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Pissing off Dalton

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Political parties lusting for power are always on the lookout for so-called “name” candidates who can give their campaigns some lustre and maybe even a little credibility. That’s supposedly why Dalton McGuinty and the Ontario Liberals went so hard after Councillor Brad Duguid, appointing him the party’s flag-bearer in Scarborough Centre come the much-anticipated provincial election.

Duguid has a name in the constituency, currently held for the embattled Tories by Marilyn Mushinski. He’s been around Scarborough politics for years – learning the game at the knee of Frank Faubert when the late Scarberian mayor was still a Grit MPP at Queen’s Park.

It didn’t take him long to figure out that the best way to get ahead at City Hall was to connive his way into Mayor Mel Lastman’s camp. Custodial staff at 100 Queen West will privately confide that the do-gooder gave their industrial-strength vacuum cleaners a run for the money when it came to sucking up to the chief magistrate’s office.

All this work clearly paid off. First, Duguid was made head of the task force on community safety. The next thing you knew, he was chairing the influential community and neighbourhood services committee. From there, the Ward 38 councillor was manoeuvred into control of the even-higher-profile works and emergency services committee and became a dependable, albeit unsuccessful, stooge for the Lastman cabal’s plan to put a largely unelected board in charge of Toronto’s water supply.

More recently, he’s been the clique’s go-to guy on matters related to waste management and sewage disposal. It might not be the stuff political dreams are made of. But Duguid does get quoted in the papers a lot and he’s a regular on local TV newscasts. Name recognition counts for a lot when voters head to the polls, and that’s why the Liberals decided to forgo the traditional nomination process in order to make Duguid the official Grit candidate in coveted Scarborough Centre.

Party Central’s imposition of Duguid on the local Liberal riding association had repercussions, however. Costas Manios, the long-time Liberal party stalwart who was sacrificed to Mushinski in 1999, was eager to take another shot at his Tory opponent under more favourable circumstances, and the riding executive was behind him.

Then, in a move that left many shaking their heads, the soon-to-be-ex-councillor endorsed John Tory as his choice to be Toronto’s next chief magistrate.

“John Tory is a man of action for a city that definitely needs it,” Duguid said of the gent who played the role of adviser to His Washup these past six years.

“I am pleased to have the support of a councillor who sees the need for new leadership for Toronto,” Tory gushed back at his fellow Lastmanite.

The love-in almost brought traffic to a complete halt at the intersection of Eglinton and Danforth.

Many Liberals were taken aback by Duguid’s overt gesture of support for Tory, a man widely seen as a would-be civic champion for the Conservative establishment. Some key members of the official opposition caucus were particularly offended by the endorsement because they’ve come out in support of Barbara Hall’s crusade.

George Smitherman, the Toronto Centre-Rosedale MPP, is a long-time Hall confidante and strategist. Alvin Curling and Gerry Phillips – the two Liberals currently representing Scarborough Rouge River and Scarborough Agincourt have also endorsed Hall, and she returned the favour by recently joining Maryanne Chambers, the Grit candidate running against Tory Steve Gilchrist in Scarborough East, to meet and greet potential voters at the Guildwood GO station.

“Backing Tory was a real kick in the teeth to Alvin and Gerry after all the trouble the party went to, clearing the path for Brad to become a candidate without having to organize for a nomination meeting,” a disgruntled Liberal operative said this week.

Some Grit insiders maintain Duguid joined forces with Tory for largely financial reasons. With Manios still very much in control of the Scarborough Centre Liberal riding association, the anointed candidate is having trouble getting his hands on the money needed for campaign preparations. Tory, meanwhile, has gobs of cash, thanks to some of the best Conservative bagmen out there. An endorsement in exchange for a little fundraising help could turn out to be quite a bargain. But the Liberals aren’t sure for whom.

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