John Tory Wins Big In The Toronto Election & Locks In Another 4 Years As Mayor
The race wasn't very close.
Toronto Mayor John Tory. Right: Election signage.
John Tory has secured his third term as mayor of Toronto and is set to become the longest-serving mayor in the city's history.
Tory was declared the winner by the CBC less than half an hour after polls closed at 8:00 p.m., securing 62% of the vote.
Gil Penalosa was a distant second, with nearly 18% of the vote going his way.
Tory's win was largely expected. Penalosa was seen as his top challenger throughout the campaign, with 31 candidates in total running for mayor. None of those candidates ever seemed to be in a position to pose any kind of a threat to the incumbent as they were largely unknown before the campaign began.
The lack of strong competitors matched a lack of interest in municipal issues, highlighted by a drop in advanced voter turnout following a springtime provincial election that saw the smallest count of voters in Ontario history.
A spokesperson for the Tory campaign said "the Mayor has done everything he can to encourage Torontonians to get out and vote."
The biggest change for Tory now is the newly introduced 'strong mayor powers' passed down by the Ford government. The policy was brought into place to try and speed up the process to build housing developments.
Aside from that new development, Tory's 2022 campaign was mostly steady and unsurprising.
He didn't bring forth any new groundbreaking ideas or proposals, instead staying focused on reiterating past promises to address key local issues. His $28 billion plan to improve transit and his five-point housing plan tackled issues of affordability, while on the campaign trail he promised to continue to work with the federal and provincial governments to address issues of safety and gun violence.
Even a repeated suggestion to tax drivers on the DVP and Gardiner went largely unnoticed by voters, gaining little attention on the campaign trail.
Tory took part in fewer debates this time around, joining two of them, while also appearing to spend less time on interviews. He declined a phone interview with Narcity, with his campaign team instead offering up a spokesperson to answer any questions.
The 68-year-old Tory will now enter his third term and ninth year as mayor of Toronto.