Toronto — Toronto mayoral candidate John Nunziata's bombshell charge yesterday that he had been offered a six-figure bribe from a rival's camp to drop out of the race weeks ago has thrown the election campaign into a furor.
Mr. Nunziata's allegations, made during an untaped editorial board meeting with radio station CFRB, drew swift calls for a police investigation from the leading mayoral contenders.
According to CFRB station man-ager Steve Kowch, Mr. Nunziata said during the meeting that the bribery offer was made in late Sep-tember, on the eve of the deadline for candidates to withdraw from the Nov. 10 ballot.
Mr. Kowch added that Mr. Nun-ziata said the idea was that he drop out of the mayoralty race and run for a council seat. If elected, Mr. Nunziata would win the post of deputy mayor if the rival, whom he did not name, won.
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According to Mr. Kowch, Mr. Nunziata also said that some of his election advertising costs would be covered as well.
Later, in a taped interview with CFRB, Mr. Nunziata softened his remarks and said he had not taken the proposal seriously and did not go to the police at that time.
In a written statement released late Wednesday, Mr. Nunziata said he told CFRB that "several weeks ago, approaches were made to members of my campaign by members of the campaign team of one of my opponents designed to get me to withdraw.
"I found the offers to be completely unethical and dismissed them out of hand."
Responding to calls from his opponents to name the individuals involved, Mr. Nunziata declined. He then upped the ante for the other mayoral camps, saying, "Those who made the offers know who they are. The right thing for them to do would be to step forward."
In the statement, Mr. Nunziata said, "All the information possessed by my campaign on this matter will now be turned over to the police."
Mr. Nunziata's mayoral rivals responded swiftly to the allegations, which one political strategist predicted "may be big enough to shape the outcome of the election."
Barbara Hall, whose own campaign has been struggling to find its feet, took the unusual step of holding a press conference outside City Hall. Her remarks seemed to give weight to Mr. Nunziata's broadside.
"John has made allegations, and I believe he is a man of his word," she said. "I call on him to give all details to the public and the police."
She categorically denied that either she or any of her officials had made any overtures to Mr. Nunziata, a distant fourth in recent mayoral polls.
Ms. Hall called on Mr. Nunziata and her other rivals to "give whatever information they have" to clear the air.
"Bribery is an offence, and these allegations are serious and put a cloud on the whole race for mayor," she said.
John Tory, who is locked in a three-way race with Ms. Hall and David Miller (who has edged slightly ahead of Ms. Hall in the polls), immediately sent a letter to Mr. Nunziata.
"As an officer of the court, you are under an obligation to immediately provide police authorities with every piece of evidence you possess to validate this extraordinary claim. I urge you to contact the police immediately," Mr. Tory said in his letter, sent out before the release of Mr. Nunziata's official statement.
Both Mr. Tory and Mr. Nunziata are scrapping over the centre-right votes in this campaign. One political observer concluded that the astonishing revelation would be most helpful to Ms. Hall.
"What she can't do for her own campaign, someone else just did," said the observer, because the spotlight now will be on Mr. Nunziata and a possible police investigation.
Mr. Miller did not release a formal statement. But when interviewed by reporters, he said: "If he [Mr. Nunziata] is going to say this, he should say the facts. . . . I think he's telling the truth. From my understanding of the way it happened, it sounds like it came out of his heart."
Tom Jakobek, a distant fifth among all the candidates, said, "The whole thing is ludicrous . . . It's a cheap publicity stunt."
