Rocco who? The right's candidate for Toronto mayor?

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You may not have heard of Mr. Rossi yet, but there is a good chance that you will. At the moment, he's chief executive officer of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario, but if the planets align (as they often do for Mr. Rossi), he will mount a 2010 mayoral campaign that could end the reign of David Miller and change the face of Toronto politics.

Or not. As a potential candidate, Mr. Rossi has some strikes against him. He has little public profile and has never held political office. His political experience has been limited to volunteer work and managing the campaigns of others - including John Tory's unsuccessful run for the Toronto mayor's office in 2003.

"He's looking at the city from afar," Mr. Vaughan says. "He thinks he can just drop into City Hall and do the job, but it doesn't work like that. Municipal politics is ground-up. Anyone can be a political candidate. Getting elected and doing the job is a different deal."

Mr. Rossi says he is prepared to mount a campaign for mayor, provided that funding and support fall into place as he expects. But he faces a difficult slog. The incumbent, Mr. Miller, is in top form, enjoying high approval ratings as he approaches the fifth anniversary of his election. At the moment, he seems unbeatable - he has lost weight, his speeches have new zip and he has consolidated his position inside City Hall with a series of strategic alliances that cut across traditional party lines.

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[url=http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20081025.ROSSI25/TPStor... - it's not that far off![/url]