Rivals Criticize George Smitherman For Leaving Debate Early
Posted October 1, 2010 7:07 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
George Smitherman’s rivals are criticizing him for walking out of a mayoral debate on Thursday.
Three women confronted the former provincial health minister about the $1 billion e-Health spending scandal, at the event hosted by Toronto Community News. And whether it was due to his schedule or frustration, he left the Leslie street conference centre before the debate started.
A witness recorded part of the interaction and posted it on YouTube. In it, a woman demands a public inquiry and says, “If you want to be the mayor of Toronto, you need to be accountable. You need to have integrity. My father’s dead.”
Smitherman says, “I’m very sorry about that. My father died in a hospital as well,” and points out he doesn’t have the authority to call an inquiry. But the woman taunts him as he walks away.
The other mayoral candidates took the opportunity to blast Smitherman on the public stage.
“I won’t ever do what Smitherman did, storm out of a debate,” Rob Ford said on Friday.
And Rocco Rossi issued a press release to paint Smitherman as a quitter.
“What does it say about Mr. Smitherman’s credibility when he literally runs from his record?” Rossi asked.
“The mayor has to answer to the people of Toronto and Mr. Smitherman showed today that he refuses to be held accountable. You don’t earn trust by running from the tough questions.”
But Smitherman denies he walked out of anything and accuses his opponents of making mischief.
“It was 20 minutes even before the event was scheduled to begin and the organizers knew all along that my time was limited,” he said.
“I gave the woman an opportunity to make her point which was about a grievance related to the health care system from 2005 – nothing to do with the municipal election, of course – and let the organizers know that it wasn’t possible for me to participate because of my fundraising events in north Etobicoke.”
