John Tory has officially filed his paperwork to run for re-election but he says that he won’t start campaigning until the conclusion of the final city council meeting of this term in July.
Tory filed his papers on Tuesday morning, becoming one of the first candidates to officially register for the race mere minutes after the nomination window opened.
Though as a registered candidate he will now be eligible to raise money for his campaign, Tory said that he does not expect to spend any time actively campaigning until after the final council meeting of this term.
In the 2014 election, Tory’s campaign raised $2.8 million which was more than double the campaign spending limit of $1.349 million.
“I have a job to do as mayor and I will continue doing that job,” Tory told reporters at an unrelated press conference on Tuesday morning. “I work a long day and I will continue to work a long day on city business because there is lot of city business left to be done.”
Shortly after registering as a candidate, Tory posted a message to Twitter announcing that his account would be used for campaign-related messages on a go-forward basis.
He then posted a series of messages touting his accomplishments over the last four years and vowing to continue working to make "Toronto more liveable, affordable and functional."
Speaking with reporters, Tory said that his decision to seek a second term as mayor was an easy one to make as he feels that he has plenty of “unfinished business.”
He said that if he is granted a second term, he will largely focus his efforts on building transit and affordable housing.
“We have a terrific transit plan, the first time we have had a network transit plan, and we have $9 billion from other governments to pay for transit that we did not have at the beginning of this term and I want to see that implemented,” he said. “Same with housing. For the first time we are meeting our own targets set many years ago (to build affordable housing) and I want to see us actually step those targets up and get that affordable housing put in place.”
Tory names campaign co-chairs
Tory’s principal secretary at city hall, Vic Gupta, and Toronto Community Housing (TCH) board member Vince Gasparro have been named as his campaign co-chairs.
Both will step down from their roles to focus on the campaign.
Speaking with CP24 on Tuesday, Gasparro said that he is committed to building out a campaign that speaks to residents across the city.
“Today is day one of a very long campaign and the mayor needs to continue to govern and that is what he is doing,” he said. “Vic Gupta and I are committed to building out a string, modern, effective campaign that is going to put Mayor John Tory in the best position to win in October.”
Six candidates have registered to run so far
Though no current members of city council have announced plans to challenge Tory in the mayoral election, five other people had filed their paperwork to run as of Tuesday afternoon.
One of those people, activist Sarah Climenhaga, told CP24 that she fears Toronto’s growth is “outpacing the response to that growth.”
“The growth is overtaking us and we are getting things like inequity and we are getting things like pedestrian fatalities happening once a week and an overcrowding crisis at Bloor-Yonge (Station) and St. George (Station),” she said. “We are a great city and we have great thinkers, great leaders and great ideas but somehow we are losing it between the talk and the action.”
This year’s election campaign will be shorter than previous races as the registration date was pushed back from Jan. 1 to May 1.
There will also be a new look to the electoral map with the total number of wards being increased from 44 to 47.
As a result, some wards have been split in two while other wards have had their boundaries redrawn.
Candidates have until 2 p.m. on July 27 to register to run and the election will take place on Oct. 22.
