In my five years of interviewing people over the dinner table, John Tory is the first Fed guest to object to another guest’s presence.

I always ask politicians to just tell me if there are any reporters they don’t want to sit down with at a dinner table. But in 241 columns , no one has ever taken me up on it until now.

Two days before dinner I sent out the menu — pumpkin/bacon soup, BLTs and sticky toffee pudding — and guest list: Jennifer Pagliaro of the Star, Jonathan Goldsbie of NOW and youth defense lawyer Emma Rhodes. But Tory’s communication director, Christopher Eby, tells me he has a problem with Goldsbie, with his politics or whatever questions he might ask the candidate. Eby makes it clear that Tory will not attend the dinner if Goldsbie is here.

In the evening, when Tory and wife Barbara Hackett enter, and I take their jackets in exchange for a glass of Rioja, all of that bristle is smoothed down.







We all gather around the island in the kitchen as I finish the soup with sautéed green tomatoes and Cotija cheese. But once we’ve sat down at the dinner table, the tone takes another sharp turn as Hackett produces a digital recorder, on Eby’s orders.

Over the evening they make light of it, jokingly whispering notes to Eby into the device. But again, in five years, no one has ever accused me of misquoting them or needed to take this step.

Wanting to loosen Tory up, I ask for investing advice. Tory and Hackett, who perform like a strong team, a loving couple, warm and respectful of each other’s strengths, are more than comfortable to talk about that, or hamburgers, weight loss or road construction.

Being a single-issue voter, I ask Tory the same question about construction that I had posed last week to Olivia Chow .

Chow’s solution to condo sites that interminably eat up lanes of traffic is to charge them more. Tory suggests putting construction trailers up on stilts, a technique he says is used in New York.

“I would chair, as the mayor, a construction coordination committee,” Tory replies to my question about the cost and traffic caused by redundant road labour. “They have to show up to a meeting where they have to explain, ‘How is it that you closed the subway, closed down two major streets, allowed a marathon, on a weekend there was a Blue Jays game and a big concert at the ACC?’ I wouldn’t have to chair the meetings for long. Because I think they would set in a new way of making these decisions.”

Chairing a regular meeting to coordinate construction seems a lot to add to a mayor’s already demanding duties. But Tory says he gets a lot done by only sleeping five and a half hours a night.

“When I kiss her goodbye in the morning,” says Tory, smiling at his wife, “she says that’s the happiest moment, not because I’m kissing her goodbye but because she knows she has two more hours to sleep.”

Sometimes he’ll crawl back into bed, fully dressed for the day, to listen to the 6 a.m. news. But no extra cuddling.

“I’d be in trouble if I did that. She’s sleeping.”

“No comment,” Hackett says with a laugh.

It’s with far less humour that Tory won’t comment, and concerning issues far more relevant to Toronto than cuddling.

Tory says he only found out about the Goldsbie issue after the fact, that it has nothing to do with his refusal to engage a Globe reporter earlier in the day.

“Look at the last four or five days and how many times I’ve made myself available to the press. You’re connecting dots that don’t deserve to be connected.”

I do understand that there are an overwhelming number of debates and that a candidate can’t be all places at once and available to everyone.

But soon, the refusal to comment becomes a broken record.

He’ll expand on his earlier comments about the “Israeli apartheid” Pride parade funding issue, but only off the record.

The most troubling thing he won’t talk about is his relationship with Rob and Doug Ford.

“I’m not going to talk about this. I think when we turn that off…” says Tory, motioning to the recorder.

This is disappointing. I think that Tory’s recent support of the Fords, who are now his political rivals, is something Torontonians would like to understand.

“Now I was told,” says Tory, “that it was sort of 20 percent of the time with the recorder on. And I think we’ve probably, in terms of the time I’m going to be here, we’ve probably arrived at that time. I was told that’s what the ground rules were.”

I explain to Tory that this is factually inaccurate, that his people have given him the wrong information.

Sure, I will occasionally turn the machine off for short periods during dinner, so politicians can tell a funny off-the-record story or just relax for a bit. But Tory came in thinking that he had to last 20 percent of the night without saying anything fresh or contentious and he’s been trying to run out the clock.

Putting more food on the table and turning the recorders back on after a brief spell, I lean into Tory’s device to describe the sandwich to Eby: lettuce, tomato and bacon, plus braised and fried pork belly, with aioli, on sourdough from Blackbird bakery and Flora Litvak pickles.

Tory recognizes my grandmother’s name. He knew her.

“She was involved, when I ran the two campaigns, this is before you were born, in 1979 and 1980, for Ron Atkey. And who is she to you?”

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I tell him, picturing a young Tory in my grandparent’s living room for a fundraiser, rummaging through that bowl of stale pistachios that sat on the piano, oxford shoes digging into the shag carpet.

He’s so enthusiastic about the diversion, I hate to bring us back to the present.

I don’t understand Tory’s transit plan, or anyone’s really. I only know what I confess to Tory, that I’m cynical of any politician’s promises, in light of Toronto’s history of failure on this subject.

“I think part of our problem in this city has been that if you don’t try to do something bold,” says Tory, “then you’ll probably end up doing nothing.”

Pumpkin and Bacon Soup

This is adapted from a recipe in Jennifer McLagen’s book, Fat .

1 sugar pumpkin, about 3 lbs (1.3 kg) or 12 cups (3 L)

8 strips bacon, diced

1 onion, peeled and diced

1 stick cinnamon

8 cups water

salt and white pepper to taste

1 cup (250 mL) cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

1/4 cup (60 mL) grated feta cheese

Cut pumpkin into quarters. Scoop out flesh and peel skin. Cut into smallish cubes.

In a large pot on medium heat, sauté bacon until fat has rendered, about 5 minutes. Add onions and sauté until soft, about 10 minutes. Add pumpkin, cinnamon and water. Bring to simmer and reduce, until pumpkin is soft, about 45 minutes. Puree until smooth and season with salt and pepper.

Garnish with tomatoes and feta.

Makes 8 servings.

Star-tested by Corey Mintz

Email mintz.corey@gmail.com and follow @coreymintz on Twitter and instagram.com/coreymintz

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