It's Not Too Early To Start Looking......

.....for someone to kick Comrade Miller's ass in the next election.

THE 2010 MAYOR'S RACE: AND HE'S OFF

THE DARK HORSE

Meet Rocco Rossi. He's never been elected to anything. Yet, in Toronto's political backrooms people are asking: Could he be the right guy to take on David Miller? As Peter Cheney found, Mr. Rossi isn't playing it coy. If he finds support, he'll run

PETER CHENEY

October 25, 2008

The making of a politician is part calculation and part witchcraft - kingmakers work their speed dials, the forces of money and influence boil and stir, and a candidate moves toward his date with destiny.

And so it was that Rocco Rossi stood outside the University of Toronto's Convocation Hall and schmoozed an A-list crowd that had gathered to honour the late Dr. Sheela Basrur. Mr. Rossi was hard to miss, a giant figure with a shaved cranium, the build of a circus strongman, and a high-wattage smile that has been described as "the most amazing in Canadian public life" by no less than Michael Ignatieff.

Then there is Mr. Rossi's face, a vast pink acreage that emotions play across with utter transparency, like a human JumboTron. That day, it was all pleasure: Mr. Rossi moved through the crowd like a shark gliding over a reef, completely in his element.

He greeted the federal Health Minister, a corporate director and a series of agency chiefs. Then it was on to Adam Vaughan, a well-connected Toronto city councillor who cut straight to the chase: "You running for mayor, or not?"

Mr. Rossi beamed. "I'm not ruling it out," he replied.

More