The son of former Toronto mayor Mel Lastman, Blayne Lastman, is considering a run for office in the upcoming municipal election.
CTV News Toronto has learned exclusively that Blayne Lastman is possibly looking to take on Mayor John Tory this fall by following in his father’s footsteps once again.
“A number of civic and business leaders have approached former mayor Lastman’s son, Blayne Lastman the Toronto business man, and suggested that he put his name on the ballot to run for mayor,” political analyst Jim Warren told CTV News Toronto. “Lastman is strongly considering it. He is talking to a number of advisors and he is strongly leaning towards putting his name on the ballot and having a heated mayor’s race in the city of Toronto.”
Warren said there are “key issues” that Blayne Lastman is “not really happy with” but did not go into any specifics.
The Lastman family built up the Bad Boy Superstore empire after Mel Lastman opened their first location on Weston Road back in 1955, according to the company’s website.
The website said Mel Lastman then ran for mayor of North York in 1972 before shifting his focus to politics entirely in 1975. He went on to serve as mayor for more than 34 consecutive years.
While his father focused on politics, Blayne Lastman went on to open many more locations of their furniture store throughout the Greater Toronto Area.
Now Blayne Lastman is also possibly looking to shift his focus to municipal politics.
Mel Lastman said he “went into complete shock” after his son told him his consideration for the top seat at city hall.
“I never believed that the election is only a couple of months away and I never believed it for a second and then he said to me ‘dad, I’m thinking of running’ and I said ‘running what?’ and he said ‘for mayor.’”
His father went on to say his son would make a good candidate as he “loves people” and is “thoroughly honest.”
Tory filed his paperwork to run for re-election on May 1 but noted at the time that he would not start campaigning until the conclusion of the final city council meeting of this term in July.
In the 2014 election, Tory’s campaign raised $2.8 million, which was more than double the campaign spending limit of $1.349 million.
After announcing his bid for re-election, Tory named Vic Gupta, principal secretary at city hall, and Vince Gasparro, Toronto Community Housing board member, as his campaign co-chairs.
No current members of city council have announced plans to run against Tory in the mayoral election, but 18 other people have filed their paperwork to run.
In a statement sent to CP24 on Tuesday evening, Gupta said he is looking forward to a “spirted campaign.”
“We welcome anyone to the race who is willing to put their name forward to serve the people of Toronto,” he said. “Mayor John Tory has done that job for the last four years, and he is proud to put his name forward to continue the great work he has accomplished like building transit and h0ousing and keeping taxes low.”
A poll conducted by Campaign Research back in March showed that 61 per cent of respondents approved of the job that Tory is doing as mayor, while 22 per cent disapproved and 17 per cent said they were not sure.
Nick Kouvalis, who served as Tory’s campaign manager during the 2014 municipal election, runs Campaign Research. Tory has not said whether Kouvalis will be a part of his 2018 campaign.
The poll is considered to be accurate to within four percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
For the upcoming municipal election, the city’s wards have been re-drawn and will be going up from 44 to 47.
The last day to register to run in the race is July 27 and the election is set to place on Oct. 22.
