Toronto mayoral campaign continues on Thanksgiving

The city's most high-profile mayoral candidates spent part of their Thanksgiving Monday at a Toronto food bank. But even as they sorted out donations, they were still campaigning.

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Olivia Chow, Doug Ford and John Tory each arrived at the Daily Bread Food Bank for 10 a.m. Ari Goldkind also went to help out slightly later in the morning.

A trip to the food bank, just two weeks ahead of the pending election, led to questions about how candidates would reduce the need for food-bank use.

Chow said that if she becomes mayor, she would seek to build more affordable housing units, to boost employment opportunities for youth and provide affordable child care to parents.

"All of those three elements are critically important to lift people out of poverty, then they don’t need to use the food bank," said Chow.

Tory had a similar plan of attack, targeting better employment opportunities and transit services for people living in Toronto.

"I think that's going to do the most to help people to be in a situation where they don't need food banks," he said.

Ford said that he would commit to helping raise money for the food bank.

"They're just a great organization and you see all the volunteers today, and I’m here to help them out and I’m going to be here to help them when I'm mayor," he said.

Chow to Tory: Release costs of 'wish list'

Later Monday, Chow spoke to reporters, as she issued a public challenge for Tory to release his full platform and its associated costs.

Describing Tory's existing platform as a "wish list" that lacked detail, she urged her opponent to give the voters the information they need to evaluate it before the Oct. 27 election.

"There's only 14 more days. If you don't put out a fully costed-out platform, it's nothing but empty promises," Chow said.

Tory, speaking with reporters at the food bank on Monday morning, said that his platform has already been detailed on his website.

"The fact I'm not putting out a glossy book like her is just a choice that we've made and if you look at the glossy book, it's got a lot of nice pictures and a lot of interesting commentary that doesn't really add much, I don't think, to the election campaign," he said.

Also Monday, Tory was publicly endorsed by Lisa Raitt, the federal transport minister and MP for Halton.

"Toronto needs John Tory. He has a track record of getting things done. He will be able to work well with all levels of government to produce results for Toronto," Raitt said in a statement.

Toronto voters can begin casting ballots as soon as Tuesday, when advance voting begins in all 44 wards across the city.