The three leading mayoral candidates — John Tory, Doug Ford (open Doug Ford's policard), and Olivia Chow — participated Monday night in a "Big Ideas" debate"Big Ideas" debate hosted by the Toronto Star and the University of Toronto's Martin Prosperity Institute.

Ford said by far the most false or misleading things: 23. Chow said three, Tory said two.

Doug Ford

1) "I am proud to say that we have a $248 million surplus."

False. The city had a $248 million budget surplus two years ago, but the most recent surplus, at the end of 2013, was $168 million.

2) "We were a debt-ridden city when we took office four years ago."

False. "Debt-ridden" is subjective, but Ford was clearly suggesting that the city has less debt now than it did under David Miller. In fact, the opposite is true. When the Fords took office, the city's net long-term debt was less than $2.6 billion. It was $3.1 billionin 2014, and it is expected to rise to $4.5 billion in 2019.

3) "I have nine mechanisms of raising money. Mr. Tory has one that we all know just doesn't work. It doesn't exist."

False. Tory's preferred transit-funding tool, tax increment financing, may not work in this case, but it very much exists in the world. The proof of its existence: it's one of the nine mechanisms on Ford's own list.

4) "We also hired 200 additional (police) officers, as we said we were going to do. We did it."

False. Rob Ford (open Rob Ford's policard) promised during his 2010 campaign to hire 100 more officers. Instead, his budget-trimming efforts forced a long hiring freeze; by the end of 2013, the force was down about 300 uniformed officers from the number before the brothers took office. While the 2014 budget included money to allow the force to plan for 360 new officers, this series of events was not at all what the mayor said was going to happen.

5) To Tory: "You did say publicly — you supported Josh Matlow (open Josh Matlow's policard)'s motion. Josh Matlow's motion was for Eglinton Connects."

Misleading. Midtown councillor Josh Matlow's motion was to add right-turn lanes to the Eglinton Connects street renovation plan — which would help ease traffic issues, not worsen them, as Ford was suggesting. Tory, a critic of the Eglinton Connects plan because of traffic concerns, “was completely consistent in supporting that specific motion,” says Matlow, a supporter of the plan.

6) "I'm the only candidate that's going to build a subway."

Misleading. Tory, like Ford, plans to build the planned Scarborough subway extension, and Chow, like Ford, supports the downtown relief line subway. If we’re being extra-generous, we can take Ford’s statement as a prediction, not an assertion of fact, but he is still conveying the impression that he is the only subway proponent in the bunch.

7) "Unlike my colleague Mr. Tory that wants to rip up the roads, put LRTs on Eglinton, along Sheppard, and along Finch..."

False. Ford also wants to continue with the Eglinton LRT project, he just wants to put more of it underground than Tory does. And the roads also have to be ripped up to build subways.

8) "...and duplicate the disaster on St. Clair right across this city."

Misleading. St. Clair has a streetcar right-of-way, while Sheppard, Eglinton and Finch are slated to have state-of-the-art light rail vehicles. And there is no evidence that St. Clair is a "disaster," though there is a significant traffic bottleneck at the one-block stretch between Keele St. and Old Weston Rd.

9) "When we first came into office, we said, we should have transit experts on the TTC commission. We said that we were happy if we maybe put one or two councillors on, but we want transit experts. . . And guess what, folks? They ended up voting for nine councillors."

False. The TTC was a nine-councillor body when the Fords took office. Council voted in 2012 to change it into an 11-person body with seven councillors and four non-politician citizens.

10) "(University of Toronto professor Eric Miller) is part of your campaign."

False. There is no indication that Miller, the transit expert who who strongly supports Tory's SmartTrack proposal, is part of the Tory campaign. A campaign spokeswoman said Miller "does not have any role or involvement." Miller himself says, “I most definitely am not part of his campaign team in any way.” He adds: “Let me reiterate that I am not a campaign advisor of any sort to Mr. Tory. I have had zero interactions with him concerning the ‘SmartTrack’ proposal.”

11) "Number one, it (SmartTrack) doesn't even connect to the existing line. Go anywhere in the world and tell them you're putting a line together that doesn't connect."

False. Tory's SmartTrack plan includes connections with both sides of the Bloor-Danforth line, and with the Yonge-University line at Union Station. Ford correctly pointed out that riders might have to make a two-minute outdoor walk between the GO station SmartTrack would hit and Main subway station on the Bloor-Danforth line, but it is not as if the two lines are nowhere near each other, as Ford suggests. And even if this is not counted as a "connection," the Union interchange surely should be.

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12) "At least my plan has been qualified through Metrolinx and TTC, with environmental studies."

False. Metrolinx and the TTC support the downtown relief line that is Ford's top priority, but they do not endorse his second and third priorities: subways on Sheppard and Finch, which would replace the light rail lines that have already been approved and funded. There has been no environmental assessment on a Finch subway. While an environmental assessment on a Sheppard subway was done in 1992, that study would likely have to be updated; the TTC estimated in 2006 that it would cost $2 million to do so.

13) "Once again, we said we were going to do it, we've done it: we're delivering subways to the most needy area for transit in this city, and that is Scarborough."

Misleading. Ford perpetually uses "subways," plural, in talking about the administration's council successes. But they have only succeeded in getting a single subway approved. They failed in their effort to secure a Sheppard East subway extension.

14) "We have Mr. Tory on tape saying when he ran for mayor last time he said he didn't want to raise taxes or tolls, and on tape he said - it was only about a year ago — you were laughing, 'Well, I was just trying to score political points, it's not right, and yes, you should have revenue tools.'"

