Karen Stintz, Ward 16 Councillor and TTC Chair, has announced that she's running for mayor of Toronto in 2014. Although she had previously indicated a lack of interest in the position, Stintz now hopes to offer a conservative alternative to incumbent Mayor Rob Ford. "If Ford gets re-elected we will stand still for four years," she told the Toronto Sun in making her campaign plans known.

At the outset of her campaign, Stintz's sounds a bit like Rob Ford in her determination to make respect for taxpayers a key part of her platform, but one suspects that her candidacy will also be defined by a more sweeping vision for transit infrastructure in Toronto. "We need to restore confidence in city hall and make sure people are confident that we are respecting their dollars but we also need to continue to make their lives easier - making decisions on transit, building transit, making sure that businesses want to come here, making sure our tax rate isn't too high."

Will this be enough to pose a legitimate challenge to Rob Ford?