John Tory has treated reporters cordially for most of his mayoral campaign. On Friday, he made like Mayor Rob Ford.

In a media scrum after a debate at the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies, Tory was asked by a Toronto Star reporter about his statement that he would vote against funding for the Pride festival if the activist group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid were allowed to march. He answered politely as usual.

A Globe and Mail journalist, transportation reporter Oliver Moore, then began to ask a follow-up question.

Moore said: “It’s an extremely important parade, event, for the city. Would you actually withdraw —”

Tory pointedly looked in another direction, as Ford once did regularly with Star reporters, and cut Moore off.

“Is there anybody else that has a question?” he said, almost exactly the same phrase Ford once used in scrums with the Star.

The scrum proceeded, and Tory willingly answered similar Pride-related questions from others. At the end, he was asked why he had refused to address Moore.

“Thanks very much,” he said, and he left.

After the day’s second debate, Tory said he and the Globe “have some issues.”

“Those issues are being discussed, and I don’t want to show disrespect for them by talking about those discussions publicly,” he said. “If you want to talk to my teammates, they can perhaps tell you a bit more. But we’re just sorting some issues out, and I hope we’ll sort them out soon.”

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