[URBAN NOTE] "Strategists for Soknacki and Stintz throw support behind Tory"

[rfmcdonald]

CP24 reports. It looks like this campaign is John Tory's to lose now.

Earlier on Friday, two key strategists who worked on the campaigns for Karen Stintz and David Soknacki threw their support behind Tory.

Tory welcomed Stintz’s campaign chair Paul Brown and Soknacki’s adviser Gordon Chong outside city hall Friday morning, but did not specify the exact roles they will play on his campaign.

“To me this is important evidence of the fact that we are gaining momentum and that we are gaining new people to our cause to bring the city together and to create one Toronto,” Tory said. “I am just very happy to have them show this gesture of confidence in me, our campaign and perhaps more importantly what this campaign is about.”

Chong, a former councillor, was a member of Mayor Rob Ford’s transition team when he was elected in 2010 and authored a 2012 report on how to fund transit expansion in Toronto titled “Toronto Transit: Back on Track.”

In that report, Chong advocated parking taxes or levies and a special regional sales tax to pay for new infrastructure. On Friday, however, he told reporters that he believes Tory can in fact follow through on his SmartTrack proposal using Tax Increment Financing.

Under TIF, a government borrows money to fund the cost of a project and then pays it back using additional tax revenue generated by higher property values and increased development.