Raising the stakes in his battle against the Fords, Councillor Paul Ainslie says the weekly radio program the mayor co-hosts with his brother “should be removed from the airways immediately.”

In a letter to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council on Friday, Ainslie said The City with Mayor RobFord, which airs on CFRB-AM Newstalk 1010 on Sunday afternoons, has breached the council’s code of conduct.

Ainslie maintained that the Fords “are using the public airwaves as a bully pulpit to advance their own political gain … contrary to the spirit and intent of providing these two individuals access to the public airwaves.”

“This is two full hours where the mayor can rant to his heart’s content and talk about anything he wants … and I think it has to end,” Ainslie told the Star. “I’m prepared to stand up and make my concerns known.”

Neither the mayor nor Councillor Doug Ford responded to requests for comment.

The complaint focused on last Sunday’s program, which the mayor devoted in part defending his robocalls to Ainslie’s constituents after the councillor pulled his support for the Scarborough subway proposal.

“All I want to do is make sure that people can stand up and say ‘I’m proud of how I voted,’” the mayor said. “I’m not saying anything negative, I’m not saying anything derogatory.”

Mike Bendixen, program director for Newstalk 1010, declined to comment on the complaint.

“(It’s) before the CBSC and we will respond accordingly through the normal process,” he said in an email.

John MacNab, executive director of the standards council, declined to weigh in on the merits of Ainslie’s allegations.

Speaking generally about complaints regarding politicians, he said, “Our panels have found that it wasn’t problematic for sitting politicians to have a radio show or an ongoing spot on the radio.” But he said those decisions did not relate to election campaigns.

“Once there is a municipal campaign, it may well be inappropriate for someone running for office to have their own radio show,” he said.

As a first step in the process, MacNab said the council will have the broadcaster respond to the complainant. If the issue not resolved, the council could issue a summary decision or send it to a panel for further consideration.

The standards council does not have the authority to cancel a program. But if it is determined that a radio program breached the council’s code of conduct, the station must announce the decision on air.

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Last year, the council slammed Ford’s radio program for “abusive and unduly discriminatory” comments about George Smitherman by freelance journalist David Menzies.

Anslie has also said he plans to file a complaint with the city’s integrity commissioner over the robocalls.

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