Nominations for the 2023 Toronto mayoral by-election closed this afternoon at 2 p.m. with the most ever number of candidates.
The nomination period opened on April 3, 2023, and by mid-afternoon Friday, 102 candidates put their names forward for the mayor’s seat.
Among these candidates are city councillors Josh Matlow and Brad Bradford, former Toronto police Mark Saunders, and former city councillors Olivia Chow and Ana Bailao.
The June 26 by-election was set after former Mayor John Tory resigned in February after he admitted to an extramarital affair with a staffer.
A poll from the Forum Research group released May 8, 2023, showed Chow in the lead with 33 per cent of decided and leaning voters.
The poll was conducted among a random sample of 2,000 Toronto residents in a telephone survey. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus two per cent.
Matlow and Saunders followed behind in second and third place with 14 per cent each.
Tory, who isn’t on the ballot, was the top pick for voters leading with 42 per cent of the survey results, a poll by Forum Research reported.
A poll by Liaison Strategies released on May 6, 2023, also shows Chow in the lead with 27 per cent of voter support.
The poll was conducted over the phone using interactive voice recording.
Principle of Liaison Strategies, David Valentin, attributes Chow’s support to her long career in politics.
“Olivia Chow is someone who people have known for a long time, so this is someone who people have been following for not just a few years but for a few decades,” Valentin said.
While Torontonians continue to decide whom to vote for, Valentin said voter turnout could remain low compared to previous years.
“This is expected to be a low turnout by-election,” he said. “We have seen nothing to indicate that turnout will go up, in fact, many people fear the opposite that turnout will go down.”
Forum Research President, Lorne Bozinoff said a reason behind low voter turnout could be that voters don’t believe issues will be solved.
“There is no overriding issue at stake for people, and they’re probably thinking that we are still going to have the same problems, such as the housing crisis and gridlock, regardless of who wins,” Bozinoff said.
Among the last-minute hopefuls filing their nomination was Partap Dua, who has previously run for mayor of Brampton and Markham.
Dua said he is committed to dealing with issues regarding policing in the city and said if elected he would work to decrease the police budget.
He also said traffic and congestion are primarily caused by construction projects, and if elected would work to speed up these projects taking place across the city.
“We should not have projects that take seven to 10 years of someone’s life, what about the people who are living now? Some of us will be dead by then,” Dua said. “No project should be more than six months, and we are capable of doing it.”