THIRSTY TIMES — Toronto Mayor JOHN TORY hasn't yet formally resigned, but already the eventual race to replace him at city hall is crammed with potential high-profile candidates. Three days after the Toronto Star first published the stunning revelations that Tory carried on a relationship with a staffer for much of the pandemic, the mayor still technically has his job. But not for long. Tory announced his intention to resign Friday, and the two defining words of the week around Toronto's Nathan Phillips Square are "orderly transition." As soon as there's a vacancy in the mayor's chair, the city has 60 days to announce a by-election date. — The big question: Who will run? — The weekend's question: Who isn't thinking about running? — Who's in: 2022 runner-up GIL PENALOSA, an urbanist who managed 17.85 percent of the vote when Tory was easily reelected, tossed his hat in the ring over the weekend. — Who's out: Former city councilor JOE CRESSY, a progressive darling known for leaving ideology at the door, isn't taking the plunge. When Cressy left office in 2022 for a job at George Brown College, he wanted to spend more time with his family. He still does. — The jury's still out on a long list of maybes. The Star's ALYSHAH HASHAM and BEN SPURR, and the Sun's BRIAN LILLEY, started working their sources. Plucked from their reporting, and scuttlebutt in our texts and DMs, in alphabetical order: Former city councilor ANA BAILÃO, city councilor BRAD BRADFORD, 2022 third-place finisher CHLOE BROWN, Ontario Cabmin STAN CHO, former city councilor JOSH COLLE, Liberal MP MICHAEL COTEAU, Liberal MPP MITZIE HUNTER, Housing Minister AHMED HUSSEN, former city councilor MIKE LAYTON, Liberal MP JAMES MALONEY, former city councilor and MPP GIORGIO MAMMOLITI, city councilor JOSH MATLOW, and former Toronto police chief MARK SAUNDERS. The Star's EDWARD KEENAN poured cold water all over many of those prospective candidacies. We're keeping an eye on Bradford, an affable east-end Torontonian with cross-partisan appeal, including Tory allies in a left-of-center part of town. — The Ford factor: Of course there's gossip about a designated Ford family member, because this is Toronto and the Ford farm system produces winners. Both Premier DOUG and his nephew MICHAEL are, seriously or not, on the tongues of whisperers. Doug ran for mayor and lost to Tory in 2014 before vaulting to Queen's Park in 2018. Michael worked his way from school trustee to councilor before joining his uncle in 2022. Playbook has seen no credible evidence of legit Ford interest. But until they definitively rule it out, people will talk and talk and talk. THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE — This week's burning question on the Hill is all about the object shot out of the Yukon sky on Saturday by an Alaska-based F-22 fighter jet. As in, what exactly was shot out of the Yukon sky? Whatever it was, the object was the third downed by an American jet in the space of a week. The first, which sailed over western Canada and much of the U.S. for several days, was a small jetliner-sized object carried through the air by a balloon. The Chinese government claimed it was a wayward weather balloon. [Insert raised-eyebrow emoji.] Little is publicly known about the second object, except that it was eliminated in Alaskan airspace and the approximate size of a small car. — The official word: At a Saturday news conference, Defense Minister ANITA ANAND described the third partially identified flying object as "small" and "cylindrical." Anand elaborated only slightly on those descriptors. "From all indications, this object is potentially similar to the one that was shot down off the coast of North Carolina, though smaller in size and cylindrical in nature," she said. Minutes later, Chief of the Defense Staff Gen. WAYNE EYRE used the word balloon. "The instructions that were given to the team was whoever had the first best shot to take out the balloon had the go-ahead," he told reporters. In a brief Sunday morning statement, Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU didn't repeat Eyre's more specific description. Shortly after, Trudeau boarded a flight to Yukon — a previously planned trip that included a Liberal fundraiser in Whitehorse. U.S. Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER told ABC News on Sunday that national security officials believe the second and third objects were balloons, POLITICO's OLIVIA OLANDER reported. — Great Lakes theater: An F-16 fighter jet downed a fourth object over Lake Huron on Sunday. This one, flying at 20,000 feet, was shaped like an octagon. NORAD commander Gen. GLEN VANHERCK did not describe the second, third and fourth objects as balloons: "I'm not able to categorize how they stay aloft.” — Budget priorities: Tory MP MICHAEL CHONG questioned Canada's ability to defend its territorial sovereignty. Anand announced last June that Ottawa would spend C$4.9 billion over six years on continental defense — and C$40 billion in the next two decades. That's apparently not fast enough for PIERRE POILIEVRE, who fired off a Sunday night statement that claimed Canada "lacks effective Early Warning Systems to detect this type of incursion into our airspace." The result? Canada is "more vulnerable to foreign aggression." Finance Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND is busy prepping her annual budget. Every minister wants their priorities to win funding. Will Anand's file climb the list?
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