“Toronto – Canada’s version of a Democrat run city”

The Toronto mayoral by-election may either be the best thing to happen to the city in ages, or the worst. The city appears to be at a crossroads and in desperate need of a change in direction.

Decades of steady growth and improvements in nearly all areas launched Toronto into a rarefied tier of world cities. Then, the pandemic. Toronto came out the other side not just worse for wear, but in a cacophony of crises: housing affordability, transit, a downtown core in economic decline.

It doesn’t help that Ford is “not endorsing” a candidate few seem to want:

After pledging to stay out of Toronto mayor election, Doug Ford jumps in (again)

Premier Doug Ford has yet again weighed in on the Toronto mayoral race, despite previously saying he was staying out of the election.

Ford delivered his most pointed endorsement to date for the candidacy of Mark Saunders, the former Toronto police chief and failed 2022 provincial Progressive Conservative candidate.

“We need someone that has experience dealing with crime,” Ford said Friday when asked about the city’s mayoral byelection during an unrelated news conference in Oshawa.

I remember packing my best approximation of business casual outfits, but I don’t recall my last breath of the crisp, outdoor air. I didn’t think to savour it.

In October 2012, the Star sent me to live in the PATH for two weeks to see what kind of life I could lead in the underground retail world that supported Toronto’s office towers.

Every morning, the pantsuit army showed up in endless GO train waves, flowing north as a pack, unimpeded through food courts, shops and marble lobbies, up elevators, into drop-ceilinged offices. I learned to walk with the currents. I existed in a corporate haze.

This does not bode well for Toronto, and the article makes no mention of the insane cost of shelter as a barrier preventing recovery to pre-pandemic levels. No People No Path.

Toronto is so screwed … Here’s why Toronto’s bloated race for mayor is bad for democracy

Democracy is a good thing.

But too much of a good thing can be bad news.

Torontonians are waking up to an election campaign overrun by more than 100 candidates running for mayor after Friday’s final deadline for nominations.

The more the merrier? Sadly, this 102-ring circus risks turning a serious race into a bad joke at the ballot box.

Who will win the Toronto mayoral election? … latest poll results

Saunders is depicted as violent black man wielding Ice Picks, Chow still in the lead.

If Olivia Chow is elected Mayor then Toronto could be expelled to Communist China … so there’s that https://t.co/uLKPg5XftN

— Fancypants Maloney (@fancypants_s) May 9, 2023

Olivia Chow leads in the latest Toronto mayoral election polls

Olivia Chow is still the front-runner in three recent polls as more voters start to solidify their choice for the next mayor of Toronto.

A Liaison poll of 1,257 Torontonians has Chow on a small but steady uptick since the start of the race, reaching 18 per cent if the election were held today. Mark Saunders — who has pitted his right-leaning campaign against left-leaning Chow — is tied in second with Josh Matlow at 11 per cent. Matlow and Chow are expected to vie for the same pool of progressive votes.

Stupid reigns in TO. Please Lord Smite Toronto As You Did Sodom & Gomorrah!

According to the pollster’s survey of 1,056 people, Chow holds 22 per cent of the vote, followed by Ana Bailao and Josh Matlow at 11 per cent each.

Crucially, 30 per cent of polled respondents are still undecided on how they’ll vote on Election Day.

So far no one on the right appears to have much traction if the polls and media are to be trusted.

Everything will get worse if Chowcescu is elected. 

You think taxes, crime, homelessness and the war on the car and all your other freedoms are bad now?

Just wait until you’ve had a taste of Chow.

Residents and businesses in the heart of downtown Toronto are bracing for disruption as a years-long road closure begins.

Starting on Monday, May 1, a major portion of Queen Street will be closed to all traffic while construction takes place on a new subway station.

“It’s definitely a sense of anxiousness. There’s still a lot of uncertainty,” Meg Marshall, manager of the Queen Street West BIA, told Global News.

A busy downtown intersection is closing Monday for nearly half a decade as construction on Toronto’s newest subway line begins in earnest.

Starting May 1, Queen Street between Bay and Victoria Streets will be shut to cars for four and a half years in what will be one of the biggest disruption the city will face in the construction of the Ontario Line subway. Work on the line began last March, but will heat up this summer with the Queen Street closure and other projects.

The way Toronto is going I’m not sure they will need this line.

It felt this week like candidates in Toronto’s race to pick a new mayor started to use their elbows a little bit more.

Multiple candidates issued statements and tweets taking shots at their rivals.

Ana Bailao called former council colleague Josh Matlow, a “plagiarist,” accusing him of cribbing his platform from former candidate Gil Penalosa. Mark Saunders also took a swipe at Matlow, saying during an announcement “I usually chuckle when I hear candidates like Josh Matlow chastise people for using cars.”

Will we look back and say that this election marked the end of Toronto? I suspect so if a left leaning mayor is elected.

A new poll puts Olivia Chow in the lead among early contenders in the upcoming Toronto byelection to choose a new mayor.

The Mainstreet Research poll released Friday asked voters who they would choose if an election were held today. It found that among decided voters, 26 per cent said they would vote for Chow, while 21 per cent said they would vote for Ana Bailao, 14 per cent for Josh Matlow and 11 per cent for Mark Saunders.

Toronto mayoral candidate Anthony Furey says if elected, he’ll launch a $1-billion lawsuit against Metrolinx over the Eglinton Crosstown LRT delays.

“It’s been over a decade of this and the people of Toronto have politely accepted delay after delay, poor communication, gridlock and harm to businesses along a major street,” Furey said in a statement Friday.