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Before Karen Stintz ever mounted a campaign for mayor of Toronto, she had another dream — to be commissioner of the Canadian Football League.

And she is turning her attention to it again now, as she signs off from 11 hectic years at city hall and a mayoral run that officially ended on Thursday.

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The midtown councillor hasn’t yet applied for the job that current commissioner Mark Cohon announced this week he will vacate in the spring. But, in an interview in her office with the National Post, she said she intends to.

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“Well, I am a football fan,” she said, a CFL embossed pigskin on the coffee table in front of her. “I think that would be a great job. That is definitely a job that I would want to do. It is open now.”

Whatever happens with that ambition, Ms. Stintz, who in 2003 answered an ad placed by a North Toronto group seeking a new councillor and won, says her political days are over; she will not run again in Ward 16 and she has no plans to vie for a federal seat.

Her decision to leave the municipal election crucially narrows the field to four top contenders, as the city heads into the last leg of a gruelling campaign. There are dozens of debates left, thousands of fundraising dollars to shore up, political spin masters to set on overdrive and lawns to seed with signs.