David Soknacki spent $300,000 of his own money on an agenda-based campaign for Toronto mayor that won accolades from even his rivals.

But in a Nathan Phillips Square news conference detailing his decision to pull out, Soknacki said his campaign of ideas couldn’t overcome the fact the focus of the race has become a referendum on Rob Ford.

Below is an edited transcript of his remarks:

“I am here to let you know that as we’re speaking my campaign manager is withdrawing my candidacy for the city of Toronto mayor, and I want to tell you what a wonderful experience it was.”

“Last night, I expressed my thanks and my admiration to my team. I believe very strongly that we had a team that was second to none, and I feel very much that we lifted the bar, we raised the issues I think the city of Toronto and its residents needed to hear.”

“I’m proud of the campaign that we ran. And I told the group of volunteers that what kept me going week after week was their commitment to what we were doing, so I thanked them all, and I think it’s important that I express it again that it wouldn’t be possible without them.”

“There’s a number of matters that I’d like to cover off here, in no particular order, that I think you might have as questions.

“People have asked about the freedom of information request. I mentioned that it’s some 2,000 pages. There were a number of pages that were not redacted in our opinion. We have a volunteer redacting them now and they will be posted on our website either tomorrow or later on this week.”

“With respect to our website, we’ve said that we’ve run the campaign of ideas. I’m proud of the ideas we’ve put forward, the things which I believe we need to transform the city. And we will be holding our website up at least until the end of the election (Oct. 27). I certainly hope that candidates and city staff take a look at what’s there and use what they can.”

“I’ve been asked about an endorsement, and I want to say, in Olivia and John there are two very fine candidates running for mayor. I’m not going to be endorsing anyone in particular. I do want to say that actually I don’t have anything to give. The volunteers and my supporters came to me for my ideas, they came to me for a whole host of reasons and … I’m certainly not going to presume to suggest that they go in a direction. I will say both Olivia and John have reached out, and I appreciate the comments of respect and support from both of them.”

“People have asked about the money in the campaign. I want to say that what you’ve seen is a $400,000 campaign. I invested $300,000 of that in round numbers and another $100,000 came in from donors. August was our best month as people recognized that there was a challenge, and in fact we spoke of that. The funds kept coming in, but not nearly enough to move forward. I’ve shared with members of the media who have asked that it is a $2 million campaign. That’s the amount that Barbara Hall spent, John Tory spent and George Smitherman spent in the past. I don’t doubt that Rob, Olivia and John will be spending that this time.”

“People have asked me about what I account for my low standing in the polls. I will say that what we did as a campaign from the beginning is say that we’re going to be running a campaign of ideas. We recognized it was a challenge and a long shot. And what we expected to happen was that Rob’s support would decline faster than it is. We didn’t expect to see Ford Nation continue so strong. Indeed, what has happened is the election has become a referendum on Rob Ford. What we found in knocking on doors is that people said, ‘You’re the best, you have the greatest ideas, your programs are costed,’ etc. etc. etc. But we’ve got to have Rob out of there. And those votes went, instead of to Olivia or to ideas, like myself, people figured that John was winning, that he was a safe set of hands. My analysis of it is they have gone there and continue to go there.”

“If you ask why we left when we did — the last set of polls that came out just today, we had an inkling a couple of days ago that they were going to give us a minor bump, but we recognized that support indeed was going directly to John as that safe pair of hands. I stepped into the race to make sure there was a difference. I didn’t want to dilute the result on election day, so therefore I decided that I wanted to withdraw prior to the 12th {+,} {+ } .which is the last day for removal of my name. So once the results came we used the opportunity of my birthday party and, out of respect for all of those who volunteered on my campaign, I decided to announce on my (60th) birthday.”

“My future? Don’t know. I don’t know what I’m having for lunch tomorrow. I know that I will not be standing for a seat on council. I do not have an interest in standing for partisan political office and I know that includes the federal and provincial levels, although I’ve got friends on both.”

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“A short comment on a little bit of the history of the campaign. The first existential meeting, if you will, that Brian (Kelcey) and the core team had, came in July. We took a look at the numbers and said: What are we going to do? The comment that came from Brian at that time, was that we’ve both sat on losing campaigns. Our campaign did not feel that way, and indeed until yesterday was not that way. We had an increasing number of volunteers, and their strength, their motivation and their belief is what kept me going throughout. So what we decided to do in July and then in August and finally the end of August is stay once more for the volunteers, and that’s what kept me going more than anything else. I’m proud of what they’ve accomplished, proud of what we’ve done as a team, and I wanted to thank them.”

“The last comment I want to make is with respect to the media here. And I want to say it quite publicly that I have found that the media has given me a fair shake, that generally if you deal with people as decent human beings, they deal with you as a decent human being. I have no doubt that what you’re reporting out is fair, and while my team and I might despair sometimes that a magician or somebody with tattoos gets preference over policy, I recognize that you’re responding to your editors and the need for selling space to the public. So I can’t fault you on that.”