Smitherman makes it official

DAVID NICKLE

January 8, 2010

Former Deputy Premier George Smitherman finally made it official Friday, Jan. 8, and laced up for a nine-and-a-half month race to become Mayor of Toronto.

Smitherman, 45, became the third high-profile candidate to file nomination papers for mayor this week, just days after officially resigning his seat representing Toronto Centre-Rosedale at Queen's Park. He arrived with supporters and a pair of ice skates, and after filing his nomination papers with the city clerk, went outside for a spin around the ice rink on Nathan Phillips Square.

"It's about not being afraid of the cold," said Smitherman, when asked what message he was trying to send in taking to the ice after serving notice he'd be running for mayor. "It's about my ability to perform well on slippery surfaces."

Not a metaphor for skating on thin ice? asked one reporter before he headed out.

"The ice out there is very hard ice. It's going to be fast ice. I encourage you all to cheer me on," he said.

Smitherman is the third high-profile candidate to officially kick off a campaign this week.

Rocco Rossi, the former executive director of the Liberal Party of Canada, was first out of the gate, filing his papers minutes after the elections office opened Monday morning. Outspoken city councillor Giorgio Mammoliti filed his papers Tuesday.

Smitherman waited until Friday, the day after John Tory - long considered the front-runner in the race - shocked supporters by announcing he wouldn't run after all.

With Tory's departure, Smitherman has become the nominal front-runner - in the fall, he was polled as second behind Tory for Torontonians' early choice for mayor in 2010.

Prior to lacing up his skates for the cameras, the newly-minted candidate spoke with reporters in Toronto City Hall's rotunda.

"A vote for my campaign is a vote for a city that works," he said. "I'm going to bring new energy, new direction, new leadership to the challenges that confront Toronto," he said. "We've got a lot of work to do to restore opportunities for jobs in our city."

Smitherman said early in the scrum he didn't want to lay out his platform right away. But he did deal with several issues.

When asked about his reputation for being a political pitbull - among other nicknames he acquired working at Queen's Park was McGuinty's "Attack Poodle" - Smitherman said he would have to work to build consensus on the politically fractured council.

"I know it's counter-intuitive, because I've come from a partisan environment," he sad. "But my obligation will be to build a campaign team that is built around a consensus in our city."

He hinted at some areas where he saw that consensus - particularly in transportation.

"I for example am a frequent transit user - and you can see in the face of people on transit in this city an extraordinary amount of frustration," he said. "When people are trying to go northbound at 4:30 at College station or Wellesley station, you can see it in their faces."

And he said the city needs to focus on core services.

"There was intense frustration in the city associated with the labour disruption last summer," he said.

"That focused on those things that we as taxpayers have come to depend on having delivered by our city. We have to make sure that around here the focus is not a mile wide and an inch deep, but is focused on an achievable array of services."

He remains a booster of Transit City, but said the implementation of the new light rail lines must happen smoothly.

"The city's implementation of the first of the Transit City model, the LRT on St. Clair, is a place where we must learn some lessons and apply those if we're going to build Transit City," he said. "We've got to find a way to do that more effectively. I've been a small business person and I know what it's like to have business disruption at your storefront's door."

And on the so-called "war on the car", Smitherman said while he supported cycling, he didn't want to see Toronto's continued implementation of the Bike Plan impact on other forms of transportation.

"What I've noticed is that there are quite a few divisions around here," he said.

"This notion of the conflict between the car and the bike - I think the obligation we have is to understand that the inefficiency associated with gridlock is a serious climate challenge. I'm interested to be a leader of a city that makes it easier to use bikes. At the same time, it's my obligation to try and build a greater consensus around an integrated transit plan, without fostering the idea that one form of transportation is being played off against the other."

And as for taxes?

Smitherman made it clear a fiscal policy is one thing voters will have to wait for.

"I'm looking to be the mayor that's responsible for a budget next year," he said. "There is a council here that is going to be doing a budget for this year. I don't want to confuse those things."