In one day, with one policy announcement, mayoral candidate David Soknacki has managed to double or triple or quadruple his recognition among voters.

Now he is known as the candidate who, if elected mayor of Toronto, would kill the planned Bloor-Danforth subway extension’s two stops to Scarborough centre; instead, he’d return to the original plan for an LRT in the corridor.

WATCH: David Soknacki makes LRT announcement

Stepping back to move forward may indeed be prudent. It may save $1 billion. It may even get transit improvements in place faster than the subway. But is it politically wise in Toronto, circa 2014?

If the former city councillor’s intent was to gain attention, mission accomplished. But it is a risky gambit.

For, in a city weary of transit debates and flip-flops and stalled projects, and a year featuring an interminable and divisive fight over this very project, Soknacki’s call to hit the reset button on transit in Scarborough has all the ingredients to either ignite his campaign or blow it to smithereens.

One sure outcome is this: People now know Soknacki — even as they are learning to pronounce his name.

An LRT to Scarborough barely begins to define the man — a self-made businessman, political moderate, fiscal conservative, consensus-building former budget chief under David Miller — but this is how he will be referenced.

For better or worse.

Context is everything here. Transit City envisioned replacing the current Scarborough RT with an LRT system that would be part of a network of sleek, modern light-rail vehicles running along Eglinton, Sheppard, Finch, and later, Jane and Don Mills Rd. In essence, it would be a modern light-rail system in its own right-of-way — better than the streetcars we know, but not a subway.

Rob Ford campaigned on building subways instead. With private sector money. And no taxes.

He won the election, declared Transit City dead, claimed Torontonians didn’t want no damn streetcars clogging up their roads, and bellowed, “subways, subways, subways.”

Ford had no money for his dream, so council stuck with the LRT to replace the RT. But pro-subway sentiments were so strong in Scarborough that a subway became a magnet for votes.

The provincial Liberals, contesting a by-election in a riding along the route, intervened and promised a subway. TTC chair Karen Stintz did an about-face and fronted a push for a re-examination of the plan. Enough Scarborough councillors on city council flipped their votes. And city council voted 24-20 for the subway.

The problem is this. The new plan costs Toronto ratepayers alone an extra $1 billion, some $800 million of it to be paid from a property tax hike — contrary to what Ford promised.

Soknacki adroitly seized on this to launch his bid for mayor. He argued:

“I will lead council to cancel Mayor Ford’s $1 billion 30-year subway tax increase — and in so doing, deliver to the taxpayers of Toronto the largest single tax cut in the city’s history.”

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Polls have shown that Torontonians are split on the issue of LRT versus subways. They don’t know what to believe on claims around the two modes. And they also hear grumblings from some experts that none of the current plans will deliver the transit to ease gridlock.

Into that environment, one might reasonably expect mayoral candidates to offer up proposals ranging from scrapping the entire plan to endorsing all the elements and adding some more.

By reverting to the Miller plan, Soknacki is proving himself a wild card. He already has conservative credentials. He is a consensus builder. He knows the budget. And now he’s reaching out to progressive voters who would normally have no where to go except to the embrace of the left-leaning candidate like Olivia Chow, expected to run come spring.

In other words, he’s trying to upend conservatives Karen Stintz and John Tory before they announce their intention to run; and he’s signaled to Chow that he’ll be a viable option for the progressive voter who has an eye on the pocketbook.

Yes, Toronto may be too exhausted with the transit fight. But Soknacki grabbed the best chance he had to gain traction in what everyone expects will be a crowded field come spring.