While traffic and transit are key, the question of who local council candidates support in the race for mayor has emerged as a hot-button issue in the run-up to the Oct. 27 municipal election.

“There have been a lot of questions about that at the door,” said Ward 4 Etobicoke Centre candidate Angelo Carnevale as he canvassed voters Saturday near his Royal York Rd. campaign office.

“In the end, it doesn’t really make a difference to me,” said the long-term ward resident who attended Scarlett Heights Collegiate when current mayor Rob Ford (open Rob Ford's policard) was also a student at the secondary school.

“The mayor gets a vote, we get a vote — we’ll work with anybody who gets elected.”

The issue of allegiance can be tricky given the particularly strong feelings about mayoral candidates in this year’s race after a turbulent four years at city hall.

Some with ties to the Fords are worried about being tarred with the association in some voters’ minds, while trying at the same time to avoid alienating Ford supporters, experts said.

Lillian Hamilton, a resident of Ward 4, said Carnevale told her at her doorstep that he was wavering between supporting Doug Ford (open Doug Ford's policard) and John Tory for mayor.

“I told him that if he was even considering Ford this house would not be voting for him,” she told the Star.

Carnevale said his approach is to emphasize issues such as efficiency in government along with ward-specific concerns, rather than focusing on endorsements.

The candidate, like others, said he is prepared to work with politicians of any ideological stripe to get things done.

Ward 20 Trinity-Spadina challenger Joe Cressy, for example, said he has the backing of progressive mayoral candidate Olivia Chow and wants to “get past the Ford era.”

But he stressed in an interview that he has support from a range of people, including fiscal conservative David Soknacki, who pulled out of the mayoral race in September.

Liz West, who appears in a video on her website with Tory, said traffic and public transit have been key topics with residents during her door-to-door canvassing, adding that questions about the city’s top leadership are widespread.

“People just want things to get moving. They are really, really frustrated,” said the former Citytv reporter who narrowly lost to Paula Fletcher (open Paula Fletcher's policard) in 2010 after receiving an endorsement from Rob Ford.

“There have been some issues down at city hall but we can’t put the blame on one individual,” added Carnevale.

“Things could be a little less divisive. There has been no decorum but that’s not the fault of one person. There has been a group of people who are out to not make things work and that’s unfair to the system.”

He said the behaviour of some politicians has been disrespectful to council and “there has been some discussion about that at the door, absolutely.”

Questions about mayoral support arise during any election, but candidates say the interest is heightened this time around given Mayor Ford’s notoriety after a video purporting to show him smoking crack cocaine was made public.

He withdrew from the mayor’s race after being diagnosed with an abdominal tumour and is running for his old seat in Ward 2 Etobicoke North.

Ford’s brother, Ward 2 Etobicoke North councillor Doug, is campaigning for the mayor’s post against frontrunner Tory, a former leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives.

John Campbell, another Ward 4 candidate with ties to the Fords, said the big issue on the doorstep is the mayoralty.

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He said voters are asking who he supports for the top job, with complaints about traffic speeding through neighbourhoods as drivers avoid construction also coming up frequently.

Campbell, who was backed by Rob Ford in the Toronto 2010 municipal election, said he is not endorsing a mayoral candidate.

He said he tells residents Tory could work well with Premier Kathleen Wynne, while Doug Ford is a proven business leader and a “straight shooter.”

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