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Toronto mayoral candidates George Smitherman, left, and Rob Ford, right, go head to head during a live CTV live debate on Tuesday. Mr. Smitherman criticized Mr. Ford's financial plan, while Mr. Ford counterpunched by referring to the eHealth scandal.

George Smitherman and Rob Ford have at last gone toe-to-toe.

With less than a week to go until voting day, the mayoral front-runners dropped their gloves in a combative final televised debate Tuesday night that provided viewers with the closest approximation yet of the one-on-one debate Mr. Ford has so far refused.

Mr. Smitherman attacked the Etobicoke councillor for what has been described as a thinly sketched financial plan, while Mr. Ford jabbed away at the former provincial health minister for his role in the eHealth scandal, much of which occurred on his successor's watch.

"In the grand scheme of things, when you try to translate your storyline to the numbers, you fail miserably," Mr. Smitherman said. "People said you were playing voters for fools."

"It's almost comical to listen to what you just said," Mr. Ford retorted. "I'm the only person down there [at City Hall]that has watched every single dime, that has a plan that will work. I have never been involved in a billion-dollar eHealth scandal."

Mr. Ford then tried to nail Mr. Smitherman on one detail of the eHealth controversy.

"Is it true, Mr. Smitherman, is it true, that you gave out under your watch $10-million worth of untendered contracts to the Courtyard Group?" he asked. "Was your former chief of staff working at the Courtyard Group when you gave the untendered contracts?"

Mr. Smitherman shot back that while "untendered contracts did occur," a newspaper column published Tuesday called Mr. Ford's characterization of events a "slur" on the former deputy premier.

One of Mr. Smitherman's former staff members was a consultant for Courtyard. Karli Farrow, who also worked for Premier Dalton McGuinty, billed $327 an hour to eHealth, the provincial body charged with creating electronic health records.

Third-place candidate Joe Pantalone, meanwhile, tried to both rise above the fray and portray his competitors as right-wing twins.

"My response is very clear: These two gentlemen are not telling you the facts," the deputy mayor said after Mr. Smitherman attacked the fiscal record of outgoing Mayor David Miller and his council.

Mr. Pantalone pointed out that, unlike Ottawa and Queen's Park, Toronto isn't running a deficit. The city's residential property taxes are the lowest in Greater Toronto, he added.

But the verbal bouts between Mr. Smitherman and Mr. Ford were the main event. The pair are virtually tied, according to recent polls.

At one point, Mr. Smitherman dug into Mr. Ford on his admission late in the campaign that he can't eliminate the land-transfer-tax until 2012 at the earliest.

"You reneged on your commitment to end the land-transfer tax," Mr. Smitherman said. "You broke trust with the people of Toronto."

Mr. Ford retorted that he keeps his promises, "just like I said I'm not going to spend my $53,000 [office budget]when I first got elected …"

"You have a second income!" Mr. Smitherman said, referring to Mr. Ford's senior role at his family printing company. "You've been double-dipping. Anybody that's got a second income can buy their own paper clips."

Tuesday night's matchup gave television viewers their first real opportunity to focus on the front-runners.

Before Giorgio Mammoliti, Rocco Rossi and Sarah Thomson dropped out, the CP24 debates often descended into incoherent shout-fests. The five-or-six candidate format made it tough for any contender to land a devastating blow.

Mr. Smitherman hammered home what has become his mantra over the past couple of weeks - "A vote for Joe Pantalone is the same as a vote for Rob Ford" - to a chorus of loud booing from the CP24 studio audience as Mr. Pantalone looked up, mortified.

But Mr. Smitherman persisted: "And I want the people out there, not the ones that are in here, I want people that are still thinking about how they're going to vote to know that I'm somebody that has a progressive track record, progressive experience and a very progressive platform. … These are the choices in our election."

With files from Anna Mehler Paperny

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