A tumultuous municipal election campaign will come to an end on Monday night when residents of Toronto elect a significantly smaller city council than that of previous years.
A decision by the Ford government to reduce the size of council from the planned 47 wards to just 25 plunged the city into chaos for several weeks, leaving many candidates in limbo and forcing the city clerk to prepare for two separate election scenarios.
The reduction in wards also pitted several incumbent councillors against one another in various areas of the city and even prompted some to drop out of the race altogether.
The move also inspired John Tory’s main mayoral challenger, former chief city planner Jennifer Keesmaat, to enter the race.
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Keesmaat, who has been very critical of Tory’s leadership and his plans for the city, has presented an progressive plan for the city, vowing to build a downtown relief line by 2028 and build 100,000 new affordable housing units in 10 years.
Tory has promised to build on the work he and his previous council did on important transit projects and has said that his goal of building 40,000 new affordable housing units over the next decade is a more realistic one.
Both Keesmaat and Tory cast their ballots with family on Monday morning.
Polls have suggested that the battle for the mayor’s chair is not a close one, with Tory keeping a solid lead over Keesmaat for months.
Keesmaat trailed Tory by 35 points in the final pre-election poll released by Dart Insight on Friday.
But in wards across the city, recent poll data show tight races emerging between many incumbent councillors, including Josh Matlow and Joe Mihevc in Toronto-St. Paul’s, Anthony Perruzza and Giorgio Mammoliti in Humber River-Black Creek, and Norm Kelly and Jim Karygiannis in Scarborough-Agincourt.
Ford decision also forced his own nephew, Michael Ford, to take on another incumbent, Vincent Crisanti, in the ward of Etobicoke North.
Polls are open on Monday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
