TORONTO

If anything, John Tory says the Canadian Football League owes him $9.

The mayoral frontrunner and former CFL chairman and commissioner made the comments, in jest, after Doug Ford continued one of his campaign’s most consistent lines of attack about Tory’s tenure as the league’s top official.

Tory said he served as chairman for nine years for a salary of$1 a year. But he never saw a dime of that $9, he joked.

“I successfully chaired that group for nine years for a dollar a year which I never got paid,” Tory said. “So they actually owe me the nine bucks.”

Tory said his work as commissioner of the league earned him even less dough — he was a volunteer. But it wasn’t about the cash, he said.

“I think when you look at some of quotes of others, don’t take my word for it, the time I put in as a volunteer, the efforts I made to manage the group, to have them work together as a partnership, even when they were trying to mangle each other on the field, contributed to the saving and strengthening of a vital national institution that a lot of people cherish.”

His work there is further evidence he is a conciliator and it’s a skill he would bring to council, Tory said.

“They’re also business partners so they have to make sure they get along with each other and work with each other,” he said.

Tory was responding to an attack from Doug Ford Wednesday in which the mayoral rival accused Tory of “parachuting” into the job. In the past, Mayor Rob Ford accused Tory of “destroying” the league.

“He was appointed to that position because his name was John Tory,” Doug Ford said. “It’s not because he was the coach of any football team. Not that John was a football player that understood the game.”

Tory took a direct shot at Ford’s CFL jab Thursday, saying it was just more of the same.

“Mr. Ford will say what he wants to say, he’ll say anything,” Tory said. “He’ll make almost anything up. It’s this kind of Ford flim-flam that they specialize in and in the end that is his choice.”​​