Doug Ford says car window smashed, alleges ‘dirty campaign’

Toronto Councillor Doug Ford says a window on his SUV was smashed on Monday night, and he alleges that the incident may have been politically motivated.

The outspoken councillor, who is running the re-election campaign for his brother, Mayor Rob Ford, told reporters at City Hall on Tuesday morning that the rear window on his car had been vandalized. He drew a link between the alleged incident and the election race, but offered no evidence for this claim.

"I think the message is pretty clear," Mr. Ford said. "This is going to be the dirtiest campaign Canada's ever seen."

Toronto Police confirmed that the councillor had reported the incident to them.

Both of the other leading candidates denied involvement in the vandalism.

Asked whether he believed either Olivia Chow or John Tory could have been behind the incident, Mr. Ford did not offer a direct answer.

"What I'm saying is it's not a coincidence that, in 14 years, my car out of the four cars in the driveway was targeted," he said. "There's nothing special about my car compared to any other car, but it's going to be a dirty campaign. We're going to take the high road."

Ms. Chow's spokesman, Jamey Heath, responded, by saying that "Olivia's campaign was in no way involved."

Meanwhile, Mr. Tory denied that a candidate would be involved in the window incident. "The notion that my campaign or, I would say for that matter Ms. Chow's campaign, would have anything to do with this is ridiculous," he said.

"… I think this is just Doug Ford going off again, providing entertainment for people. We should focus on the real issues like transit and like taxes and like housing."

Councillor Ford said the window smashing would have been caught on his Etobicoke home's security surveillance, and that he is in the process of reviewing the footage.

With a report from Kaleigh Rogers.