Polls may say Olivia Chow has the best chance of toppling Mayor Rob Ford in the next civic election, but the mayor’s brother says she’s “no Jack Layton.”

Chow, the Member of Parliament for Toronto’s Trinity-Spadina riding, has said she is being urged to run by many members of the public and is listening to them but has not made any decision.

Asked Wednesday about a possible Chow candidacy in 2014 — or sooner, depending on a judge’s upcoming ruling on a conflict of interest allegation against the mayor — Councillor Doug Ford said, “We never underestimate any opponent at all and we always run like we’re in last place.”

However, he also said that Layton’s widow “makes (former mayor) David Miller look like a fiscal conservative ... Olivia Chow is no Jack Layton and if (voters) want tax-and-spend government, they’re going to elect Olivia Chow; it’s very simple.”

Ford added that the mayor had the “utmost respect” for Layton, the former Toronto city councillor who led the federal New Democratic Party to Official Opposition status before his death last year.

A Forum Research poll conducted last Friday and Saturday suggested that, if the election were held then, Chow would have beaten the conservative mayor — even if Councillor Adam Vaughan were in the race and drew away some of the centre-left vote that would normally go to Chow.

Councillor Mike Layton, Chow’s stepson, who has a good working relationship with Ford despite their political differences, called his comment “odd.”

“Of course she’s a different person than my dad,” Layton said in an interview. “But she has done nothing but throw her life into making Toronto and Canada a more fair and equitable place, and she will continue doing that in whatever (future) role she has, maybe as a federal cabinet minister . . .”

“People should perhaps choose their words more wisely.”

Councillor Ford has said he would like to run provincially for the Progressive Conservatives.

Asked if he is at city hall “for the long haul,” Ford quipped: “I can’t answer. Politics — you’re like a toilet seat. You’re up one day, you’re down the next.”

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