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Doug Ford not running for Ontario PC leadership

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(Updated)

In a surprise move Thursday, the runner up in last months mayoral election in Toronto has announced he will not join the race for the Ontario Progressive Conservative party leadership.

But instead of issuing a press release to stop the speculation and step aside quietly. Doug Ford held a morning news conference outside the family business in Etobicoke.

Quite a crowd gathered for the non-announcement.

Doug Ford: “I wish it was going to be this exciting”.

Ford says he spoke to hundreds and hundreds of people before this decision: “I’m here to announce that I will not be running for PC leadership. We have five great candidates. I’m going to support each and every one of them.”

Actually, he says, he will especially support Christine Elliott. She and her late husband, former federal finance minister Jim Flaherty, were at Rob Ford’s 2010 campaign launch.

Ford: “Loyalty means everything to us. Christine is extremely bright and she can drive this province forward and yes, i’d be supporting Christine Elliott.”

There are still a lot of election props here outside of Deco Labels in Etobicoke, the Ford family business. And Doug Ford says he may well be on the political scene again one day: “I will not give up on running for office. I’m going to take a break for a bit.”

Some leadership contenders weighed in from Queen’s Park.

Vic Fedeli: “I’ve never talked about other candidates in the four elections I’ve one and I didn’t intend to start today.”

Lisa MacLeod: “We’ve just suffered our fourth consecutive loss and a lot of people have been disappointed, including myself. The fact that someone as high profile as Mr. Ford wants to bring new members to the party, I welcome that.”

Monte McNaughton: “No doubt Doug Ford would have added excitement to the race.”

But Liberal minister Brad Duguid says he’s glad the Ford circus is on hiatus: “It would have been a distraction and we have important work to do here at Queen’s Park.”

Meanwhile, many members of the media lamented the end of an exciting era.

Ford: “Thank you very much. We had a good ride in the press. We’ve had our ups and downs. But all of you have been very classy through the election and I look forward to working with you over the next few years.”

So it wasn’t so much a “goodbye,” as a “see you again soon.”