CTV News has learned that Sarah Thomson and Rocco Rossi, two leading mayoral opponents of frontrunner Coun. Rob Ford, held a meeting Wednesday morning. But no one is talking exactly about what was said.
A patron of the Pilot Tavern on Cumberland Street told CTV News that Thomson, Rossi and former provincial cabinet minister George Smitherman also met Tuesday night, along with senior members of their staffs.
Thomson told reporters that she has been indeed speaking with other candidates about how best to stop Ford from becoming mayor.
"I've been in talk with other candidates to say, 'What are the options? Are we willing to sacrifice our campaigns or not?'" she said Friday.
In a statement released to CTV on Friday, Thomson's campaign team said she has reached out to candidate Joe Pantalone, Rossi and Smitherman to discuss how to stop the front-running Ford from becoming the next mayor.
“We are showing leadership by reaching out and building consensus to ensure that Toronto's next mayor is not elected solely on a wave of anger," it said.
Thomson later told reporters her campaign had run out of money, but that she has the "passion and determination" to stay in.
Ford holds a commanding lead over the field, according to a recent poll conducted for CTV, The Globe and Mail and CP24.
The Nanos Research poll found Ford held 45.8 per cent of decided voters, followed by Smitherman with 21.3 per cent. Thomson placed last among the top five candidates with 6.4 per cent.
Ford has been campaigning on a solid message of cutting waste and taxes at City Hall, but he has come under fire for his record of divisive statements and for making claims that aren't true.
The campaign has become a series of attacks on Ford since the Nanos poll came out earlier this week, with his competitors expressing fear over what Toronto would become under his leadership.
Smitherman has been explicitly campaigning on getting the anti-Ford vote to rally around him.
But Rossi doesn't think that will work.
"Right now, the polls would show that there's this assumption that anyone who's not currently voting for Rob Ford would support Mr. Smitherman, and that's absolutely untrue," he said Friday.
"He (Smitherman) had the lead, and he lost it."
In a news release Friday evening, Rossi attacked a proposed Smitherman property tax break for tenants paying more than $1,000 per month in rent.
Smitherman claimed tenants paid three times the property tax of homeowners.
"The George Smitherman-led Barbara Hall campaign in 2003 left Toronto with a tax-and-spend mayor, and now George Smitherman's steady plummet in the polls risks handing victory to an angry Councillor Rob Ford who has no plan for our great city." said Rossi in the statement.
Smitherman is to release his entire fiscal plan on Monday.
Ford professed to not be bothered by any plotting by his rivals.
"I can't control that. I'm just worried about my campaign," he said.
At a debate before small businessmen, Ford said he will apply business principles to the running of City Hall if he is elected mayor on Oct. 25.
All candidates agreed that high taxes were a problem for small business.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Alicia Markson
