The two front-running mayoral candidates dropped out of a debate at the last minute on Wednesday, leaving the trailing Joe Pantalone with a captive audience.

Rob Ford and George Smitherman excused themselves from the YMCA's Get Active Toronto debate less than an hour before the event was to begin.

Organizers were forced to tell the gathered crowd the two candidates, shown to be in a close race in recent polls, had dropped out.

Pantalone, who is running a distant third, was applauded upon his arrival as he took the stage alone. The event proceeded as a question-and-answer session with Pantalone.

"I think it is incredibly disrespectful to Torontonians who want to get a better life, and understand what the choices are, to be simply told at the last minute, ‘Sorry, I am not coming,'" Pantalone said.

Ford was the first to drop out of the race, later citing a need to study a provincial report on wasteful spending in the health sector that was released Wednesday.

"We made a decision that since the Auditor General's report was coming out documenting taxpayers' money being wasted on lobbyists at the Health Ministry it is extremely important Rob know this information because we take this very seriously," a note from his campaign team read.

When Smitherman heard his main competitor was not going, he also backed out.

"We had previously agreed with the organizers that George's participation was conditional on Councillor Ford attending," Smitherman's campaign manager wrote in a statement. "It is important that George and Councillor Ford debate issues, and we regret any inconvenience this may have caused the organizers."

Squabbling over records

Later on Wednesday, Ford said: "George Smitherman is the gravy train. All these lobbyists and consultants are jumping on it and they're getting all these untendered contracts."

The report did not single Smitherman out for criticism, although it examined the use of consultants back to 2007-08, when he was still serving as health minister. Smitherman became minister of energy and infrastructure in June 2008.

In Tuesday night's debate on CP24, Ford attacked Smitherman over the $1 billion spent attempting to develop an electronic medical records system for the province with little in the way of real results. Smitherman had been health minister for much of that period, although the project originated with the preceding Progressive Conservative government. Smitherman was not minister at the time the ill-fated eHealth Ontario agency was formed.

Smitherman told CTV Toronto: "I'm extremely proud of my record as minister of health."

He claimed to have saved Ontarians "billions of dollars" by reducing spending growth to five per cent annually from 10 per cent annually.

"You can make criticisms about a record -- that comes with having had experience," Smitherman said. "(Ford's) had none, except running a business that his father left him and being a local councillor."

Smitherman's camp has complained that Ford has pulled out of several recent debates.

Ford's team said he would attend two other debates on Wednesday and has already participated in nearly 100 others during the campaign.

With a report from CTV Toronto's Alicia Markson