“… can’t even deal with the 2.5 million people in this city. I think it is more important to take care of people now before we start bringing in more people. There’s going to be a million more people, according to the official plan (which I did not support) over the next ten years coming into the city. We can’t even deal with the 2.5 million people. How are we going to welcome another million people in? It is going to be chaotic. We can’t even deal with the chaos we have now. I think we have to say enough’s enough.”

At another debate Mr. Ford suggested that thousands of people in Toronto are on waiting lists for housing and family doctors and the city should first eliminate these backlashes before accepting more immigrants.  Predictably, September poll conducted by Nanos for the Globe, CTV and CP24 reported that almost a half of Ford’s supporters did not believe that “Toronto would benefit from welcoming more new Canadians to the city”. However, astonishing 32% of all Torontonians participated in the poll did not see how Toronto would benefit from immigration and 45.8% would vote for Ford. Thus, a candidate with ‘no-more- immigration-to-Toronto’ political platform is a front-runner for the highest office in the most diverse city in the world.

While Ford’s campaign is a far cry from the city’s motto “Diversity is Our Strength” he could get away with his attitudes as striking number (52%) of immigrants  said they would support Ford, compared with 30.1 per cent who support Smitherman.