Toronto's New Mayor

 

Toronto has just elected a left-wing mayor, Olivia Chow. This confirms the wisdom of my plan to leave for New Brunswick. Cities tend to the left generally. And are generally falling into decay.

Not all Toronto mayors, however, have been left-wing. This is the home of Rob Ford and Mel Lastman. John Tory was a former leader of the Progressive Conservatives.

So does Chow’s election suggest a swing to the left?

I don’t think so. The field was fractured—over a hundred candidates. Chow stood out on the left, with big name recognition, and therefore was able to coalesce the left-wing vote behind her. The right was splintered among several candidates of relatively equal prominence: Mark Saunders, the former police chief, endorsed by Premier Ford; Anthony Furey, endorsed by Jordan Peterson; Ana Bailao, endorsed by ex-mayor Tory; Brad Bradford, a longtime city councillor; Chris Sky, whom Las Vegas was giving good odds. Vote was split; first-past-the-post system. Common story. The same reason Trudeau stays in power in Ottawa, despite being reviled by most Canadians.

As it was, Chow’s win was unexpectedly tight. Chow won by about 34,000 votes. If second-place Bailao had combined her right-wing vote with that of third-place right-wing Saunders, she would have beaten Chow by about the same margin. Add in fourth-place Anthony Furey, also on the right, and Bailao would have doubled Chow’s margin of victory. 

If anything, this election showed the Toronto right wing vote to be stronger than the left-wing vote.

This being so, I am hopeful Chow’s agenda will be hog-tied in City Council.

And I begin to favour ending the first-past-the-post system. I’d like an Irish or Australian ballot, where you rank choices in order. Bottom candidate drops off and his vote is redistributed until one candidate or another reaches 50%.