Councillor Mike Del Grande, Mayor Rob Ford’s budget chief, says he does not actually support the incendiary housing proposal he made last week.

Why, then, did he make it?

To inflame council’s lefties.

“It was kind of humorous to see their heads explode,” he told NewsTalk 1010 on Monday.

At a meeting of Ford’s executive committee, Del Grande tabled a motion to take $36 million in affordable housing money, $16 million of which was supposed to go to the redevelopment of Regent Park, and reallocate it to a proposed project in the ward of right-leaning Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti.

Pam McConnell, the left-leaning councillor who represents Regent Park, erupted in anger. That was the goal, Del Grande (Ward 39, Scarborough-Agincourt) told the Toronto Sun on Friday.

Left-leaning councillors had spoken at the meeting about the inadequacy of federal and provincial housing funding, thus delaying — for mere minutes — the committee’s decision to approve the allocations proposed by city officials.

The delay irritated Del Grande. With the intent of “throwing it” in his foes’ faces, he decided to retaliate.

“They were playing the game, and I just responded to their game to give them a taste of their own game-playing,” he told the Sun.

In the NewsTalk interview, Del Grande said the “mischievous” proposal “wasn’t entirely fake”: he believes the project in Mammoliti’s ward has merit. But he also said, “It was a shot across the bow to the left to stop playing games. . . I don’t have any regrets for it.”

McConnell (Ward 28, Toronto Centre-Rosedale) said the meeting had been harmonious and productive. She said she was “stunned and disappointed” to hear Del Grande made his proposal as a “joke.”

“It wasn’t me who felt the brunt of his actions. It was the people of Regent Park. And the people of Regent Park don’t need additional stress,” she said. “Was he happy to hear their heads explode, as well? Or the developer of Regent Park?”

She added: “I think you have to get beyond the walls of City Hall and understand what the repercussions are to real people when you make these cavalier suggestions.”

Del Grande, known for his gruff demeanor and blunt talk, is a proud penny-pincher who sometimes brings a piggy bank to council meetings to remind colleagues of the city’s fiscal challenges. But his proposal comes at a cost: the committee voted to have the city’s top bureaucrat write a report on it.

In a surreptitiously taped August meeting with a constituent, Del Grande said he opposed “tit-for-tat” retaliatory politics even though conservatives like him “were beat up brutally” under former mayor David Miller.

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“I mean, look, when the NDP came into power, I was a white male, I paid a very severe price because it had nothing to do with ability any more, it had to do with male versus female,” he said. “There’s no point when the oppressed become the oppressors. It makes no sense at all. Either you get rid of oppression from everybody or we don’t. But you can’t then say, ‘Okay, now it’s my turn to beat up on you.’”

Del Grande did not respond to the Star’s requests for comment.