TORONTO — Toronto Mayor Rob Ford may be feeling a chill coming from Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne’s office.
She appears to be freezing out the troubled mayor amid a scandal over his admission that he smoked crack cocaine and drinks to excess.
Wynne met Tuesday with deputy mayor Norm Kelly — the man who now wields most of Ford’s powers — to talk about transit and housing, saying it’s the beginning of a “good working relationship” with him.
Asked repeatedly whether she would meet with Ford in the future, Wynne said she’s meeting with Kelly because he’s the representative of city council.
“The relationship between the province and the city has to be with the city council where the decisions are made, and so that’s why I’m meeting with the deputy mayor,” she said.
“The ongoing relationship, the ongoing discussion, will be with the representative of city council, who is the deputy mayor.”
Kelly said it’s in both their interests to forge a good working relationship.
“I was looking forward to meeting with the premier to let her know that she has a stable, reliable partner going forward, that at city hall we now have a stable, calm and reasonable government that is looking forward to working with each other,” he said.
But Ford feels shut out, saying he asked Wynne for a meeting a month ago, but she didn’t take him up on it.
“So that’s fine. That’s their prerogative,” he said. “They can go ahead and meet. The last time I checked I was elected as mayor and that’s all I have to say.”
The troubled mayor wrote to Wynne on Monday, saying she should be talking to him instead of Kelly to discuss important matters, such as plans for a subway extension and “cuts to vital provincial funding.”
“However, I believe that it would be most appropriate for you to meet with the elected mayor of Toronto on these matters, which affect our city as a whole,” he said in the letter.
Wynne said she takes a lot of meetings with people who are looking to work with the province.
But the province has to work “with the people who are responsible for the decision making at the municipal level,” she said.