TORONTO

Rob Ford’s rival for the Ward 2 council seat is apologizing for dropping flowers and a card off to the ailing mayor’s house with the media in tow.

Andray Domise said Friday he apologizes “wholeheartedly and without reserve” for the visit to the mayor’s Etobicoke home Thursday morning.

The 35-year-old said his intention was to do a nice thing and address the toxic environment in this campaign but the feedback he received was decidedly negative.

“I can see the way it came off,” Domise said. “You can take it a very crass way (that) I was just trying to go down there and get some attention. Obviously, we were trying to get attention but towards ‘let’s try to keep the tone civil here.’”

Domise said in retrospect he should have dropped off the flowers and card at the Ford campaign office. But he would still have invited the media in a bid to send out a positive message about inclusion, he said.

“The reason for it was just to show I’m not one of the people trying to bash (Rob Ford),” he said. “I’m just trying to run a campaign and it’s a person-to-person gesture. We just wanted to show my whole campaign team is praying for you. We just wanted to lead by example but I think the tone wasn’t right.”

The gesture wasn’t meant to be political or partisan in any way, but the response he received was, and he should have anticipated that, Domise said.

“I do have to take responsibility for that,” he said.

Domise also said he was sorry for putting Ford’s wife, Renata in a difficult position. Renata opened the door when he arrived but slammed it quickly, presumably when she saw media nearby.

“It was really between myself and Rob and I didn’t want to have anybody else involved,” he said. “What I did see was people upset she closed the door. It’s her house. She can choose to answer the door or not. I really didn’t like that people were criticizing her.

“While the intention was good, the execution was off. It didn’t strike the right tone and if the Ford family wasn’t okay with that, I apologize wholeheartedly and without reserve.”​

The Ford Campaign did not immediately return request for comment.