Olivia Chow has won a second term as mayor of Toronto, beating out challenger Brad Bradford in a hard-fought election.
Both candidates received hundreds of thousands of votes, with early results showing voter participation way up compared to the last two elections.
Chow appears to have won handily in Scarborough, where she spent a good chunk of her campaign.
Chow won in all five Scarborough wards, taking between 51 per cent and 56.7 per cent of the vote.
Chow also managed a narrow win in Etobicoke North while Bradford took the other two Etobicoke wards, including Etobicoke Centre where he captured 59 per cent of the vote.
- How to set CP24 as your preferred source on Google
- How to set CTV News as your preferred source on Google
In the days ahead of the election, Chow warned that the race would be “neck and neck” and urged people to bring out their family, friends and colleagues to vote for her.
Political observers said beforehand the race could come down to each candidate’s ability to use their ground game to get out supporters.
Pollster Nick Nanos told CP24 on Monday night that Chow’s victory ultimately represented a “crushing victory” for her campaign team.
“They delivered on the ground. They knew the areas of the city that they were strong in – downtown and Scarborough – and they won big in those areas,” Nanos said.
Where Chow won
Breaking down the results by area, Chow led by wide margins in many downtown wards, including Parkdale-High Park (69 per cent of vote), Davenport (69.3 per cent), Toronto Centre (72.4 per cent) and Toronto Davenport (71.1 per cent).
As of 11 p.m., Bradford was leading in six wards across the city, mainly in Etobicoke, midtown Toronto and North York.
Notably, Chow more than doubled Bradford’s vote count in his ward of Beaches-East York.
Other parts of the city were noticeably more divided.
Chow eked out a win by much narrower margins in Toronto St. Paul’s (a 5.1 per cent lead), York South-Weston (4.9 per cent) and in Don Valley North (a lead of just 0.7 per cent).
Historic voter participation
With 99.2 per cent of polls reporting late Monday, unofficial results showed some 976,550 votes had been cast for mayor. That’s a massive increase from the last general election in 2022, when a total of 563,124 ballots were cast in the municipal election.
According to unofficial results, Chow garnered 529,042 votes, or roughly 54.2 of votes cast for mayor compared to 401,415.
Political watchers had predicted it could be a close race, with Bradford closing the gap in the polls in the weeks before election day. They weren’t wrong
Both candidates garnered more votes than the winning candidate in either of the last two mayoral elections. In 2022, John Tory was re-elected with 342,158. In the special byelection to replace him in 2023, Chow won with 269,372 votes.
Ward by ward
Here is a look at how the mayoral race shook out in all 25 Toronto municipal wards.
Etobicoke North - Chow got 45.4 per cent, just 0.9 per cent more than Bradford
Etobicoke Centre - Chow got 37 per cent, while Bradford got 59 per cent
Etobicoke-Lakeshore - Chow got 47. 1 per cent, compared to 49.4 per cent for Bradford
Parkdale-High Park - Chow won 69 per cent of the vote
York South-Weston - Chow took 48.8 per cent to Bradford’s 43.9 per cent
York Centre - Bradford won decisively, with 64. 2 per cent to Chow’s 31.6 per cent
Humber River-Black Creek - Chow won 49.7 per cent, with Bradford taking 40.7
Eglinton-Lawrence - Bradford won 62.8 per cent, with Chow taking 34.2 per cent
Davenport - Chow won 69 per cent to Bradford’s 27.6 per cent
Spadina-Fort York - Chow won 67 per cent to Bradford’s 30.1 per cent
University-Rosedale - Chow took 63.4 per cent to Bradford’s 33.9 per cent
Toronto-St. Paul’s - Chow won with 51.1 per cent, compared to 46 per cent for Bradford
Toronto Centre - Chow took 51.1 per cent to Bradford’s 46 per cent
Toronto-Danforth - Chow decisively won with 71.1 per cent to Bradford’s 25.2 per cent
Don Valley West - Bradford took 50.6 per cent of the vote, with Chow taking 46.1 per cent
Don Valley East - Chow won 53.3 per cent, with Breadford taking 41.4 per cent
Don Valley North - Chow (47.7 per cent) beat Bradford by a razor-thin margin of just 0.7 per cent
Willowdale - Bradford won 50.4 per cent, with Chow taking 45.4 per cent
Beaches-East York - Chow won with 65.4 per cent, compared to 31 per cent for Bradford
Scarborough Southwest – Chow won54.9 per cent, with Bradford getting 39. 7 per cent
Scarborough Centre - Chow won 51.9 per cent to Bradford’s 41.2 per cent
Scarborough-Agincourt - Chow took 52.9 per cent to Bradford’s 40.1
Scarborough North Chow won 56.7 per cent to Bradford’s 34.5 per cent
Scarborough-Guildwood Chow won 53.5 per cent compared to 39.7 per cent for Bradford
Scarborough-Rouge Park – Chow took 50.9 per cent compared to Bradford’s 42.8 per cent
