Former city councillor Doug Ford says he will announce that he’s either running for mayor or MPP at Ford Fest next week following months of him flirting with the idea of returning to politics.
Ford, who lost to Mayor John Tory in 2014, made the declaration Tuesday morning, telling supporters to “stay tuned” for the official announcement on Sept. 8 at Ford Fest in Etobicoke.
While Ford revealed in June that he was assembling an “exploratory team” to look into a potential mayoral run in 2018, he never confirmed whether he would in fact take the plunge.
Ford said that he has a “groundswell” of support and intends on putting together the “best team ever for the taxpayers,” who he says are tired of being “gouged by people like John Tory, Kathleen Wynne and Justin Trudeau.”
“On September 8 folks, I’m going to tell you how I’m going to save you money no matter if it’s the province or the city. I guarantee you one thing -- we have a record of saving the taxpayers money,” he told CP24 on Tuesday.
“People are fed up. They put their hands in their pocket and you’ve got the municipal government in there, you’ve got the provincial government in there and you’ve got the federal government in there…It’s all ‘tax, tax, tax’ and ‘spend, spend, spend.’”
Ford also called traffic in the city an “absolute nightmare,” saying that it was supposed to be fixed by Tory.
“He said he’d keep taxes low. That’s not happening. He said he’d fix traffic,” Ford told CTV News Toronto later on Tuesday.
“People just have to look at the hydro bills every single month and they see the problems that we’re facing.”
As the brother of former Toronto mayor, the late Rob Ford, Doug Ford served as councillor for Ward 2 Etobicoke North from 2010 to 2014.
Since leaving local politics, Ford has skirted around the idea of seeking the leadership of the Ontario Progressive Conservative party.
He has also been vocal in recent months about considering running against Tory in October 2018.
While he stayed relatively mum on his political end goal, Ford took a swing at Tory’s failed attempt to convince the province to allow the city to place tolls on two of the GTA’s main highways -- the Gardiner Expressway and the Don Valley Parkway.
“If he had his choice he’d be taxing everything that you touch,” Ford said. “He wanted to tax the people through tolls, and that’s about the only good thing Kathleen Wynne has done, actually slap him down and tell him to go back to city hall and try to save the taxpayers money.”
Responding to the news of Ford’s announcement, Tory said he will remain unconcerned with the next election until that time rolls around.
“The media loves this kind of colourful story. I think Mr. Ford has a lot of questions to answer about some of the TTC cuts -- dramatic cuts that were made to the TTC -- under his administration, on his watch. There have been reports written, subsequent days leaving office, that called into question some of the activities he engaged in when he was on the council,” he said.
“This is all a part of the cut and thrust of politics but I’m not going to concern myself with it until the campaign time comes. In the meantime, I have a job to do leading the council, leading the city, attracting jobs, keeping taxes low, getting transit built and that’s what I’ll continue to do.”
Tory’s former communications director Amanda Galbraith said that Ford and Tory “definitely like to go at each other.”
“I think a lot of that is for show, but there's also something personal there. That being said, I think the mayor will be the mayor, head high. He’s a gentleman. He’ll focus on being the mayor. If Doug wants to go low, he’ll go low. It won’t be the first time, won't be the last time,” she said.
Ford, meanwhile, said Tory hasn’t done enough to provide Scarborough residents with the type of transit they so desperately need.
“It sounds like the mayor is a bit nervous, in my opinion,” Ford said of Tory’s comments.
“His transit plan is still at the same spot it was three years ago when it was announced and traffic has never been worse in the city. It’s the worst traffic in North America,” he said. “You know, the people want a principle leader, they want someone to do what they say they’re going to do, unlike the mayor who couldn’t fulfill the promise or privatizing garbage, couldn’t fulfill the promise to our great folks in Scarborough about the subway, (and) couldn’t fulfill the promise about keeping taxes low.”
Ford went on to praise PC Leader Patrick Brown as a “great leader” and one of the “hardest workers” he’s ever met.
He said he predicts that Brown will become the next Premier of Ontario.
“I’ll be out there door knocking for Patrick Brown day in and day out,” he said.
A Forum Research poll conducted in June 2017 indicated that Ford has the capacity to take on Tory’s popularity numbers, citing the would-be opponents as “virtually tied.”
Of 1,035 residents polled, 40 per cent of those who consider themselves decided or leaving would support Tory in 2018 while 38 per cent would support Ford.
Twenty-two per cent said they would opt to vote for another candidate entirely.
The poll is considered accurate within 3 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
