TORONTO — Olivia Chow, a former NDP parliamentarian and longtime standard bearer for the progressive left, was elected mayor of Toronto on Monday, promising to bring change to a city grappling with housing unaffordability, public safety concerns and a massive budget shortfall.
Chow, who beat out 101 other candidates, also became the first person of colour elected to the mayor's chair in Canada's most populous city.
Her victory represents a high mark in a political career spanning nearly four decades, from her election as a Toronto school board trustee in 1985 through to her tenure in the House of Commons alongside her late husband and federal NDP leader Jack Layton.
"If you ever doubted what’s possible together, if you ever questioned your faith in a better future and what we can do with each other, for each other, tonight is your answer," Chow, 66, said in her speech to a crowd of cheering supporters.
"Thank you to the people of Toronto for the trust you’ve placed in me and the mandate for change as your new mayor."
Chow's campaign was led by promises to build new social housing and boost protections for tenants, while bringing in new taxes on the sale of multimillion-dollar homes. She pledged to reverse cuts to transit service, extend library hours and expand mental-health crisis teams. She evaded questions about how high she would raise taxes, but vowed increases would be modest.
"The work of changing a city left behind by decades of neglect is not going to be easy," she said. "But I know we can make it happen by committing ourselves to each other and the city we love."
Chow's win was the second time Toronto residents have selected a mayor since October, after former mayor John Tory resigned just a few months into his third term following his admission to an affair with a staffer.
It was also a reversal of election fortunes for Chow – a former city councillor of 13 years – who finished third in the city's 2014 mayoral race.
This byelection turned into a tight two-way competition between Chow and former deputy mayor Ana Bailão, as ex-police chief Mark Saunders fell to a distant third despite being backed by Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
The premier, who previously said a Chow mayoralty would be an “unmitigated disaster,” struck a conciliatory tone in a written statement congratulating her on the win.
"She has proven her desire and dedication to serving the city that many of us call home. While we’re not always going to agree on everything, what we can agree on is our shared commitment to making Toronto a place where businesses, families, and workers can thrive," Ford wrote in a statement.
Bailão, who had been endorsed by Tory in the last week of the campaign, said she wanted to "sincerely congratulate" Chow. "Our city faces many challenges and I wish you all the best as you navigate these challenges," she said.
Chow's most pressing challenge, city hall watchers say, will be tackling a nearly $1-billion pandemic-related shortfall, driven partly by reduced transit revenue and increased shelter costs.
"It's almost like our first word to newly-elected mayor Chow is congratulations and the second is commiseration," said Myer Siemiatycki, professor emeritus of politics at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Chow ascends to the mayor's office in the midst of housing affordability crisis and with a record number of people experiencing homelessness. The transit system has struggled to bring back riders after the pandemic and the cost of fixing the city's aging infrastructure is projected to balloon by billions of dollars over the next decade.
In Chow's victory Monday, Siemiatycki saw a repudiation of the promises of her forerunners to keep property taxes low despite those challenges.
"I think (voters) are reacting to and rejecting the pattern of deteriorating municipal and public services, that they are ready for a more robust and active government," he said.
Chow will now seek to unite councillors around her platform. She has also vowed to work with other big-city mayors to renegotiate how the provincial and federal governments fund municipalities, which could quickly re-establish her on the national political stage, Siemiatycki said.
"Politics in Toronto is about to get a heck of a lot more interesting and maybe even unpredictable," he said.
Chow has vowed not to use largely untested "strong mayor" powers granted by the province, framing them as an anti-democratic effort by Ford to meddle in city politics. She has also repeatedly criticized Ford’s proposal to move the Ontario Science Centre in east Toronto to a redeveloped Ontario Place on the city's waterfront.
Those criticisms were absent in Chow's victory speech, as the mayor-elect said she "looked forward" to working with Ford.
"We both believe in the people of this city," she said. "The people have sent a message today. They want to get things done, like building affordable housing and improving the (Toronto Transit Commission). Well Mr. Premier, we're ready. Let's work together."
Tory, meanwhile, congratulated Chow and called the mayor's job "the biggest possible privilege," but also "complex and challenging." "We should all be hoping for her success," he wrote in a statement.
Saunders, who ran a "law and order"-style campaign, underperformed compared to opinion polls, garnering around 8.5 per cent of the vote share.
"It didn't work," Zack Taylor, a political science professor at Western University, said of Saunders' approach.
"Despite all the concern about these acts of violence on the TTC and the general sense that things are going in the wrong direction in that regard this didn't turn out to be a master issue in the campaign."
Chow – the frontrunner in opinion polls throughout the campaign – appeared to have been elected with the lowest share of the vote since amalgamation. Unofficial city results indicated she captured about 37 per cent of the vote – the previous low watermark was when Tory won with 40 per cent in 2014.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 26, 2023.
Jordan Omstead, The Canadian Press
