Toronto picks Olivia Chow as its next mayor. Here are the top moments

Olivia Chow has been elected mayor of Toronto.

Here are the top moments from tonight’s election.

‘WHAT A NIGHT’: CHOW DELIVERS VICTORY SPEECH

Mayor-elect Olivia Chow delivered her victory speech to a packed house in downtown Toronto’s west end following Monday’s result.

“Wow. Thank you, Toronto! Thank you everyone. What a night!” she said at her election night headquarters at The Great Hall, with friends and family by her side.

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"If you ever doubted what's possible together, if you ever questioned your faith in a better future and what we can do with each other, for each other, tonight is your answer," she said at.

Unofficial results show Chow won about 37 per cent of the vote with as many as 269,187 ballots cast in her favour.

Chow’s closest competitor, Ana Bailao, won about 32 per cent of the vote with 234,986 ballots.

CLOSE RACE BETWEEN CHOW, BAILAO

As results started to roll in just after 8 p.m., Bailao took an early lead with 142,066 votes to Chow’s 135,446. Bailao maintained her lead for another 15 minutes as polls closed across the city.

Bailao had received a late endorsement from former mayor John Tory late in the election campaign, which boosted her standing in a number of polls leading up to election night.

However, at 8:30 p.m., Chow jumped ahead to first place with 203,856 votes and held the lead until CP24 declared her as Toronto mayor 30 minutes later.

Bailao thanked her supporters from her election night headquarters on College Street and acknowledged her fellow candidates.

“Everybody was brave and bold to put their name on the ballot. Campaigns are never easy, but nothing worth doing is ever easy,” she said.

DOWNTOWN CORE, MOST OF SCARBOROUGH GO TO CHOW

Of the 25 wards in Toronto, Chow won 14 Monday night with big wins in the downtown core and most of Scarborough.

Unofficial results suggest Chow saw her biggest win in Toronto Centre with 54.6 per cent of the vote in that ward, followed by Toronto-Danforth at 51.9 per cent, and Parkdale-High Park at 50 per cent.

The mayor elect also claimed almost all of Scarborough’s six wards, with the exception of Scarborough-Rouge Park, which went to Bailao.

FORD, TORY CONGRATULATE CHOW

Despite saying just days earlier that Chow as mayor would be an “unmitigated disaster,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford congratulated the new mayor in a statement Monday night.

“As I’ve always said, I will work with anyone ready to work with our government to better our city and province,” Ford said. “There’s nothing we can’t achieve when we work together.”

Tory echoed Ford’s congratulations in his own statement, and vowed to support Chow as she takes the helm of the city.

“She loves this city as I do and I will do anything I can to help her in the days and months ahead,” he said.

SAUNDERS FINISHES DISTANT THIRD

A number of endorsements by the premier did not make the difference in Mark Saunders’s mayoral campaign, who finished in third place with just over 62,000 votes.

Earlier this month, the former Toronto police chief unsuccessfully tried to get his competitors to throw their weight behind him in an effort to stop frontrunner Chow.

Saunders congratulated Chow in his concession speech, calling on all Torontonians to support their new mayor.

“Congratulations to Olivia Chow. She fought a tough fight and at the end of the day, she came out victorious… we have to support Olivia Chow,” he said.

Bailao won 11 wards and saw her strongest showing in Eglinton-Lawrence with 46.8 per cent of the vote.

CHLOE BROWN GETS TWICE AS MANY VOTES AS BRAD BRADFORD

Despite her limited visibility at most of the major mayoral debates, unofficial results show Chloe Brown came away with double the number of votes as Brad Bradford – who was present at almost all of them.

Brown, who also ran in 2022 and finished third in that race, came away with as many as 18,745 votes Monday night. Meanwhile, Bradford finished with just over 9,000.

BRADFORD MUM ON FUTURE MAYORAL RUN

Asked if he would consider running for mayor of Toronto in the next election, Bradford playfully brushed off the question.

“I can tell you I am planning on having another beer tonight,” Bradford joked, saying that a future mayoral run is “not where my head’s at.”