New challengers contest mayor’s seat as Mayor Tory seeks third consecutive term
On Monday October 24, voters across Toronto will elect a mayor and 25 city councillors. School board trustee seats are also on the ballot for each of Toronto’s four school boards. Incumbent John Tory is seeking a third term as Mayor of Toronto. If re-elected, Mayor Tory would become the longest-serving mayor in the city’s history, succeeding Mayor Art Eggleton who served as Mayor of Toronto between 1980 and 1991.
The Strand spoke with three mayoral candidates running in the 2022 election. Mayor Tory’s campaign has not yet responded to The Strand’s requests for an interview.
Sarah Climenhaga told The Strand she’s running on “a platform of power to the people, meaning getting people involved in decisions that affect their neighbourhoods.” Before running for mayor, Climenhaga served as the executive director of a non-profit that worked with York University on employee commute programs. As mayor, she promises to prioritise “integrating the environment with the economy and the city’s social well-being” as well as “increased resident participation,” adding that she was concerned over the “city […] getting more and more distant for more people.” She described a “lack of media coverage” as a major challenge during her campaign, adding that major news organisations “only [focus on] the current mayor.”
Chloe-Marie Brown works as a policy analyst with a focus on workforce development at the Future Skills Centre, an independent agency sponsored by the Government of Canada. When asked why she was running for mayor, Brown told The Strand that “it was eating at me that John Tory didn’t really put out anything new and Gil Penalosa was just offering to be the voice of the left wing,” adding that “as a policy analyst it’s so underwhelming and frustrating after so many years of division.” She is campaigning on a platform of “community-focused policy,” stating “I want to be able to change labour [and] I want to give people the tools to work things out in their communities.” Brown criticised Mayor Tory, saying “It’s eight years later [since John was elected] and all we have is a sign. If John Tory worked for me and blew all this money and all I had was a sign, I’d fire him.”
Gil Penalosa is the founder and chair of 8 80 Cities, a non-profit organisation with a mission statement of making cities “great for an eight year old and an 80 year old,” a motto that also underlies Penalosa’s mayoral campaign. Penalosa has released a plan to improve transit in Toronto, saying “we need to complement the existing subway lines with high-speed bus lanes that are going to be easy, fast, and cheap to build and that are going to connect the city.” His priorities as mayor include “affordable housing, safe streets, green mobility, and public services,” he told The Strand. “These are not technical or financial issues, they are political issues, meaning they can be changed and improved.” Penalosa has pledged to push through a number of policies in his first 100 days of office, including “legalising and regulating rooming houses” and “letting people drink beer in public parks.”
Toronto voters can register to vote and find more information about candidates and polling locations using the City’s MyVote web application. Polls will be open between 10 am and 8 pm on October 24. Advanced voting days begin on October 7 and end on October 14.
