The Toronto mayoral election on June 26 is raising important urban issues and its significance will ramify far beyond Toronto and will be noticed in the United States, many of whose cities are wracked by critical problems on a scale they have not seen since the Great Depression. A week does not go by when the normally informed person does not see another news story illustrating the dangers and inconveniences of drug abuse, deranged behavior in a crowded public setting, and inadequate or grievously mistaken police responses. Although there are over one hundred mayoral candidates, polls indicate that approximately 90 per cent of decided voters support the seven leading candidates. These are bracketed by Olivia Chow on the left and Anthony Furey on the right. Neither of these could reasonably be called an extremist and the other five principal candidates are somewhere between them in policy terms: former provincial education minister Mitzie Hunter, former Toronto police chief Mark Saunders, environmentalist city councillor Josh Matlow, former deputy mayor Ana Bailao, and councillor Brad Bradford.
