When the clock strikes 12:01 a.m. on Monday, Toronto will truly start looking like election season has arrived.

Candidates will be able to start placing lawn signs up, three weeks ahead of voting day on Oct. 25.

"People want their election signs, especially seniors," Coun. Rob Ford, considered the frontrunner in the race to become the city's next mayor, told reporters on Friday.

On Thursday, Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone issued an email calling for people to put in their orders for lawn signs -- and to make tax-deductible donations to his campaign. Pantalone, who spent nearly three decades on council, is considered to be running in third place.

On Friday, he gave a sneak peek. His slogan is "Building a great city."

Ford said he agreed with the notion that Toronto's election rules that don't allow signs until the final three weeks gives incumbent councillors an advantage.

However, he said the timing of the Jewish fall holiday Rosh Hashanah also affected the timing of when election signs could be posted this year.

Ford, a 10-year city council veteran, has been running a campaign based on harnessing anger at the political class.

"I really think the office budgets should be restricted to monthly flyers in election years," he said. "A lot of these councillors have got $50,000 to spend on top of $30,000 in election years, and I think that's absolutely wrong."

The maximum office budget for a Toronto city councillor is $53,000. The 2009 average, if one includes Ford's claim of no expenses, was $37,708.01.

If one excluded Ford, the average was $38,584.95.

Ford also used the opportunity to attack George Smitherman, the former deputy premier who has emerged as his main opponent.

"I'll never, ever duck a debate," he said. "I'll not do what Mr. Smitherman did last night. You'll never see me walking out of a debate. No matter how bad they're booing and hissing me, I'll stand my ground and give people my point of view -- and hopefully they'll listen to me."

Ford did commit to a Sept. 10 debate on women's issues, but then told organizers in the early-morning hours he would be dropping out. Instead, he attended a barbecue at his mother's house.

According to the Toronto Star, a woman wearing a sandwich board confronted Smitherman before a debate at 1095 Leslie St. She was speaking to him about the death of her father, which occurred at Toronto General Hospital in 2005 -- a time when Smitherman was health minister.

After the exchange, as Smitherman walked away, someone called out: "That's right, walk away! Walk away as health minister, and now you're walking away again!"

Part of the exchange was captured on video and posted to YouTube.

A Smitherman spokesperson said that the candidate had warned organizers he could only stay for 15 minutes because of a major fundraising event, and that the confrontation had used up his time.

As a result, Smitherman didn't appear at the forum at all. The moderator told the crowd that Smitherman had said the previous day he might have to leave early.

Rocco Rossi, considered to be running last among the four major candidates, issued a news release accusing Smitherman of literally running from his record.