecting a bit much."

He continued: "Doug Ford did ask me around Christmas time in general terms, not with a specific date, whether I would be prepared to participate in such an event and I answered him just the way I've just answered you. I said, 'Doug, I'm afraid it's just not possible.' I think people would call into question whether I was thinking straight if I went out to help raise money to pay off a debt incurred to run ads to attack me over and over again all day. Most of the money was spent on that.

"It's a free country. I'm not complaining about the ads as much as, you can't expect me to pay for them."



So what did Doug Ford say about John Tory that past rivals had not?

Well, on a single day in September, shortly after he joined the mayoral campaign, Doug Ford claimed Tory was given his first job out of law school, as an aide to then-premier Bill Davis, because the Tories were wealthy; said Tory knew nothing about city hall, and proclaimed Sept. 26 "Take John Tory to work day,"; claimed that as a Rogers executive Tory ratcheted up Torontonians' phone bill; and said Tory knew nothing about he football when he served as the CFL's unpaid chairman and commissioner.



Tory is planning to host an April cocktail reception fundraiser for David Soknacki, another former mayoral rival with campaign debts, at the posh University Club downtown.

After the 2014 election, some former mayoral candidates and their supporters came together to hold a "harmony dinner" to help clear their campaign debts. The theme was putting past battles behind them.

What's different now is that the Fords appear to be -- to use one of Doug Ford's favourite phrases -- trying to "politically kill" Tory.

Even as he fights potentially fatal cancer, Rob Ford is declaring he hopes to run against Tory in 2018. He uses his council perch to try to undermine the mayor, including the recent council budget meeting where he accused Tory of breaking a promise that Tory says he did not make.

Earlier this month, at a news conference to mark his first 100 days in office, Tory was asked if he has reached out to former rivals Doug Ford or Olivia Chow for advice.

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He has not talked to Doug Ford, he said then, adding he got "too personal" in the campaign and "impugned" his character.

Tory might, in fact, find himself in 2018 facing Doug Ford, who now wants his help. Asked if he has a political future, Ford told CP24: “I always say service above self, and that’s what our family believes in and we’ll continue doing it.

"I still have a long career in politics and by no means have I hung up the skates yet – that’s for sure.”

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