Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow secured a second term following a rematch against Brad Bradford. The incumbent defeated her challenger for the second time, receiving 54.21% of the vote. The results totaled 523,641 ballots in her favor, giving her a lead of more than 13 percentage points over her closest opponent.
At one polling location, a poll worker predicted a Chow victory.
“It just seems like she's more of a fan favorite, like more people favor her.”
After casting his ballot, one voter explained why he supported Chow.
“I voted for Olivia Chow, she's going to give back to the community, help with youth programs and funds, so I could trust her more than the other candidates.”
Chow campaigned on making Toronto more affordable and improving public transit. One of her key initiatives was free school lunches, which became a central part of her reelection campaign and helped her gain support from voters.
“I like the lunch thing that they're going to do,” said one advance voter who voted for Chow. “When she came up with that, I was like that's the best thing. They need it because you know some parents just can't afford it.”
However, some voters remained critical of Chow, citing what they viewed as a lack of progress on issues such as parking.
One Flemingdon Park resident who attended a Chow campaign appearance last week said parking permits in the area were too expensive. Another resident, a senior citizen in North York, said she would not vote because of what she viewed as Chow's mishandling of issues such as parking.
“I'm not voting. March to December I park on the street. I think they should allow everybody to get permit parking on the street all year round. It just doesn't make sense,” the latter said.
Mayoral candidate Bahira Abdulsalam criticized Chow's administration for what she described as a lack of attention to public amenities in the area, while increasing budgets for city events. Abdulsalam confronted Chow at a campaign appearance in Flemingdon Park last week.
“She increased the festival budget so she can pay for herself, but leaving us broken, leaving our families without jobs, leaving our parks dirty without washrooms,” Abdulsalam said.
Abdulsalam was one of 47 registered mayoral candidates in this year's election. Chow secured another term after defeating her challengers. She remains Toronto's only racialized mayor, having been elected in the 2023 byelection, when she also ran against Bradford.
