E-cigarettes banned as council looks forward to next term

E-cigarettes will be treated like regular cigarettes at city work spaces after a vote from council approving a ban on the electronic smoking devices.

The ban on e-cigarettes was one of some 400 items on the agenda for the last city council session of the current four-year term.

The vote to approve the ban tallied at 36-2, with two opposing votes coming from Mayor Rob Ford and his councillor brother Doug Ford.

The vote — not the first time the Ford brothers were the only dissenting votes at Toronto City Hall — comes at the end of a turbulent term for the mayor and his brother.

Some councillors wore pink to see off the session — and they hope, the Fords. It symbolizes the beginning of council, when the mayor invited Don Cherry to speak, and he called progressive council members "pinkos."

"First day of the last (Toronto council) meeting of 2010-14. Wearing pink to commemorate the end of Rob Ford as Toronto's worst mayor ever," Coun. Kristyn Wong-Tam tweeted on Monday morning.

Wong-Tam elaborated further when speaking to reporters.

"Pink is the colour of anti-bullying…I thought it would be very befitting at the end of this particular term of council to signify an end of Rob Ford," she said Monday.

Ford is up against dozens of candidates this fall as he seeks a second term as mayor. Some of his high-profile opponents include former Trinity-Spadina MP Olivia Chow, former Ontario PC leader John Tory and former Toronto city councillor David Soknacki.

At the council meeting on Monday, councillors also passed a motion to ask the province to place restrictions on e-cigarettes that also treat them like regular cigarettes.

Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago have also banned e-cigarettes. Red Deer, Alberta, was among the first Canadian municipalities to ban e-cigarettes.

The council meeting will continue on Tuesday morning.