Rob Ford’s a celebrity, so how do other candidates get attention?

Watch video: Candidates battling each other and Rob Ford’s celebrity to win the mayor’s job. Jackson Proskow reports. 

TORONTO – The race for Toronto’s mayoralty has pitted David Soknacki, Karen Stintz, John Tory, Olivia Chow and others against Rob Ford, a man who has admitted to smoking crack and buying drugs in office, has been a guest on Jimmy Kimmel, admitted to reading while driving, has supporters like Ben Johnson, gets into public tiffs with Kevin Spacey, is quoted by international celebrities and once described himself as “three hundred pounds of fun.”

When it comes to media coverage, it’s not a level playing field.

“There’s a news story it seems wherever he goes, whatever he says, so in some respect it’s understandable the media affords mayor ford a higher profile,” Ryerson professor of politics Myer Siemiatycki said in an interview Friday. “It’s not a level playing field, the mayor is getting more airplay and more attention and it is a challenge for the other candidates.”

The long mayoral campaign will no doubt feature dozens of media appearances and policy statements by all candidates.

While the other major candidates have made official policy announcements on taxes or technology or transit, the mayor has yet to even officially kick off his campaign.

In Depth: Rob Ford

Even a press conference where the mayor kicked a soccer ball got more media coverage than a Karen Stintz policy announcement during which she suggested installing smart traffic lights across the city to cut down on congestion Friday.

Stintz said the mayor is distracting the city from having “real discussions” but tried to differentiate herself from the mayor by pitting her ideas against his “antics.”

“Well this is it, my campaign is about ideas and this is why I’m excited to run for mayor. Because we have an opportunity as a city to vote for our future and that’s what I want my campaign to be about,” she said. “I see us missing opportunities by all the antics that he continues to be part of and distracting the city from the real discussions that we need to have about improving people’s quality of life.”

Olivia Chow echoed Stintz saying she’s focusing on policy because she wants to see change in the city.

“This city is desperate for change. This city needs a new mayor. That’s why I’m putting proposals out,” she said at a press conference Thursday. “I just hope that Mr. Ford will engage on this sort of discussion on a policy level.”

“There’s no sign of any policy so far, he’s running on his record really. He says he’s saved a billion dollars, and so forth, he says he’s stopped the gravy train and he just believes that record will be strong enough to sustain him,” Marcus Gee, a columnist for The Globe and Mail said Friday. “Maybe we’ll see something it’s a long campaign, but he seems to be running on being Rob Ford.”

He’s a celebrity and he’s running with it.  He’s been on Jimmy Kimmel, he’s fundraising with bobbleheads of himself, he’s oft-quoted by celebrities and a frequent butt of jokes for late-night comedians.

“I think the cult of celebrity is there to stay. People are just, love him or hate him, are fascinated with the guy,” Gee said. “He’s just a walking headline. He makes news just by getting up in the morning almost.”

Meanwhile, Soknacki, the city’s former budget chief under David Miller, has been releasing a plethora of policy including ideas for the land transfer tax, to transit (he wants to abandon the Scarborough subway) to Toronto’s high-tech industry.

“I’ve been covering David Soknacki who’s this slightly nerdy candidate who has a million policy ideas and he’s just not getting any ink for all this great stuff,” Gee said. “I mean he’s sort of the anti-rob Ford. He’s saying I’m not a celebrity and I’m proud of it. I am a bit nerdy, and I’m proud of it. I want you to cover me for my ideas.”

So how do the other candidates compete with the mayor for face-time? Siemiatycki said they’ll have to get creative.  But he also noted the campaign is long and people may be looking for policy and ideas the closer it gets to October 27.

“It is awfully early, so the closer we get to October the more frequent the all candidates meetings, I would imagine the more engaged the public.”

– with files from Jackson Proskow