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Toronto Mayor

  • Toronto voters have re-elected John Tory as Mayor for a second term.
  • In an election that saw 35 candidates on the mayoral ballot, Tory was the overwhelming choice of Toronto voters. Unofficial results show Tory earned about 64 per cent of the vote, well ahead of runner-up Jennifer Keesmaat, who earned about 24 per cent. The rest of the pack fell far behind, with only single-digit support.
  • Tory’s re-election was driven by substantial victories in midtown Toronto, Scarborough, Etobicoke and North York – including many parts of the city where he had polled behind challenger Doug Ford four years ago. Tory was also able to win in Toronto’s core, whereas Keesmaat was largely unable to widen her appeal beyond her left-of-centre base.
  • Tory secured a winning margin of more than 300,000 votes, a clear message from a strong majority of Toronto’s voters that they supported the job Tory did in his first term, and that his campaign’s emphasis on delivering steady leadership resonated with them.
  • Despite coming in a distant second place, Keesmaat performed credibly in her first-ever election campaign, and offered ideas and proposals that excited many of the city’s progressives. The election introduced the former city planner to many more Toronto voters, earned her a slew of new political allies, and sets her up to be a future contender on Canada’s political scene.
  • With a clear mandate from voters, Tory will continue his work on transit, housing and tackling crime in his second term.

 

Toronto City Council

 

  • The unprecedented move by the Province to consolidate Toronto City Council from 47 to 25 wards after the election campaign had already started pitting many incumbents against each other, with several neck-in-neck contests and photo-finish endings across the city.
  • City-wide, 12 incumbent councillors went down in defeat, typically at the hands of another incumbent. Here are the full results:
    • Ward 1 (Etobicoke North) – Michael Ford defeated fellow incumbent Vincent Crisanti 42% to 34%, a tough battle given that Crisanti is a long-standing ally of the Ford family. Premier Doug Ford was on hand to congratulate his nephew on a hard won re-election.
    • Ward 2 (Etobicoke Centre) – Stephen Holyday squeaked out a win over John Campbell, winning 39% of the vote over Campbell’s 36%. Campbell was particularly impacted by the strong showing of challenger Angelo Carnevale (a previous challenger for Campbell’s old council seat), who enjoyed Doug Ford’s endorsement and secured 15% of the vote.
    • Ward 3 (Etobicoke-Lakeshore) – Mark Grimes defeated new challenger Amber Morley winning 41% of the vote over her 27%.
    • Ward 4 (Parkdale-High Park) – Gord Perks handily beat out all comers for his seat, winning 45% of the vote.
    • Ward 5 (York South-Weston) – Frances Nunziata overpowered fellow incumbent Frank Di Giorgio, winning 31% of the vote to his 22%.
    • Ward 6 (York Centre) – James Pasternak defeated Maria Augimeri, with 46% of the vote over her 38% – a bit of an unexpected result in this incumbent vs. incumbent match-up.
    • Ward 7 (Humber River-Black Creek) – Anthony Peruzza defeated the constantly controversial Giorgio Mammolitti, 37% to 25%.
    • Ward 8 (Eglinton-Lawrence) – Taking the reins from his son Josh Colle, former MPP Mike Colle scored a solid defeat over Ward 8 incumbent Christin Carmichael Greb, with 41% of the vote to Greb’s 22%.
    • Ward 9 (Davenport) – Ana Bailao cruised to victory with 84% of the vote in her ward.
    • Ward 10 (Spadina-Fort York) – Joe Cressy easily won re-election with 55% of the vote.
    • Ward 11 (University-Rosedale) – Mike Layton put in a strong showing, winning with 70% of the vote.
    • Ward 12 (St. Paul’s) – Josh Matlow upset fellow incumbent Joe Mihevc (who was endorsed by both Tory and Keesmaat), winning 52% of the vote.
    • Ward 13 (Toronto Centre) – Kristyn Wong-Tam trounced George Smitherman, with 50% of the vote to his 15%. Incumbent Lucy Troisi finished third with 12%.
    • Ward 14 (Toronto-Danforth) – Paula Fletcher defeated Mary Fragedakis, winning 44% of the vote to Fragedakis’ 26%.
    • Ward 15 (Don Valley West) – In a closely-fought campaign, Jaye Robinson defeated fellow incumbent and Executive Committee member Jon Burnside, winning 52% of the vote to his 43%.
    • Ward 16 (Don Valley East) – Denzil Minnan-Wong retained his seat with 46% over challenger David Caplan with 30%.
    • Ward 17 (Don Valley North) – Shelley Carroll will return to Council after her attempt at a provincial run, with 40% of the vote.
    • Ward 18 (Willowdale) – John Filion beat all comers in an 18-way race, with 31% of the vote.
    • Ward 19 (Beaches-East York) – Tory-endorsed candidate Brad Bradford barely eked out a win for this open seat, besting former NDP MPP Matthew Kellway, with 39% of the vote to Kellway’s 38% – less than 300 votes.
    • Ward 20 (Scarborough Southwest) – Gary Crawford triumphed over incumbent Michelle Holland-Berardinetti in another squeaker, 38% to 36% – less than 500 votes.
    • Ward 21 (Scarborough Centre) – Michael Thompson walked away with the win, at 69%.
    • Ward 22 (Scarborough-Agincourt) – Jim Karygiannis defeated “6dad” Norm Kelly, winning 48% of the vote to Kelly’s 37%.
    • Ward 23 (Scarborough North) – Cynthia Lai won in an open and fairly divided race, taking the seat with just 27% of the vote.
    • Ward 24 (Scarborough Guildwood) – Paul Ainslie was victorious with 67% of the vote.
    • Ward 25 (Scarborough-Rouge Park) – In an upset and the closest race of the night, new candidate Jennifer McKelvie defeated incumbent Neethan Shan, securing 41% of the vote and with a margin of just over 150 votes.
  • Overall, the mayor will retain majority support and is likely to be satisfied with the reelection of important allies (e.g. Bradford, Crawford, Holyday). But with an ideological balance that is largely unchanged, Tory will continue to face a difficult task in mobilizing even this smaller council to tackle major issues facing the city in the years ahead.

