Organizers of a Toronto mayoral debate on public transit are “furious” with candidate John Tory for backing out at the last minute Monday afternoon.
The debate was organized by TTCriders, a public transit advocacy group, and Ryerson University’s student union. In the end, only candidate Olivia Chow attended the event, discussing her transit plan and answering questions from the capacity crowd at the school’s Sears Atrium.
Tory was confirmed as a participant as late as Saturday, according to Jesse Root, vice president of education for the Ryerson Students’ Union.
However, his campaign sent a notice to media at around 2:45 p.m. Monday saying that he would no longer be attending.
The event was scheduled to begin at 5 p.m.
“We’re furious, we’re absolutely furious,” Jessica Bell, executive director of TTCriders, told CP24’s Travis Dhanraj. “We spent weeks and weeks organizing this transit debate so candidates can tell Toronto’s million daily riders where they stand on transit now, and he doesn’t even have the courtesy to turn up.”
Tory’s campaign told organizers that the candidate’s “priorities have changed,” Bell said, adding that she failed to understand the logic, with transit being the “number one issue in this election.”
“Sixty per cent of people out there are looking at voting for a candidate that has the best transit plan,” Bell said. “What priorities does he have? It’s certainly not helping transit users anywhere.”
The students’ union reaction was “one of frustration,” Root said. “Obviously there is a lot of effort that goes into organizing debates like this.
“We expect that candidates are going to keep to their promises.”
In a statement to CP24, Tory’s campaign said he could not attend the event due to “extraordinary” demands on his time.
“With Doug Ford entering the race and less (than) six weeks to go until election day, we have entered a new phase of the campaign,” said Amanda Galbraith, a spokesperson for Tory’s campaign.
“John has attended 22 debates since the campaign began and he will attend many more before Oct. 27.”
Chow’s campaign team criticized Tory’s decision.
“It’s clear John Tory can’t compete with Olivia’s knowledge or her transit plan,” Chow’s communications director, Jamey Heath, said in a written statement.
“It’s no wonder why he ran away. I’d run away too if I had to pass back-of-the-napkin silliness off as a real plan, up against someone who knows far more.”
Both Tory and Chow were both to attend another debate at St. Andrew’s Church, which was scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.
With a report from CP24’s Travis Dhanraj
