TORONTO, Ont. - The five top candidates vying for David Miller's job squared off in a mayoral debate, Wednesday, hosted by 680News and CityNews.
Hundreds of people packed the MaRS Research Centre, located on College Street, for the 90-minute discussion.
Getting control of the books at City Hall dominated most of the conversation in the debate.
In fact, that topic had Rob Ford accusing his opponents of stealing from his playbook.
"Ya - absolutely they are. They're realizing that wasteful spending's a number one issue with the taxpayers [who] are fed up."
However, George Smitherman said he has been talking about spending cuts at City Hall since day one and has a better plan than Ford.
"I [have] been asked 200 times what's the first thing that I would do if elected mayor and I said it's to conduct a line by line review of the city's budget - but Mr. Ford's numbers don't add up."
While Rocco Rossi took a shot at Smitherman's promise to freeze taxes.
"This is another one of these classic veteran politician moves where they try to bribe you with your own money."
Meantime, Joe Pantalone asked voters to consider his years of council experience compared to his opponents, saying the position of mayor is not a starter job.
And Sarah Thompson said she would support Toronto with a buy local plan at City Hall, along with road tolls to fund subway expansion.
The next debate in this series is scheduled for October 3 at Yonge-Dundas Square.
Finally, one is slated for October 7 at the St. Lawrence Centre.
=============================Please note the entire debate will be available to view on Thursday afternoon.
For full coverage, such as mayoral candidate profiles, related stories, audio interviews, links and more, visit the 680News Race for Mayor page.