Ford's attempt to interfere in another Toronto election comes up short

I am currently in England (a family health emergency that turned out not to be not that much of an emergency after all), and I won't be able to vote in Toronto's upcoming mayoral by-election. I did look into proxy voting, but it seemed so complicated, and I just didn't gave time to arrange it before leaving. Still, I'm not too worried, because it looks like left-leaning candidate Olivia Chow is streets ahead of the other candidates in advance polls.

Even from this distance, though, Doug Ford's attempts at election-meddling looks egregious. Provincial premiers are not supposed to use their influence to affect mayoral votes, which are not party political vehicles here in Ontario, and Ford has publicly said that he will be "staying out if the race".

But in almost the next breath, he used a completely unrelated press briefing in Burlington to attempt to influence the mayoral vote in a very obvious way, saying that a vote for Olivia Chow would an "unmitigated disaster" for Toronto, and that "she makes [ex-Toronto mayor] David Miller look like a fiscal conservative, and companies will start fleeing". He has also publicly endorsed conservative candidate Mark Saunders, saying that he'd be the best mayor, all the time protesting that he is not going to involve himself in the election.

Of course, there's no evidence at all of companies considering a mass exodus in a Chow-led Toronto. But if that does not constitute influence-peddling and a very overt attempt at directing the course of the election, I don't know what is. Luckily, his election interference does not seem to be at all effective and Saunders is still languishing well back from Chow in voter opinion polls. 

This is just more of Ford's trademark excess and bluster. Ex-Toronto councillor Ford has made many such attempts to influence the politics of the city since becoming provincial leader, and he still seems to consider it part of his personal fiefdom. Luckily, his influence is waning, and he is going to have to deal with a powerful and oppositional city mayor for the rest of his term, not a tame lap-dog like John Tory or Mark Saunders.