Toronto Mayor Rob Ford lobs attack at Ontario premier amid personal controversy

In the face-off between Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, you’ve got to give this one to the premier. The pair traded barbs on Tuesday over an abandoned and failed strategy to bring a casino to downtown Toronto.

But while Ford snarked at her for allegedly changing her mind over how much she valued a gambling house in the core of Canada’s largest city, his attack was dampened a bit when he then scurried out of city hall, so as not to be asked about pesky allegations that he was captured on video smoking from a crack pipe.

Wynne, who was just named Canada’s most popular premier in a poll published by the Toronto Sun, had plenty of space to respond with mild concern about the city’s dysfunctional leadership.

Let's take a quick look at what happened in Toronto today because, and this can't be stressed enough, the city's mayor was accused of smoking from a crack pipe five days ago and has yet to offer an official response – other than to vaguely dismiss the whole thing as “ridiculous.”

On one hand, Toronto city council voted overwhelmingly against building a downtown casino under any circumstances, putting the final bullet in a project Ford had once campaigned vigorously in favour of.

[ Related: Councillors vote down downtown Toronto casino ]

Ford's talking points on the issue is that Wynne had scuttled the deal by shuffling her feet over the size of Toronto's hosting fee. Ford spoke only once during the morning-long debate and took that time to echo his previous attack against Wynne, sounding for a brief spate to be in mid-campaign form.

“It seems no deal is good enough for this premier,” Ford said in part, according to the Toronto Star. “The fact is she simply doesn’t want a casino, at least not in Toronto.”

Gotta give Ford credit. He is bold. Bold enough to try to light a fire under an opponent while in the midst of the biggest controversy of his political career. Not bold enough to address that controversy, mind you. According to the Toronto Sun's Don Peat, he used a side door and left city hall without answering questions following the casino vote.

And then on the other hand, there was Wynne herself, who received very good news on Tuesday. NDP Leader Andrea Horwath announced that she would support the Liberal budget. The decision staved off a provincial budget and saved Wynne from having to campaign to keep her job while a committee looks into the case of two gas plants cancelled by her predecessor at politically-opportune moments.

[ More Brew: Ontario election averted as NDP supports Liberal budget ]

The news came as Wynne marked her 100th day as premier. Needless to say, today was considered a win for her. And how did she respond to Ford's huffing and puffing? In a subtle and measured tone.

“It’s concerning to me if there are issues — whether they’re personal issues — that get in the way of a . . . municipal government being able to do its business and being able to work in the best interests the city,” Wynne said, according to the Star's Robert Benzie.

“When there is a distraction of a personal nature or a distraction that takes the council and the leadership away from . . . serving the interests of the city and getting the business of the city done then that’s a problem.

“And so my hope is that they will be dealt with on a personal level and at a council level as quickly as possible.”

[ More Brew: Rob Ford continues to dodge questions on crack allegations ]

So there we have Wynne, buoyed by recent victories after uniting, at least partially, a fractured minority government, addressing Ford's crack controversy in a measured tone.

And there we have Ford, mid-spiral and ducking questions about whether he is fit to govern, spouting attacks and perhaps not noticing everyone's eyes rolling to the back of their sockets.

Who knows? Perhaps if Ford had stayed at city hall long enough to respond, he would have had a noble retort. But that’s the thing about having a mayor embroiled in a possible substance abuse controversy. They tend not to stay around very long.

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