TORONTO – John Tory has been re-elected mayor of Toronto: with this third term, if he remains in office for all four years, he will become the longest-serving mayor of Toronto, beating Art Eggleton who spent as mayor of Toronto a total of 11 years, in office since 1980 until his retirement from municipal politics in 1991.
Overwhelming his victory over the other thirty candidates for the position of mayor: Tory secured about 62% of the votes; in second place, at a sidereal distance, Gil Penalosa who stopped at 17.9% of the votes, while at third place Chloe-Marie reached just 6.3%.
That 62% of Tory, however, actually represents in turn a small minority of the inhabitants of Toronto, given that only 29.2% of electors voted: the turnout was minimal and well beyond below the previous all-time low of 40.9% recorded in 2018.
Satisfied, however, Tory: “Serving as your mayor in this great city continues to be the honour of a lifetime. I love our city and I love working for the people of this city, that is why I ran for re-lection in the first place” Tory told supporters during a victory party at the Fairmont Royal York on Monday night. “We have come so far over the last eight years but we have unfinished business that I am absolutely determined to see through. We have made so much progress on getting transit and housing built and growing our economy and now we have a strong mandate to continue with that progress.”
Incidentally, the so-called “strong mayor powers” included by the provincial government led by Doug Ford will give him sole responsibility for preparing the city budget and the ability to “veto” questions of provincial priority that can only be overruled by a two-thirds vote of the city council. “We are going to work with the provincial and federal governments to keep getting the big things done,” Tory promised on Monday night. “We are going to get housing built, we are going to get the $28 billion transit plan built, we are going to do everything we can to keep our city affordable for the residents who live here and those who want to live here and we are going to do everything we can to keep our city safe and support the police as they continue to modernize.”
In the city council, many reconfirmations (the only city councilor in office who was defeated in the elections is Mark Grimes, who lost to Amber Morley in Etobicoke-Lakeshore) and nine new faces, including Ausma Malik, elected at Spadina Fort York, where Joe Cressy had stepped aside earlier this year. Ausma Malik will be the first Muslim woman wearing the hijab to enter the council.
But now let’s see all the elected councilors, district by district. Ward 1 Etobicoke North: Vincent Chrisanti. Ward 2 Etobicoke Center: Stephen Holyday (incumbent). Ward 3 Etobicoke-Lakeshore: Amber Morley. Ward 4 Parkdale-High Park: Gord Perks (incumbent). Ward 5 York South-Weston: Frances Nunziata (incumbent). Ward 6 York Center: James Pasternak (incumbent). Ward 7 Humber River-Black Creek: Anthony Perruzza (incumbent). Ward 8 Eglinton-Lawrence: Mike Colle (incumbent). Ward 9 Davenport: Alejandra Bravo. Ward 10 Spadina-Fort York: Ausma Malik. Ward 11 University-Rosedale: Dianne Saxe. Ward 12 Toronto-St Paul’s: Josh Matlow (incumbent). Ward 13 Toronto Center: Chris Moise. Ward 14 Toronto-Danforth: Paula Fletcher (incumbent). Ward 15 Don Valley West: Jaye Robinson (incumbent). Ward 16 Don Valley East: Jon Burnside. Ward 17 Don Valley North: Shelley Carroll (incumbent). Ward 18 Willowdale: Lily Cheng. Ward 19 Beaches-East York: Brad Bradford (incumbent). Ward 20 Scarborough Southwest: Gary Crawford (incumbent). Ward 21 Scarborough Center: Michael Thompson (incumbent). Ward 22 Scarborough-Agincourt: Nick Mantas (incumbent). Ward 23 Scarborough North: Jamaal Myers. Ward 24 Scarborough-Guildwood: Paul Ainslie (incumbent). Ward 25 Scarborough-Rouge Park: Jennifer McKelvie (incumbent).
In the pic above, John Tory (from his Twitter profile)