Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti kicked off his mayoralty campaign with a party as outlandish as his platform.
Nearly 1,000 supporters gathered in a North York ballroom last night for a $250-a-plate dinner complete with a band, open bar and posters evoking Barack Obama's iconic 'hope' campaign art.
"In my 30 years of public service ... I've been called bold and even outrageous," Mr. Mammoliti told the crowd. "I've fought against bad ideas, policies, and institutions where needed ... is that so outrageous?"
The councillor for Ward 7, York-West, unfurled a long list of promises in his speech including:
Cutting property taxes for all by 5 per cent; Eliminating property taxes for seniors with income of $65,000 or less; Turning Yonge Street between Queen and Gerrard into a pedestrian-only mall;
Asking the province to take over the TTC;
Distributing a $10,000-a-year family care allowance for people who take in elderly relatives;
Plowing sidewalks everywhere in Toronto; Imposing an 11 p.m. curfew for kids under the age of 14 in a bid to clean up the streets.
Mr. Mammoliti didn't provide estimates for the cost of the promises in his speech. Instead, he offered vague assurances that he would leverage public-private partnerships, lobby senior governments for more funding and drastically slash city hall bureaucracy to fund his platform.
"Enough of the fat. We need a leaner government that serves the people better," he said. "All city employees should be forewarned: Under my leadership no job is safe and pink slips will be issued. We will build the city infrastructure and staff it properly where it is needed instead of filling cubicles with paper-pushers downtown."
Mr. Mammoliti, 48, was a landscaper for the old Metro Toronto Housing Authority and a union leader when he won his first election in 1990 and an NDP MP under Bob Rae. After losing his seat in 1995 he won a spot on North York Council. He went on to capture a seat of the Mega-City's new council at amalgamation. He has held Ward 7 ever since.
Mr. Mammoliti, the chair of the affordable housing committee, has a reputation for wild antics and schemes on and off the council floor. He once doffed his shirt in the chamber to protest plans for a nude beach on the Toronto Island and tried to bring an NHL franchise to North York.
Mr. Mammoliti's platform suggests he'll be no less shocking during the mayor's race. He appears to be running from the right, having jettisoned his NDP membership years ago. One early poll suggests support for him at less than 5 per cent, well behind front-runner George Smitherman and 10 points behind Rocco Rossi, the former Liberal fundraiser making a play for right-of-centre voters.
Earlier in the campaign, Mr. Mammoliti refused to rule out parachuting into the race for his council seat if his mayoralty bid falters.
But, last night, he suggested he would not drop out of the mayor's contest before the Oct. 25 election. "I'm in this thing and I'm going to be the mayor of Toronto," he said.
