Count Michael Thompson out this time.
After he "strongly considered" a run for mayor last year, the Scarborough Centre councillor decided over the Christmas holidays to pass on the chance to take Toronto's top job in 2010.Thompson simply thought there were enough potential candidates out there with the skills to be a good mayor, he explained this week.That hasn't changed now that former Ontario Progressive Conservative leader John Tory has announced he won't run.But Thompson said Tory, a former CEO of Rogers Cable, "would have been an extremely good mayor" and the city would have benefited from Tory's management expertise. His absence from the race is "a loss in my view," the councillor added.Politically right-of-centre on Toronto Council, Thompson last year urged negotiation so that several like-minded contenders, including Tory and himself, could agree on a single champion to oppose Mayor David Miller. Asked if he would now throw his support behind former Liberal MPP George Smitherman, a presumptive frontrunner for the job and someone he counts as a friend, Thompson said he's not ready to join Smitherman's camp.For now, he said, he will support anyone with a vision for a more efficient city that includes more people in decision-making, finds more revenue without having to take it from taxpayers and promises young people a better future. And although he hasn't done so yet, Thompson said he'll soon register to seek re-election in his Scarborough Centre ward.- Mike Adler