Rob Ford and volunteer Tom Beyer speak with Brian Hill while door-to-door canvassing in Scarborough on July 24, 2010.JENNIFER ROBERTS
Remember the anonymous Rob Ford campaign staffer who called John Tory's Newstalk 1010 show to rattle the host and keep him out of the mayoral race? Turns out the caller was in fact Fraser Macdonald, the deputy communications director who also created the infamous @queensquaykaren faux twitter account. (He's pictured in the background wearing the Ford T-shirt.)
Newstalk 1010 provided us the audio of the Aug. 3 call -- the first Mr. Tory took after returning from a weeklong vacation during which speculation about his mayoral intentions hit a fever pitch. Posing as "Gary from Toronto," Mr. Macdonald phoned during a segment on body cameras for police, but quickly changed the subject to Mr. Tory's integrity.
"It [body cameras]sounds like a good idea, but I think at the end of the day it's kind of like, you know, being on the radio all day while you might be a candidate for mayor. It just doesn't pass the smell test," Mr. Macdonald said.
Mr. Tory has since said the Ford campaign's trickery had nothing to do with his decision to stay out of the race. But he sure sounds steamed -- well, steamed by the standards of the famously mild-mannered ex-politician -- in his response to the call.
"I'm sorry to get a bit wound up on that guy, but you know, when people call in and they call in on an issue, if they want to call in and talk about body cams, then talk about that. But to raise the other thing to me ... I will do nothing that comprises my own integrity or the integrity of this radio station or the process. I will not do that because it's not worth it. You know what? It's not worth it."
Kelly Grant