Reversing his previous position, Rob Ford now says he wants council to reappoint him as mayor, not call a byelection, if he is forced out of office.“It’s up to the council. They’re going to either appoint somebody or we’re going to have a byelection. They have two options, and hopefully I’ll get appointed — hopefully I’ll win the appeal, and if I don’t, then hopefully I get appointed. If not, then we have to go to the polls,” Ford said during an unscheduled call to Newstalk 1010 on Thursday.
Ford and his brother, Councillor Doug Ford, had both pressed for a byelection in the month since a judge evicted the mayor over a violation of the provincial Municipal Conflict of Interest Act.
“In my biased view, they should let the people speak: they should have a byelection and let people run,” Rob Ford said on his Newstalk show on Dec. 2.
“The people of this city should decide on who is going to be running this city, not politicians, not judges, not generals, but the people of Toronto,” Doug Ford said on Dec. 11. Asked a week earlier about the estimated cost of a byelection, now pegged as high as $9 million, he said: “What price do you put on democracy?”
The mayor’s spokesperson did not respond to a request to explain the change in his thinking. Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday said Ford may now be more optimistic about his chances of being reappointed than he was early in the month.
“Maybe he didn’t think he had the support on council to get reappointed. And I guess at that time no one had spoken about reappointing him. But I told his brother, we have to figure out how we’re going to deal with the aftermath of the appeal, and if he doesn’t win the appeal, the first thing we should try to do is reappoint him,” Holyday said.
Ford’s appeal will be heard Jan. 7. The decision is expected within weeks. If Ford loses, council would have to declare his seat vacant, then call a byelection or appoint someone within 60 days.
It is not yet clear how the appointment process would work. Council’s 2006 appointments process may offer a clue.
When two councillors left their seats, council chose to appoint their replacements rather than call byelections. The city gave interested residents a month to submit their names for consideration.
Each resident had the chance to make a speech to council at a special meeting. Councillors then chose the two winners using a runoff voting system like those used in party leadership races. All of the votes were made public.
Entering such a runoff, in which a candidate must get majority support to win, would be a high-stakes gamble for Ford. He could sail to victory if other credible candidates decided to stay out of the running — but under the 2006 process, he would not know whether he was going to be unopposed until after council chose an appointment over a byelection.
It appears, however, that Ford and his allies could attempt to rapidly return him to office without giving potential challengers an extended opportunity to mount a lobbying effort. According to the city clerk’s office, council could vote to install a specific appointee immediately after voting to make an appointment, city communications chief Jackie DeSouza said Friday.
“They could do it at the same council meeting at which they decide to appoint, or they could set a time to do it at another time, or at the next council meeting,” DeSouza said. “It’s really up to them to decide how they want to appoint someone.”
Original Article
Source: the star
Author: Daniel Dale
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