Hopefully it doesn't sound too mean to say that Giorgio Mammoliti delivered what may be the best speech of his mayoralty campaign Monday, when he announced the end of that campaign to supporters and opponents.
It would be even meaner to say that the bar hasn't been very high. But that wouldn't be true. Of all six of the major candidates in the mayor's race, Mammoliti has been the most colourful. In speeches, advertisements and interviews, the veteran city councillor has painted a Jetsons-informed picture of Toronto's future that includes parkland in the sky and casinos on the lake; in which armed bylaw officers toil alongside red light districts; where seniors get not only a tax cut, but don't pay any property taxes at all. He has done so with bombast, determination and above all, a straight face.
His speeches were, on the whole, comedy genius.
But his farewell speech - delivered six months to the day after he filed his nomination papers - was something other: a humble and thoughtful reflection on a campaign that has overall been a strange comedy so far.
As he said: "I'm disappointed at how we started this campaign with a sex scandal, moved on to bicycle lanes, then who sells drugs and who buys them. When are we going to get to the issues that matter?"
It would be too kind, I think, to say that Mammoliti's campaign contributed to bringing those issues forward. If anything, he contributed to the circus.
But in stepping away from the race, he raised some excellent points: in particular, that voters from Etobicoke, North York and Scarborough need to take a more passionate interest in this race, and make sure that issues relevant to the urban suburbs are reflected in the mayor they choose.
"Any mayor has to have the mandate for the whole city - not just a part of the city - and the whole city has to include the urban suburbs," he said. "I ask the urban suburbs to wake up. Because if you don't get involved in this election you deserve what you're going to get in the way of a mayor."
Since amalgamation 12 years ago, the suburban-urban divide has defined the political struggle in Toronto. And generally, the urban side of the divide has come out the winner. Services are intensified in the core of the city. The city's land-use planning philosophy is shaped by the Annex rather than Agincourt. Opinion is led by the downtown.
Perhaps this election, the suburban side of the debate is due for a win. While suburban champion Mammoliti is out of the race - and out of voters' favour - suburban juggernaut Rob Ford is very much in the race. Indeed, the poll that convinced North Yorker Mammoliti he could not win puts Etobian Ford narrowly in the lead.
But while Ford clearly casts himself as representing some suburban impulses, it's not yet clear that his simple message that "the party is over" when it comes to city spending represents suburban voters that are fully engaged.
Given the tone of the race so far - assembled, as Mammoliti pointed out, from sex scandals and drug stings and generalized ire - and from Mammoliti, promises of a space-aged city of vaguely fascistic sin - one can forgive voters from not taking matters seriously.
If Mammoliti's departure from the mayor's race achieves anything, then, let it be that in stepping out of the way, he's left a hair more room for a more serious discussion.