John Tory re-elected as Toronto mayor for third term

John Tory has been re-elected to a third term and will now have a chance to become Toronto’s longest serving mayor provided he remains in office for the full four years.

CP24 declared Tory as the winner at 8:20 p.m. With 93 per cent of polls reporting Tory appears to have secured about 62 per cent of the vote, easily defeating urbanist Gil Penalosa who is currently in second with about 18 per cent of the vote. Chloe-Marie Brown is a distant third with about six per cent of the vote.

“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 supports 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.”

John Tory speaks after winning and being elected for a third term as the mayor of Toronto, Canada's most populous city, at his campaign headquarters in Toronto on Monday Oct. 24, 2022. The 68-year-old defeated 30 other mostly unknown candidates after many criticized his record on transit, housing and other municipal issues. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

The victory means that Tory will have an opportunity to surpass Art Eggleton as Toronto’s longest serving mayor. Eggleton spent a total of 11 years in office from 1980 until his retirement from municipal politics in 1991.

More importantly, Tory will get to continue work on a number of major infrastructure projects that either began during his tenure or were heavily advanced under his leadership, including a $28 billion transit plan for the Greater Toronto Area that he helped negotiate with the Ontario government.

That plan includes the Scarborough subway extension, the Ontario Line and the Eglinton Crosstown West extension, all of which are in various stages of completion.

The former Rogers cable executive will also have significant new powers that could allow him to push forward more of his agenda.

• LIVE: Toronto mayor and council results with ward-by-ward breakdowns

Those so-called “strong mayor” powers introduced by the Ford government will give him sole responsibility for preparing the city budget as well a veto on matters of provincial priority that can only be overridden by a two-thirds vote at city council

He will also have more control over personnel, including the ability to hire and fire department heads without council approval.

“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.”

Race lacked high-profile challenger

Tory was one of 31 candidates running for mayor but the race lacked a high-profile challenger, outside of perhaps Penalosa.

Penalosa, who is the founder and chair of the non-profit organization 8 80 Cities, had the backing of former city councillor and current NDP MPP Kristyn-Wong Tam as well as ACORN, which is an organization that advocates for low- and moderate-income tenants.

He campaigned on cancelling a $1.4 billion plan to rebuild the eastern portion of the Gardiner Expressway and to instead turn the portion of the elevated highway east of Jarvis Street into an at-grade boulevard, freeing up land for up to 8,000 new homes in the process.

John Tory walks on stage after winning and being elected for a third term as the mayor of Toronto, Canada's most populous city, at his campaign headquarters in Toronto on Monday Oct. 24, 2022. The 68-year-old defeated 30 other mostly unknown candidates after many criticized his record on transit, housing and other municipal issues. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

He also promised to build 62 kilometres of separated, high-speed bus lanes and another 30 kilometres of bus-only lanes as a means to supplement the city’s public transit network.

Tory, meanwhile, campaigned largely on the strength of his record.

He ran advertisements suggesting that “now is not the time for inexperience” and presented himself as the only candidate positioned to get transit built and begin to address Toronto’s housing crisis.

During the campaign, he even held a press conference to specifically reaffirm his commitment to the transit plan negotiated with the provincial government, noting that one of his primary reasons for seeking a third term in the first place was to make sure the “once in a lifetime transit expansion gets done.”

He also touted a five-point plan to create more housing, which includes a proposal to introduce a “use it or lose it” policy for developers sitting on approved, but undeveloped, land.

“I believe we need to get more housing built, we need to get more affordable and supportive housing built and we need to have housing that is obtainable for middle class Torontonians,” Tory told reporters at the time.

Toronto faces $875M budget shortfall

While Tory will get a chance to celebrate his victory tonight, the party is likely to be short-lived.

Toronto has an $875 million shortfall in its 2022 budget that staff had hoped would be filled through another round of funding from the provincial and federal government to offset financial impacts related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

But neither government has come to the table so far and the city has already had to put $300 million in planned capital projects on hold while it awaits further clarity on the matter.

It also remains unclear what impact an ongoing housing correction will have on revenue the city brings in through its land transfer tax, though Tory has argued that he can addresses the city’s fiscal challenges without significant property tax increases.

Not everyone agrees with that, notably Tory’s long-time deputy mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong who warned of significant financial challenges ahead during an interview with CP24.com last week.

“Toronto is facing lots of revenues problems. It’s going to require a lot of creativity and some assistance from other levels of government, that’s for sure,” he said.

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