 

The GTA

  • Across the GTA, there was change in the air, but mostly as a result of retirements rather than challengers successfully toppling incumbents.
  • In one of the most-watched mayoral races in the province, former PC Leader Patrick Brown pulled off his bid for the Brampton mayor’s chair over incumbent Linda Jeffrey with about 44 per cent vs. Jeffrey’s 41 per cent of the vote. The ground game that vaulted Brown to the Progressive Conservative leadership paid off in Brampton, where his strong ties with the city’s South Asian community, as well as the late endorsement of former Premier Bill Davis, likely helped to seal the deal. Whether Brown will be able to effectively bring his constituents’ concerns to Queen’s Park given his exile from the PC party — and lingering bad blood — remains to be seen.
  • Residents of Whitchurch-Stouffville elected local councilor Iain Lovatt as their mayor, ending the long-running saga of controversies that plagued incumbent Justin Altmann.
  • Aurora City Councillor Tom Mrakas defeated Aurora incumbent Geoff Dawe for the mayor’s chair, leaving former Aurora MPP Chris Ballard in a distant third.
  • Newmarket councilor and deputy mayor John Taylor was overwhelmingly elected as mayor in his race.
  • Many of the region’s highest-profile incumbents – including Mississauga’s Bonnie Crombie, Oakville’s Rob Burton, Markham’s Frank Scarpitti, and Vaughan’s Maurizio Bevilacqua – cruised to comfortable re-elections.

 

Around the Province

With many municipalities across Ontario experimenting with new voting technologies, including online and telephone-based systems, there were bound to be some bumps along the way. Numerous communities had to extend voting hours well into the evening, with Sudbury and Bradford-West Gwillimbury choosing to keep the polls open for an extra day.

Mayor of Thunder Bay

  • Early results show Bill Mauro swiftly returning to politics as mayor, after narrowly losing his bid for re-election as MPP in June. 

Mayor of London

  • Results are not yet known for London, but with tonight’s election, the city becomes the first Canadian municipality in modern history to use ranked choice ballots. If no candidate receives 50 per cent plus one in the first count, subsequent rounds will be counted tomorrow.

Mayor of Hamilton

  • Fred Eisenberger – who may have benefited from a late campaign endorsement by NDP leader Andrea Horwath – remains Mayor of Hamilton, after decisively defeating opponent Vito Sgro.

Mayor of Oshawa

  • Dan Carter won in an open race over opponents Joe Ingino, Sara Lear, Kenneth Carruthers and Adam Kunz.

Mayor of Ottawa

  • Incumbent Jim Watson won his race in a landslide victory, eclipsing his nearest challenger, former city councillor Clive Doucet, to hold onto the Ottawa mayoral chair for a third term.