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Ford Elected Mayor of Toronto, Defeating Former Deputy Premier Smitherman
Rob Ford promised to cut spending and scrap a car registration tax after he was elected mayor of Toronto last night, topping challenger George Smitherman to lead Canada’s biggest city.
Ford received about 47 percent of the votes cast, to 36 percent for Smitherman, according to the city’s election website.
Ford, 41, has vowed to curb Toronto’s spending, which he says increased 56 percent to C$9.2 billion ($9.02 billion) in the past 10 years. He’s pledged to cut the number of city councilors in half to 22, a move that will save about C$9 million a year in direct costs. He also wants to reduce the expense accounts of politicians.
“People are really fed up with the wasteful spending,” Ford said in an interview on CP24 Television from his home. “I want to thank them for their vote of confidence, and I can’t wait to put an end to this gravy train.”
Ford said that his first act as mayor will be to eliminate a car-registration tax.
“The party with taxpayers’ money is over,” Ford said in his victory speech in a hall filled with his supporters.
Opinion polls showed that the two leading mayoral candidates were almost tied as recently as last week. An Angus Reid poll released Oct. 18 showed Toronto residents voting 41 percent for Ford, 40 percent for Smitherman, 48, a former deputy premier of Ontario, and 16 percent for Joe Pantalone. The survey, conducted Oct. 14 and Oct. 15 among 1,001 adults, had a margin of error of 3.1 percent, 19 times out of 20.
Debt Rally
Toronto’s debt is rated AA by Standard & Poor’s, the company’s second-highest rating. The city’s debt burden may climb to about C$4.2 billion by 2013, a 56 percent increase from 2008, according to S&P.
The city’s 5.2 percent debentures maturing in June 2040 have returned 12 percent this year, according to Bloomberg data. That compares with an 8.5 percent total return for the broader Bank of America Merrill Lynch Canadian Provincials & Municipals Index.
Toronto, which hosted the Group of 20 nations summit in June, has a population of 2.48 million people, according to the city’s website.
Ford replaces David Miller, who announced last year he wouldn’t seek another term after holding the office since 2003.
In other municipal election results across Ontario today, former member of provincial Parliament Jim Watson became mayor for a second time in Ottawa, Canada’s capital. Watson received 49 percent of the vote with 81 percent of the votes tallied, according to the city’s website.
To contact the reporter on this story: Sean B. Pasternak in Toronto at spasternak@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Scanlan at dscanlan@bloomberg.net.
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