Mayoral candidate Rob Ford prepares to make a statement to the media on June 17, 2010, regarding allegations he encouraged an ill man to score OxyContin on the street.Jennifer Roberts for The Globe and Mail
"Our opponents are at it again!"
That was the first line of an e-mail the Ford campaign sent supporters Friday asking for donations in response to the Toronto Star's accusations he manhandled a high-school football player nine years ago.
"This is the type of attack we've come to expect from our opponents. The establishment at City Hall and their allies will stop at nothing to prevent Rob from becoming Mayor ... Will you help Rob Ford fight back against anonymous smears with a donation today?"
Adrienne Batra, director of communications for the Ford campaign, said in an e-mail Monday that, "Response to the fundraising e-mail has been overwhelming! In fact the over 200 supporters who attended the opening of our Scarborough office Sunday, the issue was top of mind for most of them." (The Ford camp's new satellite office is at 2063 Lawrence Ave East.)
She couldn't immediately provide figures on how many actual donations the call-out spurred, but said it was in the hundreds. Ms. Batra added that she spoke to 12 people herself who said they turned up to the Scarborough event because of the stories.
Meantime, team Ford has corrected a mistake on their "waste watch" list, a daily compendium of what the Etobicoke councillor considers unnecessary spending at city hall.
The latest addition to the list, published at respectfortaxpayers.com, is "$6-million dollars spent on 'needless' renovations, including Mayor's personal office." The site links to a 2007 Toronto Star article detailing the plans, but failed to mention a salient fact: The reno never happened. It was scaled back, then cancelled outright in the summer of 2007. The website has now been updated to read: "This project was approved by Council but later canceled (sic). Even David Miller listens to the taxpayers, sometimes."
However, Ms. Batra said the campaign has no intention of backing off another recent waste watch item about the future of the Gardiner Expressway.
The campaign warns that the "city plans to spend over $300 million to tear down part of the Gardiner Expressway," citing a National Post article from July 2008. City and Waterfront Toronto officials have indeed quoted an estimated price tag of $300-million for tearing down the Gardiner east of Jarvis Street, but that project is far, far from a done deal. The Post story is a set-up to a council debate about whether to proceed with studying the tear-down.
Waterfront Toronto is three years away from completing an environmental assessment and comprehensive design analysis, according to Michelle Noble, a spokeswoman for the tri-government agency. The EA officially kicked off in April of this year. The next city council -- or perhaps even the council after that -- would still have to vote on whether to actually take down part of the Gardiner.
Ms. Batra said the campaign won't amend the item. "Let's not lose sight of the fact that www.respectfortaxpayers.com highlights some of the silliest spending ideas coming out of city hall -- whether or not they are acted upon."
Even if some future council votes to leave the Gardiner untouched, the city will still have spent a good chunk of change on the EA and design analysis, as the Ford campaign (almost) correctly points out in another waste watch: "$10 million wasted doing an environmental assessment of removing part of busy Gardiner Expressway," which cites a CityTV story, also from 2008.
Ms. Noble of Waterfront Toronto pegs the cost at just under $8-million. She also confirmed that unlike most Waterfront Toronto-led studies, this one will not be funded from the seed capital provided by all three levels of government. Toronto is footing the bill for the Gardiner study on its own.
My colleague Marcus Gee has also taken issue with some of Mr. Ford's waste watch items here.