It is a grim commentary on the qualities of the race to select the third mayor of amalgamated Toronto: the most exciting candidate for mayor is the guy who's made it clear he has no desire to do the job.
The favourite candidate is not even a candidate. Former Progressive Conservative leader turned radio talk show host John Tory told a wall of cameras and microphones just last January he was taking the death-bed advice of the late David Pecaut and heading up the City Summit Alliance think-tank. All those people who were supporting him in a long-anticipated mayoralty bid could go find another candidate to support, with his blessings.All this was sad news for his supporters, but on balance, fine and good. Tory has taken more than his share of electoral drubbings, in 2003 against David Miller for the mayoralty, in a provincial election and a byelection as head of the PCs. He must have felt like Charlie Brown on the football field, listening to Lucy promise that this time, she wouldn't yank the ball away before he kicked it.And surely - surely, another candidate would emerge as a suitable choice for the highest-profile municipal job in the country. Another candidate did emerge - Rob Ford, the plainspoken right-wing councillor from Etobicoke North who's made a career out of calling city council and the mayor out on their spending decisions, and almost magically sloughing off ugly embarrassments and worse in his own personal and professional life. He announced his candidacy some months after Tory abandoned his, and since then Ford's message has caught on in a dramatic way. Ford has not come up with a platform beyond a vague statement that "the party's over," and a promise to cut council's size and budgets. Yet most recent polls show him tying for first with former Deputy Premier George Smitherman, who once led the race by a wide margin. Other candidates - Miller successor Joe Pantalone, former executive Rocco Rossi, magazine publisher Sarah Thomson - are languishing far behind, despite the fact that they've all unveiled significantly more detailed visions for the city. There is a vacuum in the debate, and right now, Ford is filling it with anger. So it's no wonder the people who left Tory's side in January are feeling out in the cold here in July. And it's no wonder so many of them are at not-so-quiet work, trying to bring the reluctant candidate back into the fold.He has the potential to be a winning candidate. Tory is well-known in Toronto, and better-liked here than he might have been elsewhere in Ontario. In 2003, he ran a smart campaign for mayor - losing to Miller but winning in many key suburban polls - and since leaving provincial politics, he's provided a measured but sharp critique of the later Miller years on his afternoon radio show. His politics are demonstrably socially progressive and fiscally conservative - a good match, perhaps, for a disgruntled electorate that is not angry about absolutely everything.So yes - Tory could win. The only question remains: would he want to? Because as miserable a slog as this election has become - the next four years in charge of a city that's under-funded and over-committed, might not be much better.