A pesky and persistent Brad Bradford may have been nipping at the heels of Olivia Chow, but in the end, he got the boot. Torontonians voted to give Chow a clear second mandate as mayor on Monday night, emphatically ending Bradford’s improbable comeback story.
Chow claimed a resounding double-digit victory, but polls heading into election night were anything but clear.
When it mattered most, however, Chow’s supporters assured her re-election.
“The people of Toronto have spoken,” Chow said during her victory speech. “I am grateful, I am humble and I am so proud of our city. What an election, it was a hard-fought election.”
Chow acknowledged Bradford as a formidable opponent and was gracious in victory. “We had our differences, we fought hard,” she said. “Councillor Bradford brought new energy and introduced new ideas that people cared about and made his case for them and I respect that.
“I know we share a love for Toronto and our belief in its future.”
Back in September, Bradford trailed by as many as 17 points — a deficit he slowly chipped away at with bold promises, like freezing property taxes for one year, cutting the land transfer tax for homes under $1.1 million, and offering free TTC rides if your vehicle is more than 15 minutes late.
His polling numbers gained a boost when Chris Alexander dropped out of the race earlier this month, and at times it seemed to be anyone’s race to win.
Bradford conceded defeat and was equally respectful of Chow while speaking to his disappointed supporters.
“The people of Toronto have spoken and they have decided that she will be returning to the mayor’s office. She is the mayor of the city. Nobody can doubt that, it’s undisputable and she has my good wishes.”
Bradford said he spoke with Chow on the phone shortly after it became clear she would be re-elected.
“I said I want her to succeed, and my supporters … they want her to succeed too, they all do, because we all love this city, we know it can be better, and we have to come together to make that happen.
“This is not the result that we were hoping for tonight … but I also have this feeling … of immense gratitude for the opportunity to put our ideas forward, our vision of a better Toronto.”
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Hard fought campaign
During the campaign, Bradford implored Toronto to choose change, while Chow pointed to a track record of progress while painting herself as the more compassionate candidate.
“I’m feeling great because at the end of the day, I believe Toronto is a place where people support each other, care for each other, stand up for each other, and they know that we are stronger together and that has always been at the core of the values that I have being the mayor of this city,” Chow said during a stop in Toronto’s Riverdale neighbourhood earlier Monday.
Despite her confidence, she still seemed to recognize that her surging opponent was dangerously close to toppling her political ambitions.
“The race is close, your vote will decide it,” she said.
“The question facing everyone in Toronto is a simple one — who do you trust to make good decisions for our city and who do you trust to stand up for you, to listen when you’re worried about paying the bills, to protect the things that make Toronto special and to make the decisions that will shape the city our children and our grandchildren inherit.”
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Chow was first elected as the 66th mayor of Toronto in 2023 following John Tory’s resignation.
She became the first woman and first Chinese-Canadian to serve as mayor since amalgamation, edging front-runners Ana Bailão and Mark Saunders.
Bradford ran in 2023 too, finishing in eighth place.
This time around, the 40-year-old former urban planner and councillor for Beaches-East York promised to make Toronto safer and relieve congestion — issues that clearly resonated with voters, but not enough to award him the city’s top job.
“This city is stuck,” Bradford said during a campaign stop in Etobicoke last weekend. “We’re stuck in traffic, we’re stuck waiting for the bus that doesn’t show up, we’re stuck feeling less safe.”
To make his lofty goals happen he planned to hire 1,000 new police officers over four years and make the Eglinton East LRT his top transit priority. He’s also vowed to better coordinate construction-related road closures with big events in the city to prevent some of the Big Smoke’s notorious traffic jams.
He also vowed to slice Torontonians’ water bills by 25 per cent by making Toronto Water a public agency — a move that irked renowned environmentalist and activist David Suzuki, who called the plan “crazy.”
Chow seized the moment to stoke fears that Bradford would “hand control of water to the Ford government,” which would then have the power to bring in private investors.
“It’s a scheme that no one is asking for,” Chow said of the plan. “Why is he doing it? Who is talking to him? I don’t understand just putting our water at risk.”
Chow and Bradford also clashed on the contentious issue of bike lanes, with Bradford approving of their removal along a stretch of Bloor Street West despite previously voting in favour of them.
Chow used that as more evidence that Bradford would do Premier Doug Ford’s bidding, rather than protect the interests of Torontonians.
“We had Coun. Bradford inviting (Ford) in to say ‘come and take it (the bike lanes) away,’ ” Chow stressed. “That is trampling on local democracy, the right of Torontonians through their municipal government to have a say over the municipal affairs of the city.”
Bradford accused Chow of inflaming those issues to gain political support.
“My opponent has engaged in fear mongering and scare tactics, misinformation, mistruths. I know Torontonians aren’t going to fall for it,” Bradford said on Monday.
‘I’m still that immigrant kid’: Chow
Before she became mayor, Chow was previously a school trustee, an NDP MP for Trinity-Spadina, and a Toronto city councillor.
Born in Hong Kong, she came to Toronto with her parents at the age of 13.
On Monday, she said she’s still that “immigrant kid” who was able to realize a dream that epitomizes the heart of Toronto.
“Toronto gave us a home, a place to begin again, a place where an immigrant kid from St. James Town could grow up to become your mayor and I’ve never forgotten that.”
“I am still that immigrant kid who was born somewhere else and calls Toronto home. A person who knows how much it means when someone you elect truly cares what happens to you. That’s the kind of mayor I’ve always tried to be.”
