“Toronto – Canada’s version of a Democrat run city”

One of the most urgent tasks awaiting Toronto’s next mayor will be to turn council’s recent declaration of a homelessness emergency into action.

City council made the declaration in May in the face of the converging crises of housing unaffordability, mental health and addictions, which together have had lethal consequences for the city’s most vulnerable. Three people experiencing homelessness died each week last year, on average, according to city data, for a total of 187 deaths in 2022. More than 220 died while homeless in 2021.

The number of homeless encampments in Toronto is once again on the rise, after falling last year to a quarter of their footprint during the pandemic.

With twice as many camps this May as there were a year prior, it represents another symptom of the city’s deepening homelessness crisis.

Chow’s lead slips, Bailao’s support jumps up: Mainstreet poll

Ana Bailao has gained ground in the race for mayor of Toronto as support for frontrunner Olivia Chow has slipped this week, according to a new poll released on Friday morning.

If the election was held today, 29 per cent of decided voters would cast their ballots for Chow while 20 per cent would choose Bailao.

Sadly for Toronto that’s about as good as the news gets. We can hope someone, anyone gains enough momentum to stop Chow. Remember her “overwhelming” polling lead vanished last time she ran. The more people learned about her the more they backed away. Nothing has changed with Chow. Jack Layton she ain’t.

Saunders calls on other candidates to support him to ‘stop Chow’

Mayoral candidate Mark Saunders on Thursday urged others who are running to get in line behind him in order to “stop Olivia Chow,” but the appeal is drawing little enthusiasm.

With less than three weeks left in the election, Saunders issued a press release Thursday, calling for “unity” and claiming that “a vote for any other candidate is a vote for Chow.”

To me Saunders simply lacks curb appeal but Ford’s non-endorsement-endorsement may have killed any hope of a win.

I can’t see any of the “right” candidates dropping out, mainly because only Furey can be called “right”. The rest are like Saunders “Lesser Chows.”

With just days to go before advance voting begins, Toronto voters got their latest chance to look at the some of the top candidates in CBC Toronto’s mayoral byelection debate.

Five of the leading candidates to be mayor squared off Tuesday, sparring over their plans to build new homes, improve public safety and address the city’s deep financial challenges. Of the six top-polling candidates, five participated, including Ana Bailão, Olivia Chow, Mitzie Hunter, Josh Matlow and Mark Saunders. Brad Bradford had to cancel his attendance as he and his wife were at a hospital for the birth of their second child.

The latest public opinion poll in Toronto’s mayoral race has Anthony Furey gaining ground, with the longtime conservative newspaper columnist even edging out several high-profile rivals.

A Forum Research poll released Monday shows Olivia Chow expanding her lead among decided voters, with 38 per cent saying she’s their top choice compared to 13 per cent for her closest rival, ex-police chief Mark Saunders. One point behind Saunders is city councillor Josh Matlow at 12 per cent.

Problem? No one to rally round in an Anybody But Chow movement.

With Torontonians about to start casting ballots for a new mayor in advance voting, former NDP MP Olivia Chow is still growing her commanding lead, according to a new Forum Research poll for the Toronto Star.

The Friday survey of 1,032 Torontonians gave Chow the support of 38 per cent of decided voters, up four percentage points from the previous week.

While Toronto bleeds, politicians hoping to be the city’s next mayor do selfies.

The weekend started with a violent stabbing on the TTC and ended with gunshots in Sunnybrook Park.

The Toronto mayoral election on June 26 is raising important urban issues and its significance will ramify far beyond Toronto and will be noticed in the United States, many of whose cities are wracked by critical problems on a scale they have not seen since the Great Depression. A week does not go by when the normally informed person does not see another news story illustrating the dangers and inconveniences of drug abuse, deranged behavior in a crowded public setting, and inadequate or grievously mistaken police responses. Although there are over one hundred mayoral candidates, polls indicate that approximately 90 per cent of decided voters support the seven leading candidates. These are bracketed by Olivia Chow on the left and Anthony Furey on the right. Neither of these could reasonably be called an extremist and the other five principal candidates are somewhere between them in policy terms: former provincial education minister Mitzie Hunter, former Toronto police chief Mark Saunders, environmentalist city councillor Josh Matlow, former deputy mayor Ana Bailao, and councillor Brad Bradford.

“I am voting for Anthony Furey in the upcoming mayor’s race.

All of the people who are showing up in the polls and debates are people who were there for the past number of years as councillors, MPPs, MPs and police chiefs, so who got us into — or did not solve — the problems that are of concern to voters?”

Can anyone beat Olivia Chow in the race to become Toronto’s next mayor?

The polling seems to suggest no, but with a little over three weeks to go, anything could happen.

It is entirely possible that civic life in Toronto has deteriorated beyond hope of repair. 

Tory was a high hatted hypocrite whose legacy may be as toxic as his love life.

If Chow is elected everything will get worse.

Name any wasteful policy and it’s a lock to be enthusiastically embraced by city hall.

Olivia Chow, the former MP who polls say is on track to become Toronto’s next mayor, came under intense fire Wednesday over her refusal to say exactly how much she would raise property taxes next year.

Chow seemed unfazed as rivals accused her, during a debate hosted by the Toronto Star, Toronto Metropolitan University and the United Way of Greater Toronto, of trying to fool voters and risk worsening the city’s affordability crisis.

Early in this mayoral election campaign, I chatted with Anthony Furey, who had then just announced he was running for mayor. He blamed me for that.

He said that after reading a column I’d written about Mike Layton wrestling with whether they could balance being a good parent with being a good mayor, he’d spoken with his wife about whether you could be a “dad mayor” and she told him that he had to run.

God help us if Chairman Chow gets in.