Big push for John Tory mayoralty run begins in Toronto

If you haven't done it yet, you might want to reserve your seat on the 'John Tory for mayor' bandwagon — it's starting to get pretty crowded.

Following the Rob Ford chaos at Toronto City Hall, provincial Conservatives and Liberals are rallying around Tory — the former PC party leader, current CivicAction chair and radio talk show host.

According to the Toronto Star, 'friends of John Tory' convened at a Toronto law office, on Monday, to plan out a course of action.

And, while Ford has clearly stated that he intends to run again, some of his closest allies seeming to be jumping off the Ford-Nation ship. The Star claims that PC Party president Richard Ciano was in attendance. Ciano was one of the key strategists in Ford's 2010 victory.

So much for loyalty in politics.

[ Related: Time to talk about who should replace Toronto Mayor Rob Ford ]

The big question now becomes: can Tory win?

As explained by Yahoo Canada's Matt Coutts, there are five serious contenders being bandied about: NDP MP Olivia Chow, businessman David Soknacki, TTC chair Karen Stintz, Ford and Tory.

So far, Stintz, Ford and Soknacki are the only ones to have declared their intention to run.

An Ipsos Reid poll, released on Thursday, suggests that if all five ran, the final results could look something like this.

Essentially, if the right of centre politicos want to retain the mayoralty, they'll need to form some sort of coalition to defeat the left-leaning Chow.

"It has been a staple of Toronto politics that Liberals and Tories usually band together in municipal races," Political communications consultant Marcel Wieder told Yahoo.

"The last election saw the right band around Ford and before the left banded around Miller. In this election you have Liberals and Tories divided among Councillor Karen Stintz and John Tory. The left seem pretty well aligned with Olivia Chow.

"If I was advising Tory I would say that the events of the past few weeks have led to the conclusion that Toronto needs strong, decisive leadership and that he is ready to rehabilitate the good name of the city and provide the leadership that the city needs. It should push Stintz and other declared candidate David Soknacki to reassess their chances and bow out gracefully setting up a match between Chow, Ford and Tory. This should produce the best scenario for Tory to win."

[ Related: Rob Ford stripped of emergency powers, threatens legal action ]

The second question is, of course, is: will Tory run?

He ran for mayor in 2003 and lost; he teased voters with a potential run in 2010 but never did; and now, he claims he'll make a decision soon.

"I'm not commenting much on that these days," Tory told radio show Moore in the Morning on Friday.

" I've said I'm thinking about it and I will have a decision reasonably shortly because I think you have to sort of decide what you're going to do and move on."

Some are getting tired of his aloofness about the issue.

"On paper John has everything you need, but like the hero of a Greek tragedy he has a fatal flaw and that is his indecision," Wieder says.

"At a time when Toronto needs strong, decisive leadership he hasn't given the signals the people need. I understand that he would lose his powerful platform of his talk radio show and Chair of Civic Action but sometimes you need to look at the greater good rather than the personal good."

At this point, the right leaning Toronto politicos believe that Tory is their best and only hope.

(Photo courtesy of the Canadian Press)

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