Bid for T.O. mayor in jeopardy
By BRYN WEESE, SUN MEDIA
This past week, Deputy Premier George Smitherman has come under fire for his role in the $1-billion eHealth scandal that saw hundreds of millions of provincial health-care dollars wasted trying in vain to set up electronic health records in Ontario.
Although it was David Caplan who resigned as health minister Wednesday, Smitherman held that post from 2003 to 2008, when the amount paid to consultants for the eHealth program ballooned from $886,000 to $10 million.
At Queen's Park, the opposition parties are calling for Smitherman to resign, saying he, not Caplan, is really responsible for the waste and the "culture of entitlement" permeating Queen's Park agencies and Crown corporations.
But Smitherman may not be around much longer to take their abuse.
Just yesterday, a spokesman for Smitherman -- whose aggressive style in the legislature has earned him the nickname "Furious George" -- said he is still considering a run for the office of Toronto mayor in next year's municipal election.
"He's thinking about it," Amy Tang wrote the Sun in an e-mail. "He's set a timeline for himself to decide in the new year."
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said the scandal at Queen's Park should give Torontonians something to think about if Smitherman decides to run for mayor.
"If I was a resident of Toronto, I wouldn't be voting for Smitherman as mayor," she said. "I don't think he's the horse to be betting on these days, that's for sure."
But it's been reported Smitherman is thinking less seriously about a mayoral run since current Toronto Mayor David Miller announced two weeks ago he would not seek a third term and the eHealth scandal erupted.
The latter issue, even though it's at a different level of government, would dog him in a 2010 mayoral run, according to some.
"Anything that is negative, whether it's true or not, always follows you. I was accused falsely of all kinds of stuff, and that (stuff) still crops up," said city councillor Mike Del Grande. "It's there to be used, and in politics, I'm told it's a blood sport."
While some might argue the issue of electronic health records is not municipal jurisdiction, and therefore not relevant in a municipal election, others say challenging Smitherman municipally for his provincial performance is wholly appropriate.
"If the culture of entitlement is where you come from, what are you going to bring to City Hall?" asked PC MPP Peter Shurman. "Every reporter in the city is going to ask that question, and rightly so. I think that citizens are going to ask that question as well."
But veteran Councillor Case Ootes isn't so sure the eHealth scandal, although damaging, is enough to sink Smitherman's mayoral ship, should he choose to run.
Without an incumbent to attack, the mayoral candidates will likely hurl mud at each other.
"It all depends on the other candidates, and what they're up against in terms of their own skeletons," Ootes said. "It certainly won't help him."
John Tory, who has also indicated he is considering another run for the mayor's job next year, could not be reached for comment.
(In an odd twist, it was Tory, as leader of the Progressive Conservatives, who pushed for the Freedom of Information requests on eHealth that ultimately exposed the eHealth scandal and led to the auditor general's report this week and the resignation of David Caplan.)
But Tory has his own skeletons from past political blunders, and Councillor Doug Holyday thinks as much as Smitherman will be hounded by eHealth, Tory will be dogged by his own problems.
"Perhaps they'll offset each other, I don't know," Holyday mused.
But if any Torontonians are worried about the prospect of an eHealth-like scandal taking place at City Hall, Horwath offered some comfort Friday, saying she'll try to keep Smitherman at Queen's Park to make him answer for any wrongdoing.
She joked, "We'll put up with him (at Queen's Park) to protect the people of Toronto from that fate."