Former mayoral candidate George Smitherman and celebrated filmmaker Deepa Mehta are endorsing Olivia Chow for Toronto mayor — though Chow says she hasn’t yet decided to run.

Smitherman, a Liberal, lost to Rob Ford in the 2010 election. He has made no secret of his distaste for the scandal-plagued Ford, and he said his support for Chow, an NDP MP he called a “pragmatic progressive,” is first and foremost about her “maturity.”

“She’s got a maturity about her that allows you to have a relationship even in the instance that maybe you’re not 100 per cent aligned,” Smitherman said last week. “I think this is important. That even in the circumstances when you have differences of opinion, she conducts herself in a respectful way, and wouldn’t play the game of shutting people out or not taking meetings or vilifying them.”

The 10-month campaign begins on Jan. 2. Insiders widely expect Chow to enter the race at some point — she says only that she is “seriously considering” the possibility — and her backers have established a proto-campaign that could be activated quickly if she said the word.

Chow’s team-in-waiting is now attempting to build momentum for her candidacy even though she is steadfast in her insistence that she is not a candidate. Strategist Joe Cressy said her roster of early supporters is “broad and diverse.”

The list includes prominent Chinese community leader and doctor Joseph Wong; former RBC executive Charles Coffey, a Liberal; former United Way Toronto CEO and NDP MPP Frances Lankin; and Mehta, the acclaimed India-born movie director who said she believes Chow “embodies the spirit of this city.”

Cressy offered an upbeat pitch that would likely form the basis of Chow’s campaign message. Chow, he said, “has the ability to bring our city together, the experience to get things done, and the personal story to connect with Torontonians right across the city.”

Councillor Doug Ford, who will be a central player in his brother’s campaign, smiled when told of Smitherman’s endorsement. Smitherman began the 2010 campaign as the frontrunner in the polls — as Chow is today — but was defeated handily by the upstart Ford, 47 per cent to 36 per cent.

“George Smitherman, God bless him,” Doug Ford said. “They make a good couple.”

The Fords’ organizing efforts for 2014 remain a mystery: they have not identified any senior operatives despite Rob Ford’s pledge to register as soon as possible in January. Doug Ford offered no specifics on Tuesday, but he said, “We’re ready.”

“Believe me. The Ford Nation is ready. They’re clawing at the doors to get out there. The difference between us and all the other campaigns: we’ve went through it; we’re hard-core, trained campaigners,” he said.

In an effusive email, Mehta said she has admired Chow’s advocacy in Ottawa for the rights of immigrant and refugee women and the way Chow “gracefully negotiated across ideological differences” to fight for child care programs during the mayoral tenure of conservative Mel Lastman.

“Now more than ever we need a mayor who cares and unites across the board. Olivia Chow unites,” Mehta said.

The only two declared challengers, Councillor Karen Stintz and businessman and former councillor David Soknacki, are both right-leaning, but they will compete with the left-leaning Chow to position themselves as uniters. Soknacki’s spokeswoman, Supriya Dwivedi, said he, not Chow, is best equipped to bring the city together.

“I think she can be somewhat divisive in her politics,” Dwivedi said. “She is a sitting NDP MP right now. It’s natural that she would lean very far left on certain issues.”

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Smitherman said he has known Chow since the mid-1980s. Asked if there are any particular issues on which he thinks she is strong, he said, “All of them.” Ford, he said, has shown that he “can’t really get his head around the big issues.

“This guy that we have right now . . . unless there’s a football game involved, you know — he doesn’t even know the difference between where Windsor and Winnipeg are. That’s a bad start,” he said.

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