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Toronto, Under pressure from rival mayoral candidate Olivia Chow, John Tory has announced that he will release a full list of campaign donors before Torontonians go to the polls at the end of the month.
Chow, who plans to publish her campaign donor list on Wednesday, held a press conference this morning to criticize Tory for not yet committing to releasing the information ahead of the election but minutes later Tory’s campaign put out a statement announcing that the candidate would “voluntarily release” the list in the days following” a final fundraiser scheduled for Sunday evening.
With that announcement, all three major candidates have now publicly vowed to release the information before the election.
The Municipal Elections Act only requires that candidates submit their donor list to the city by March 27, but in recent years candidates have voluntarily released the information ahead of time.
Speaking with reporters ahead of the announcement from Tory’s campaign, Chow said it was of particular importance for Tory to make the information public because of his son’s previously reported connection with the push for the expansion of Billy Bishop Airport.
“Already we have noted a conflict of interest with Mr. John Tory and the island airport. Does his donation list include a large number of people that back the island airport?” Chow asked. “Are there lobbyists in the list? We don’t know and that’s why it is important to make that list public before the election.”
It should be noted that Tory did release his donor list ahead of voting day in 2003 and never ruled out doing so this time around.
Addressing his decision after an event to mark Stop Bullying Awareness Day on Saturday afternoon, Tory said he was “happy” to provide a “faster kind of transparency and accountability” and in fact would favour amending the election laws to require that candiodates release their donor lists prior to election day.
“We are all doing it anyway so let’s conform the law to the practice and make it something that will happen for sure,” he told reporters.
MP Andrew Cash endorses Chow
Chow was joined by NDP Member of Parliament Andrew Cash for Saturday’s press conference.
A former singer-songwriter and journalist before entering politics in 2011, Cash told reporters that Chow is best positioned to “get things done” and keep the city’s arts and culture sector thriving.
“People who work in this sector also need affordable childcare, also needs a public transit system that works and also need access to affordable housing. We don’t want the next generation of arts and culture workers to not be able to afford to live in this city,” Cash said. “Olivia Chow gets that, she understands that and that is why I and so many others are proud to endorse her as the next mayor.”
Elsewhere on the campaign trail today, Tory is attending a Vietnamese community event in Chinatown this afternoon. Doug Ford, meanwhile, will be canvassing at several locations across the city and then attending a private fundraiser at a restaurant on Islington Avenue later this evening.
