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Murray knows what he'd be 'getting into'

Glen Murray

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Glen Murray (CANWEST NEWS SERVICE)

TORONTO -- Former Winnipeg mayor Glen Murray says he's been bombarded with emails as allies of Toronto Mayor David Miller fret over who will fill his shoes on the centre left when he leaves office next year.

After Miller's announcement last Friday that he would not seek a third term, Murray said Monday, "I got 57 emails within 10 minutes from people saying, 'We have to find a candidate.'

"I am probably one of the few people who would actually know what I would be getting myself into," said Murray, who was mayor of Winnipeg for six years until 2004. Since then, he has been a Toronto resident and is president of the Canadian Urban Institute.

With a legion of right-leaning councillors and former Ontario Progressive Conservative leader John Tory positioning themselves as the anti-David Miller candidate for November 2010, the current mayor's allies find themselves looking for a replacement to carry on his progressive policies.

"There's a vacuum," said deputy mayor Joe Pantalone, who says he, too, is mulling a possible run for mayor. "There is a scramble to see if there are candidates who can fill the job."

Murray, a fiscal conservative with an activist view of social policy, says he will decide his future in the next few weeks.

Ontario Deputy Premier and Minister of Infrastructure George Smitherman is one of two top contenders -- Tory being the other -- looking at a possible run.

-- The Canadian Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 29, 2009 A2

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