Tory Ends Ford Dominion, Becomes Mayor Of Toronto
Voters in Toronto, Canada have spoken. They now have a new mayor in the person of John Tory, effectively ending the dominion of the Ford brothers over Canada's largest city.
Tory, former leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative, won the race with more votes than Ford did compared from four years ago, at about 395,000 to 383,000. He won the mayoralty race collecting 40 percent of overall voter population, as against Doug Ford's 34 percent. Olivia Chow, former NDP MP, was third with 23 percent of votes. Between Tory and Ford, it was only a difference of 64,000 votes.
Campaign strategists for Tory, who had led every public opinion poll since end July, nonetheless heaved a sigh of relief that he had, indeed, won the race. "I wasn't expecting it to be this close. Good thing we had a good lead," the National Post quoted Tory strategist Nick Kouvalis as telling CP24.
Doug Ford, Tory's opponent, told supporters that even if they lost, he remained proud to have been part of the campaign and be its bearer. He reminded voters that they would run a campaign that would make them proud. "We did just that."
Doug jumped into the race in September when brother Rob dropped out after being diagnosed with cancer. However, the latter still ran for a seat to his old council from the Etobicoke district, which he won Monday night in landslide. That meant that he and Tory will still get to see each other at Toronto city hall.
Rob was elected mayor of Toronto on December 2010. His administration, however, had been marred by his crack smoking and drinking, as well as by being investigated himself by the police. It even reached to a point that the City Council stripped all his mayoral powers during his time in office, but stopped short of forcing him out of office due to lack of conviction of a crime. He had meant to seek re-election but was stopped by a cancer diagnosis. He sent his older brother Doug to run in his stead.
Tory told the crowd on Monday that work on building one Toronto, "Toronto the "Great," has begun.