WATCH: All the heckling, heated exchanges and highlights from Tuesday’s mayoral debate between John Tory, Doug Ford, and Olivia Chow
TORONTO – Doug Ford’s first mayoral debate was interrupted after 25 minutes as police removed a heckler from the school auditorium.
But when the debate resumed, Ford tried to differentiate himself from John Tory and Olivia Chow by relying on his brother’s record as mayor of Toronto.
“I’m the only candidate that’s proposing rapid underground transit and that is subways,” Ford said during his opening statement.
“Subways, subways, subways.”
Ford has yet to release any policies thus far in the campaign but touted Rob Ford’s accomplishments as mayor several times during the debate, including repeating his oft-quoted subways slogan.
Tuesday night’s debate was the first time the three contenders met in a debate since Doug Ford entered the campaign two weeks ago after it was announced the mayor was undergoing cancer treatment.
READ MORE: Doug Ford evades question on whether he’ll march in Pride parade
Tory is the clear frontrunner in the campaign, according to recent polls where he polls between 40 and 49 per cent and both Tory and Chow focused the brunt of their attack on him – Ford suggested he was “elitist” (despite his father being a successful business-owner and politician) and Chow criticized his transit plans as vague.
The heckling continued throughout the debate however with the moderator having to tell the crowd numerous times to behave.
And David Price – a former aide to Rob Ford and close friend of Doug- was told by police to stop heckling.
The candidates faced questions regarding youth unemployment, welfare programs, youth violence and contracting out garbage.
Transit
But the major issue was transit as candidates argued about LRTs, the Scarborough subway, Eglinton Connects and Tory’s SmartTrack program.
The future of transit also allowed Ford to mimic his brother’s criticism of light rail transit.
“I’m the only candidate sitting at this table right now that wants to build underground transit on Eglinton,” Ford said. “Both of my other candidates here, they want to build LRTs running along Eglinton from Mount Dennis all the way out to Etobicoke. They want to build LRTs all the way out to Scarborough.”
(Ford tried to take credit for burying a portion of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT. The plan was initiated by the Ontario government while David Miller was mayor.)
Ford was able to pull out a prop while touting his subway plan – a map of his brother’s proposed subway lines – which Tory called “a complete fantasy.”
The Pride Parade
Watch: Doug Ford grilled on whether he would march in the parade.
While most of the questions focused on city policy, one question on whether the candidates would march in the annual Pride parade drew gasps from the audience.
Rob Ford was criticized over his four years for refusing to march in the parade.
“I’ve been down to the Pride parade. I’ve donated $3,500 to the Pride parade so I believe I’ve answered that,” Ford said. “I was on the side streets having a good time with people.”
Ford then tried to pivot and talk about transit but both Tory and Chow jumped on Ford and asked him whether he would march rather than just supporting the parade.
“You can still change your mind in the next 30 seconds to say yes I will be there,” Tory said.
Ford refused to say whether he would march in the parade but said he would attend and donate financially.
Working with city council
The candidates were asked how they would work with city council after a controversial four years of the Rob Ford administration.
Tory started and immediately criticized Doug Ford for admitting he didn’t want to work at city hall.
“I will not call my colleagues on city council ‘monkeys’ at Mr. Ford did. I will not say after having worked with them that I want to run away from city hall as fast as possible to get away from those people,” Tory said.
Ford countered by saying Tory has no experience at city council and touted several accomplishments of the Ford administration including approving the Scarborough subway, eliminating the car registration tax, reaching a labour deal, privatizing some garbage pickup, making the TTC an essential service, and successfully passing every budget (though his brother Rob Ford voted against one).
“We got 99 per cent of our agenda through by building consensus,” Ford said. “You don’t know how it operates you haven’t been down there.”
WATCH: Doug Ford offers John Tory an opportunity to “phone a friend” to answer how many standing committees there are at City Hall
However Ford did score a few points, and a standing ovation from supporters in the crowd when Tory was unable to answer which committee handled purchasing at the city.
“You can call the mayor and ask him,” Ford said while handing his phone to Tory.
Chow got in on the attack and suggested Tory would be spending most of his time at city hall “trying to find the elevators.”
Chow was also able to get in a shot at both Tory and Ford when a question about the city’s private rental market morphed into a shouting match about the growing TCHC backlog which has ballooned to over $800 million under the Rob Ford administration.
“Listening is important, answer the question they’re talking about,” Chow said.
Bike Lanes
One of the last questions of the night focused on bike lanes and whether the candidates supported building separated bike lanes and protecting cyclists and pedestrians.
Tory said the city needs to enforce current laws with law-breaking cyclists while Ford claimed he supported separated bike lanes despite aligning himself with his brother’s administration which tore up bike lanes in downtown Toronto – something Chow was quick to point out.
“They [Rob and Doug Ford] ripped out a lot of existing bike lanes, whether it was Jarvis or other roads,” Chow said. “We have the reputation as being the only city that actually takes out bike lanes.”
Comments