The race to replace John Tory, who stepped down as Toronto’s mayor after an affair with a staffer, officially kicked off Monday as nominations opened. Here’s a look at some of the high-profile contenders in Toronto’s mayoral byelection:
Josh Matlow
Matlow, a longtime city councillor and frequent Tory critic, has said he’s hoping to end years of leadership that he has claimed “kept taxes artificially low” by starving city services.
Matlow said his first act as mayor would be establishing a “city works fund” – a dedicated property tax costing the average homeowner $67 a year and contributing over $390 million to services over five years.
“I have seen the decline in services for too many years, I have seen our TTC become less safe, I have seen our neighborhoods become less safe,” he said.
“I believe the best way to address our problem is to fix the root causes of the problems, and that will be a focus.”
Matlow, who has represented Toronto-St. Paul’s since 2010, is being championed by the progressive left as an answer to the city’s past 12 years of moderate and right-leaning leadership.
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Mark Saunders
Saunders, who served as Toronto’s police chief from 2015 until his resignation in 2020, has made public safety a key issue in his campaign. He was the city’s first Black police chief and led the force during some of Toronto’s largest crime events, including the Toronto van attack and the Danforth Avenue shooting in 2018.
Saunders was also the city’s top cop when serial killer Bruce McArthur was arrested in 2018. Toronto police’s handling of the case was heavily criticized by the city’s LGBTQ community, with many saying the force should have acted sooner on the disappearances of several men from the city’s gay village.
In late 2020, Saunders was appointed to the province’s COVID-19 vaccine task force. Saunders ran in the 2022 Ontario general election under a Progressive Conservative banner but lost the Don Valley West seat to Liberal Stephanie Bowman.
Saunders has said he’s uniquely positioned to tackle crime given his experience and is vying for the mayor’s chair during a time when safety in schools and on public transit are significant issues for voters.
“We are at that tipping point, that is why I am running,” he said. “We are moving in a wrong direction, if we are going to get this right, we have to be safe, if we are not safe, we are not healthy.”
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Ana Bailão
Bailão – who represented the Toronto riding of Davenport on city council from 2010 to 2022, and acted as deputy mayor from 2017 until the end of her tenure – is returning to politics to run for mayor.
She’s touting her council and leadership experience, as well as pragmatism, in her bid for the job. She also managed Toronto’s housing portfolio as chair of its planning and housing committee.
Bailão has said she wants to continue working on building affordable housing and fixing services in the city she loves. She’s also said she wants to reverse public transit service cuts and offload municipal highways to the province.
She was a close political ally of Tory’s during her time in office, often voting in line with him.
“I am proud of the work that I have done with my community,” she said. “I have a track record of getting things through council.”
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Brad Bradford
The Beaches-East York councillor is running on a theme of “less talk, more action.”
“I have always been about delivering real results,” he said. “That is my position and that is what you will see from me on a go forward basis.”
Tory endorsed Bradford, who has a background in urban planning, when the councillor ran for election in 2018. The former mayor later assigned Bradford some plum roles, including naming him to executive council and appointing him commissioner of the city’s transit system.
Bradford is the city’s current housing chair. Critics, however, have dubbed him “Two-Faced Brad” for his flip-flopping statements and voting record on housing, transit and policing issues.
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Mitzie Hunter
A current Liberal MPP for the Scarborough-Guildwood riding, Hunter has said she will be giving up her provincial seat to run for mayor.
She is the Liberal party’s deputy leader and a former education minister under Kathleen Wynne’s government.
She said she’s a consensus builder whose experience with Toronto Community Housing and in provincial politics make her well placed to advocate for more revenue tools to fund city services.
“I will be a strong advocate for the people of Toronto,” she said.
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Gil Peñalosa
The progressive urbanist, who came a distant second to Tory in October’s municipal election, announced almost immediately after the former mayor’s resignation that he would run again.
Peñalosa said he will run largely on the same platform he pitched last time, which focuses on improving affordability including social services and housing, as well as enhancing parks and public spaces.
Despite new “strong mayor” powers given to Toronto through provincial legislation, Peñalosa has said he will not approve measures without at least half of council’s support.
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Giorgio Mammoliti
Former longtime councillor Mammoliti is running for mayor and has said he thinks the “city’s dignity is gone.”
Mammoliti represented Toronto’s York West riding from 2000 until being defeated in 2018, and unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 2010. Last year, he ran for the mayor’s seat in Wasaga Beach, Ont., but came in third.
Mammoliti previously made headlines as a councillor for some controversial proposals, including suggesting a citywide 11 p.m. curfew for youth and arming bylaw officers.
He has said that as mayor, he’d help business owners recover from COVID-19 and increase the city’s stock of affordable housing.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 3, 2023.
