CITY VIEWS: Put away the white clothes, and the equilibrium, after Labour Day

The common pre-Labour Day wisdom from mayoralty campaigns is that the race doesn't really start until school does.

Having spent the first eight months of the year covering something that sure looks like a mayoralty race, I'm not sure I'd go that far. But it's been pretty clear if the race hasn't started, the panic certainly has.

George Smitherman kicked it off just two hours after the first bell rang Tuesday morning, with that most panicky of platform planks: the promise of a property tax freeze. His one-year freeze a dilution of the same dubious promise that got Mel Lastman elected first mayor of Toronto - and undid his former boss, ex-Toronto Mayor Barbara Hall, who spent that campaign arguing that freezing taxes for three years made no sense in the face of Toronto's looming fiscal woes.

She was right in the long run and wrong in the short run.

And right now, Smitherman - like many of his opponents - is focused on the short run. Over the week, he spent almost as much time delivering pre-emptive mea culpas regarding his career as a player in Premier Dalton McGuinty's Ontario government: initially, that he might have done better at managing the E-Health portfolio as Minister of Health, and later for failing to advocate on behalf of Toronto's film industry.

Also on the defensive this week was Rob Ford, who appears to be actually winning this race. He released his transportation plan via YouTube rather than hold a news conference. Apparently the front-runner from north Etobicoke was less concerned about the effect that his stilted reading from notes on his desk, than he was the effect of having to answer questions from a bunch of reporters about his astonishing plans to erase Toronto's iconic streetcars from the downtown; create a colour-coded street parking system; and sell "air rights" to top up a subway fund that will be largely filled by money that the province has allocated to Transit City.

It's no nsurprising that the Ford campaign's post Labour Day panic would manifest so defensively. He is the one with the target painted on him, particularly for the other candidates who haven't been polling so well and are realizing they've got to bring up their game.

The most notable of these is Joe Pantalone, who has pushed his slow-burning, what-me-worry persona into overdrive. He's been characterizing his opponents again and again as "mini Mike Harrises".

When asked why he's running for mayor at the beginning of his debate, he states first and foremost that he is afraid for the future of the city given the competition. He has fight in him.

As does Rocco Rossi, who has ingeniously combined the Smitherman method of horning in on Ford's platform, with the Pantalone method of attacking Ford.

Rossi wants to cut city council in half, just like Ford. He wants a discretionary spending freeze. He won't go as far as a property tax freeze, but he, like Smitherman, is struggling to find a foothold on the very crowded right.

To do that, he's also openly and consistently scornful of Ford, as much if not more so than any other candidate. Part of getting a foothold on the right is knocking Ford out of the way.

Sarah Thomson is the one candidate who hasn't taken the bait on post-Labour Day election panic. On Thursday, she released a sensible, even-handed plan to attract film production to Toronto, and otherwise seemed to be enjoying herself in debates and other outings, this first week of school and the campaign.

But give it time. Things are only going to get crazier.