False in part. Tory does indeed say in the video that he opposed road tolls in his 2003 race against David Miller only to score political points. He also says the citizens were the big losers, since Miller and other politicians became scared to discuss tolls and taxes. But he never said "you should have revenue tools"; he lamented that they were no longer being discussed.

15) Ford: "Please answer a simple question: are you increasing taxes or are you not increasing taxes? It's a simple yes or no." Tory: "Go to JohnTory.ca you'll see there in black and white, or whatever colour it's in, that I said I will limit property tax increases to at or below the rate of inflation." Ford: "Revenue tools. Revenue tools."

False. Tory was talking only about standard annual property tax increases, not dedicated transit taxes. Those are not “revenue tools.” Also, Ford himself says he would impose an annual tax increase, also below the rate of inflation.

16) "The Hullmark Centre: Tridel is partnering with Hullmark. And they have huge signs saying 'subway access, subway access, subway access.' My friends, I have yet to see anything that says 'LRT access. LRT access. LRT access.' They wouldn't sell one single condo."

False. Condo developers are indeed using the Eglinton LRT to sell area condos — even though it is not yet done. In fact, one such ad ran during the Fords' now-defunct Newstalk 1010 radio show on May 26, 2013. "With the new LRT, I'll be at Pearson in 30 minutes!" an actor said in that ad. Tridel itself mentions the Eglinton LRT in its promotional materials for its 101 Erskine Ave. condos. Tower Hill Developments has a whole page devoted to the LRT on its promotional website for the building at 2221 Yonge St.

17) "We spent. . . $47 million on 122 new and improved playgrounds and play structures."

Misleading. While $47 million was indeed spent, Mike Schreiner, the city’s director of parks development and capital projects, says only $6 million came from city taxpayers. The majority of the enhancements, Schreiner said, are being paid for with private funds — about $41 million secured from developers and other non-government sources by individual councillors. Ford cannot take any credit for this.

18) "We will be revitalizing parks with the partnership of the city and the private sector right across the city when I'm mayor October 28."

Misleading. Doug Ford has said repeatedly that he will be mayor on October 28. Even if he wins the October 27 election, that won't be true: Rob Ford will remain mayor until December 1. The winner of the election can immediately begin working on his or her agenda, but he or she will be mere "mayor-elect" through November, not mayor.

19) "We keep forgetting about our friends in Scarborough. And everyone enjoys outdoor rinks. Well guess what? Before this administration was in office, they didn't have one — not one single outdoor rink."

False. Scarborough did have one outdoor rink before the Ford administration, the one outside the Scarborough Civic Centre. Other outdoor rinks were covered up and turned into arenas by the pre-amalgamation Scarborough council, a generally frugal group which also decided not to build additional outdoor rinks. The issue, if there was an issue, wasn't neglect by downtown politicians, as Ford was suggesting.

20) "We now, presently, we just built one (rink in Scarborough)."

False. The city has approved a second outdoor rink in Scarborough, but it is not expected to be built and ready until the 2016 skating season.

21) "We're either going to move forward with this city with a financial straightforward balance sheet that has a surplus, that we've changed from having a debt up to the ceiling to actually a surplus."

False. Under both David Miller and Rob Ford, there has been both a debt and a surplus: both can and do exist at the same time. The city's surplus is now smaller than it was in Miller's last year, while the city's debt is now bigger than it was in Miller's last year. If the Fords have "changed" anything, it is a change for the worse, by Doug Ford's logic.

22) "They deserve to know if you're going to raise taxes or you aren't going to raise taxes. I'm pretty clear...I believe in not raising taxes."

False. Ford is proposing annual tax hikes of some amount below the rate of inflation.

23) "You can go two ways. You can destroy this city with a plan that's nothing but fiction. Nothing but fiction. Or you can come up with a plan that every other world-class city has — no matter if you're Madrid, Paris, London, Chicago, New York, so on, so forth, they're building rapid underground transit."

False. London has a commuter rail line that is literally called the London Overground. London also has above-ground light rail. So does Paris, which also has extensive above-ground commuter rail. Chicago's rapid transit system is known as "the L" because much of it is elevated.

Olivia Chow

1) "SmartTrack? Hey, it is electrifying GO. No matter who's the mayor, the province is going to do that anyway."

Misleading. Chow is right that the province plans to electrify GO Transit lines whether or not Tory is elected, but some of the specifics of Tory's SmartTrack plan — most notably, the 22 stops in particular locations — are Tory's alone.

2) "Just having a friend...say that this is a good plan..."

False. Chow was referring to Eric Miller, the University of Toronto professor and transit expert. Asked for evidence that Miller is a friend of Tory, Chow provided none. Miller says: “I am not a friend of John Tory.”

3) "We don't know how many houses will be demolished when we have to build another track on the Stouffville line."

Misleading. Metrolinx isn’t yet entirely sure about the property acquisitions that will be required for the project, but officials “don't believe any houses will have to be demolished,” spokeswoman Anne Marie Aikins says. “Maybe some property acquisitions but not houses.”

John Tory

1) "My transit plan is in conformity with what the people say they want, which is relief as soon as possible. Seven years, as opposed to 17 years."

Misleading. The "seven years" part is Tory's own, contested estimate for SmartTrack, but the "17 years" for the downtown relief line is based on nothing more than an erroneous one-time Chow statement early in the campaign. No authority has actually said the relief line will take 17 years to finish.

2) “I can’t declare it the greatest city in the world when we can’t even use a debit or credit card to buy subway tokens.”

False. Riders can already use debit and credit cards to buy tokens at Davisville, Bathurst and Coxwell stations, though not at others. The TTC says riders will be able to use their cards to buy tokens at any station by the end of the year.