Toronto Mayoral By Election

[Benjamin Frank]

Doesn't seem to be a thread for this.

According to Wiki, 46 people have already filed to run, and the filing window doesn't even close until May 12. These are by my guess the highest profile:

1.Ana Bailão, Former deputy mayor of Toronto (2017–2022) and former city councillor for Davenport (2010–2022).

2.Brad Bradford. City councillor for Beaches—East York (2018–present)

3.Celina Caesar-Chavannes, Former Liberal member of Parliament (MP) for Whitby (2015–2019). (Now lives in Toronto)

4.Frank D'Angelo, Entrepreneur in the food, restaurant and entertainment industries.

5.Rob Davis, Former TTC vice-chair and city councillor for Ward 28 – York Eglinton (1997-2000)

6.Anthony Furey, Former Toronto Sun columnist and broadcaster.

7.Mitzie Hunter, Liberal MPP for Scarborough—Guildwood (2013–present), Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Development (2018), Minister of Education (2016–2018)

8.Giorgio Mammoliti, Former city councillor for York West (2000–2018), former New Democratic MPP for Yorkview (1990–1995) (Now very right wing.)

9.Josh Matlow, City councillor for Toronto—St. Paul's (2010–present)

10.Anthony Perruzza, City councillor for Ward 8 York West (2006-2018), City councillor for Ward 7 Humber River—Black Creek (2018-present), NDP MPP for Downsview (1990-1995)

11.Mark Saunders, Former chief of the Toronto Police Service (2015–2020), PC candidate for Don Valley West during the 2022 Ontario election.

[Benjamin Frank]

Beals has no real profile to speak of.

Otherwise, besides the above, the most obvious omission is Brad Bradford (Ward 19 Beaches-East York Councillor)--there's also the 3rd, 4th, and 5th place 2022 candidates (Chloe Brown--a progressive who got a surprising 6% on the back of impressive debate performances--plus right-leaning Blake Acton and Green-leaning Sarah Climenhaga) as well as Chris Saccoccia (aka Chris Sky, notorious anti-mask/vax/lockdown/Soros/etc/etc activist/troll/nuisance)

Oops, left out Brad Bradford. the third place finisher in 2022 got 6% of the vote, as you said. I don't think that's very high profile (and obviously 4th and 5th were even lower.)

I could be wrong about Chris Saccoccia but I don't think he'll end up with too many votes. In addition to being an outright conspiracy theorist (he might get a higher share of the vote running for a legislative position than for an executive position), he's also up against Anthony Furey who has similar positions but is more 'respectable.' Giorgio Mammoliti also has similar positions but seems to be a spent force. Frank D'Angelo also seems to be a populist right winger.

I'll correct those two things.

[Benjamin Frank]

I would guess

Brad Bradford, Mitzie Hunter and Josh Matlow all had/have connections to the Provincial/Federal Liberal Party. Celina Caesar-Chavannes endorsed the Conservative in 2019 in her Whitby riding, a case of seemingly burning bridges.

Mark Saunders is clearly the candidate for Doug Ford.
Rob Davis ran for the P.Cs in the 1996 byelection to replace Bob Rae, but is likely a spent force.

Anthony Furey, Giorgio Mammolitti and probably Frank D'Angelo are the PPC/populist right wing candidates.

Ana Bailão is a wonkish centrist independent.

Anthony Perruzza seems to be the only candidate associated with the NDP running so far, but I'm not sure if he'd be their first choice. Former M.P, city councilor and mayoral candidate Olivia Chow, MPP and former city councilor Krysten Wong Tam and former federal nominee and present city councilor Alejandra Bravo are apparently all weighing bids.

[Benjamin Frank]

At least 46 people are running!? Is the Rhino party helping to get a long ballot or the candidates are all reaaly seeking the job.

31 candidates ran in 2022 but there was no really competitive challenger to John Tory.

[Benjamin Frank]

This is off topic for the Toronto mayoral by election, but since the discussion has largely gone into city almagamation, this is going the other way and probably effects the provincial Liberal leadership race.

The city of Mississauga has asked the province to be taken out of the Peel region and be an independent polity at the regional level and the provincial government has agreed to study that possibility. If granted, this would likely involve a lot of work for the Mississauga government and would almost certainly take Mississauga mayor Bonnie Crombie out of the running for the Liberal leadership race.

All of the talk of Nathaniel Erskine Smith, Yasir Naqvi and Ted Hsu for the provincial Liberal leadership, Bonnie Crombie had a wide lead in the early polls anyway and had seemed to be seriously considering running.

[Benjamin Frank]

This is off topic for the Toronto mayoral by election, but since the discussion has largely gone into city almagamation, this is going the other way and probably effects the provincial Liberal leadership race.

Moronic decision, if anything Peel should be amalgamated together because it is filled with near identical McMansions/ugly houses for miles with some retail shops/strip malls sprinkled in between, and there is little which separates Mississauga from Brampton.

I don't judge on esthetics. I'm a utilitarian: 'function over form.'

This is an article on the reasoning. It seems to be a 'done deal.'

https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/brampton-and-mississauga-to-become-separate-cities-source-says-1.6403015

[Benjamin Frank]

Off topic, but since I brought it up here to begin with. This is odd to me: days after securing the removal of Mississauga from Peel (or securing the dissolution of Peel) and all the work that entails for Mississauga, Bonnie Crombie has formed an 'exploratory committee' to run for the Provincial Liberal leadership.

I guess she regards removing Mississauga from Peel as the crowning jewel of her mayoralty, but I can hardly see her running for the Liberal leadership on it.

https://globalnews.ca/news/9714486/bonnie-crombie-mississauga-liberal-leadership-committee/

[Benjamin Frank]

Furey continues to grow his support as conservatives are duped into believing he is the only one that can stop Chow. Olivia should be thanking Conrad Black for his endorsement of him.

I don't think conservatives think only Furey can stop Chow, it's more that Saunders probably can't, and he has little else going for him (other than the "I can stop crime because I'm a cop" thing, a fairly weak message which he has failed to land, even among conservatives). Add to that the conservative endorsements of Furey, Conrad Black as you mentioned as well as fairly high-profile people like John Baird and Roman Baber, and I think you get a situation of "Chow's gonna win anyway, might as well vote for someone I actually like"

Yeah, it's more like to a certain breed of self-styled "thinking" conservative, Furey's the only clear, principled choice.  It's who they'd want--or maybe even more to the point, his ideas are what they'd want--regardless of whether he can stop Chow or not.

Furey has no principles.

[Benjamin Frank]

Toronto Votes 2023 | Mayoral byelection special

Live stream

[Benjamin Frank]

Candidate in last place has 26 votes.

[Benjamin Frank]

So, does this mean the (political) focus in Ontario shifts to the Ontario Liberal leadership race now?