After years of speculation, Doug Ford tells NEWSTALK 1010 he will publicly declare whether he intends to run for MPP or mayor of Toronto next week.
The announcement will be made at Ford Fest September 8, to be held at Ford's mother's Etobicoke home.
Speaking with NEWSTALK 1010's Jerry Agar, Ford dismissed suggestions his backyard reveal will be that he's decided to stay out of politics in 2018.
"No, no, no, no, I'm running for one of those positions, I look forward to it," Ford told NEWSTALK 1010 Tuesday. "We have a financial disaster at the city, we have a financial disaster at the province and we're going to go and tell the people how we're going to save the taxpayers money in Toronto and Ontario."
Doug Ford replaced his late brother in the final six weeks of the 2014 mayoral campaign as Rob Ford sought treatment for a cancerous tumour. When the ballots were counted Doug Ford was the runner-up behind John Tory by more than 64,000 votes.
Tory does not seem bothered by the prospect of a rematch.
"I'm not concerning myself with the whole campaign period now. I have almost a year of work to do as mayor, getting transit built, getting housing repaired and built and addressing the concerns people elected me to deal with," Tory told reporters Tuesday.
Still, Tory says Ford has questions to answer about cuts to TTC service while his brother was mayor and he was a city councillor.
WATCH: Mayor John Tory reacts to the possibility of Doug Ford running for mayor in 2018 pic.twitter.com/MzgYknl44I
— NEWSTALK1010 (@NEWSTALK1010) August 29, 2017
A poll by Forum Research released in July found that in a head-to-head mayoral match-up, Tory would get almost twice as much support as Ford.
Provincially Ford is eying a run to represent Etobicoke-North as a member of the Progressive Conservative party. The riding has been held by Liberal Shafiq Qaadri since 2007. A New Democrat was Qaadri's best challenger in the last provincial election, trailing by 7,100 votes.
NEWSTALK 1010 has reached out to the office of PC leader Patrick Brown for comment.