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Toronto’s embattled mayor is trying to take a high media profile as his city grapples with power outages from the weekend’s ice storm.

But Ontario’s premier appears to be bypassing Rob Ford as she coordinates recovery efforts with municipalities affected by the storm.

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In a statement released late Sunday, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne reported reaching out to mayors of affected cities across the province, from Kitchener to Kingston, Ont., where residents were photographed skating down residential streets. But the premier did not report speaking with Mayor Rob Ford in Toronto — one of the hardest hit areas where felled trees and ice had stymied much of the city’s transit system and caused mass blackouts that were expected to last as long as 72 hours.

Ms. Wynne instead spoke with deputy mayor Norm Kelly, who would take control of operations should the city declare a state of emergency — a product of last month’s controversial city council move to strip the embattled Mayor Ford of much of his powers. In a press conference Sunday, Mayor Ford said the storm was among the worst in Toronto history, but stopped short of calling for a state of emergency.