Former city councillor Doug Ford says he will not be running for mayor of Toronto if his bid to lead the provincial Tories is unsuccessful.
“I can take care of Toronto and the rest of Ontario a lot better as premier than I can as mayor of Toronto,” he told 640 Toronto’s John Oakley on Wednesday.
Ford, brother to deceased former Toronto mayor Rob Ford, announced his candidacy for the Progressive Conservative leadership on Monday.
He unsuccessfully ran against Toronto Mayor John Tory in the last municipal election in 2014, and in September, said he wanted to run again.
Ford is the first candidate to come forward following the resignation of Patrick Brown late last week.
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Brown has vehemently denied sexual misconduct allegations reported by CTV news, but said he would step aside as leader while staying on as MPP for Simcoe North.
A new PC leader is expected to be chosen before March 24.
Ford told 640 Toronto’s Alex Pierson that the party needs to “bring an outsider in,” he said. “Someone that hasn’t been entrenched into Queen’s Park and all the politics. But my main goal is going after the Liberals and Kathleen Wynne.”
If elected leader, Ford said he would head into the June election keeping much of Brown’s “People’s Guarantee” platform intact.
“We’re going to tweak a few things that we feel need to be tweaked,” he said.
He said he would reconsider the platform’s carbon tax proposal and also committed to reviewing the province’s sex ed curriculum.
Ford, the son of former Tory MPP Doug Ford Sr., represented the municipal riding of Etobicoke North in northwestern Toronto from 2010 to 2014.
Ford said he intends to seek the PC nomination in that provincial riding. The area has been represented by Liberal Shafiq Qaadri since 2003.
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