City councillor receives offensive letter as election campaign takes sharp turn into the gutter

If anyone thought that Rob Ford’s absence from the hustings would somehow civilize the Toronto City Council election campaign, they would be sadly mistaken.

On Tuesday, Coun. Kristyn Wong-Tam, an ardent opponent of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, was the subject a homophobic attack in the form of a mailed letter from someone who claimed to be a supporter of Ford Nation.

She posted the letter on Twitter.

Some took to social media to call out out Wong-Tam for trying to tie the Fords to this attack, suggesting that she was playing politics.

"Why are you promoting @kristynwongtam tweet?” one person tweeted.

"For all we know Wong-Tam wrote this letter NO PROOF it came from [Ford Nation]."

Another person suggested that Wong-Tam was “playing the gay card.”

"You must be getting desperate," he wrote.

But journalist Jeet Heer had another view, laying the blame of these types of attacks at the feet of Rob and Doug Ford.

"These racist and homophobic outbursts aren’t accidents. They are a natural by-product of the type of politics the Fords practice," Heer wrote on Twitter.

"Whether or not the Fords are personally racist or homophobic is irrelevant: they appeal to a politics of racism and homophobia."

[ Related: What Doug Ford needs to do to win the mayoral race ] 

Wong-Tam’s tweet came just hours before a mayoral debate — Doug Ford’s first as a candidate for the top job.

With audience members screaming and yelling, candidates talking over each other, and non-stop personal attacks from all sides, the event was more WWE than political discourse.

The Globe and Mail's Marcus Gee called it a raucous event.

"Councillor Doug Ford tried to paint John Tory as a toff who had had everything handed to him on a silver platter," Gee wrote.

"He called Mr. Tory a ‘slick-talking politician’ who comes from a different world."

Gee also chronicled a lengthy exchange with Olivia Chow and Tory trying to get Ford to answer the question of whether or not he would march in the city’s Pride parade. Ford refused to answer.

The National Post's Christie Blatchford shared this unfortunate story from the debate.

When asked about the racist comment on Wednesday, Doug Ford said he doesn’t “condone that.”

Regardless, it’s clear that after a brief campaign respite out of respect for the Ford family as they deal with the Mayor’s health issues, a nasty, no-holds barred political brawl has re-ignited.

Regardless of who is to blame, it isn’t very becoming for Canada’s largest and most diverse city.

(Photo courtesy Global News)

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