Councillor’s former assistant running for City Hall seat

Hratch Aynedjian, once the assistant to former city councillor Raymond Cho, is running to replace him in an upcoming byelection.

Aynedjian quietly registered to run as a candidate in Ward 42 late Friday afternoon, away from the glare of television spotlights. That was in sharp contrast to what was rumored to be a splashy kick off to his campaign featuring some high profile supporters, such as former city councillor Doug Ford.

A news release sent out late Thursday night stated that Cho, along with Ford, were scheduled to appear at city hall on Friday morning for the byelection registration.

The announcement fuelled speculation that Ford was once again running for office. In fact, neither Ford nor Aynedjian showed up for the scheduled appearance at City Hall. There was no news conference, and Ford is not running for office.

Cho was seen by several people, including city hall staff, at City Hall on Friday. When it became clear that the news conference was not happening, he quickly fled, and did not speak to reporters.

Ford later told CityNews reporter Cynthia Mulligan that he does not know where the news release came from.

“If I’m going to [campaign], I’m going to do it properly. I’m not going to mislead someone,” Ford told Mulligan.

Ford said that Aynedjian would be running.

Aynedjian becomes the 11th person to have registered for the byelection.

The byelection for Ward 42, Scarborough-Rouge River will be held on Feb. 13, 2017.

Cho vacated the councillor’s seat in September when he was elected as MPP for the provincial riding of Scarborough-Rouge River.

Ford, once a city councillor himself, often joined Cho on the campaign trail.

Ford was elected to represent Ward 2 in 2010 and held the Etobicoke seat until 2014. In 2014, he ran unsuccessfully for mayor after his brother Rob Ford dropped out following a cancer diagnosis.

He was one of his brother’s closest advisers during his scandal-plagued term as Toronto’s mayor.

In September, Doug Ford said he’d be running for political office again “within about a year.”

He has suggested he may run for council, provincial office or even to be leader of the federal Conservative Party.

Ford has previously held a news conference to say he would not run for office. In 2014, he said he would not run for the leadership of the provincial Progressive Conservatives.

While he did not hold a news conference on Friday, Ford, who recently published a book, did later appear on CP24 to criticize Mayor John Tory.

Correction: A previous version of this article said that Raymond Cho was not at City Hall on Friday. In fact, he was there. He did not speak to reporters.