John Tory has received endorsements this morning from former Karen Stintz strategist Paul Brown, and former city councillor Gordon Chong, who worked on David Soknacki’s campaign and was part of Rob Ford’s transition team.

Chong praised Tory’s work at Civic Action and the United Way, and says he will apply that ability to bring people together to the mayor’s job. As a former vice-chair of the TTC, he defended Tory’s plan to finance his Smart Track idea with projected revenue from future development. The idea has been criticized by the Chow camp and others, but Chong says the idea has been tried in 40 US states, and the “successes outnumber the failures”.

Tory and Chow hurled accusations and counter-accusations at each other during a debate last night.

Chow said Tory was issuing news releases that she was in favour of tearing down the eastern end of the Gardiner Expressway. She accused him of making those claims “without a shred of evidence.”

Tory said that Chow takes too much credit for accomplishments that required teamwork and working with other governments. He said “we should give Al Gore a call because there’s no doubt in my mind that you also invented the internet.”

Both candidates will take part in two more debates today. Doug Ford will not be at either one. There’s no word yet on when he will join in.