A spectrum of decline…
The 2022 Municipal Election with under 30% turnout was the worst in recorded history. The apathy and disinterest of the candidates this year rolled into the fact that many of the races were boring and the same faces running. The same old cast of characters were front and centre in this Municipal election resulting in no surprises or changes.
The results of the Toronto municipal election are now official and after some extremely close races between councillor candidates on Monday (24) and a record-low voter turnout of around just 29 per cent. Here are the results for each ward, plus who won the mayoral race, in Toronto’s 2022 municipal election.
Mayor John Tory is back for another four-year term, his third, beating out his main competitor, urbanist Gil Penalosa, with 62 per cent of the vote, versus Penalosa’s 18 per cent. Penalosa was hopeful but had some wild ideas, from a 100 km “Green Loop” trail around the entire city that marked, as was said the most ambitious urban green space project on the continent, a ton of bus lanes, major prioritization pedestrians and cyclist, and turning Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport into a public park. Many of these ideas were so far out there, that most astute voters would not even consider these issues.
This election had seven spots vacated by incumbents in the City of Toronto with the lion share all going to the so-called progressive movement. The balance of the seats were all claimed by the sitting incumbents with only one seat changing hands and that was in Ward 3 Etobicoke-Lakeshore in what some would call a huge surprise, Amber Morley beat out previous councillor Mark Grimes after coming second to him last time around. The other note worthy point in the west-end was the return of Vincent Crisanti in Ward 1 Etobicoke North where he replaced Michael Ford who was elected to the provincial legislature in the last provincial election.
A couple of close races that need to be noted was the battle in Ward 5 York South-Weston between incumbent Francis Nunziata who received 47.61% of the vote and Chiara Padovani who narrowly lost out to Nunziata at 47.16% of the vote on Monday (24) night. The other extremely close race was that in Ward 11 University-Rosedale with Dianne Saxe narrowly took her seat as councillor with 35.37% of votes, compared with 34.87% for Toronto Catholic District School Board trustee Norm Di Pasquale – only a 120-vote difference.
Though Michael Thompson was a incumbent in this race, his seat as councillor was up in the air as he faces two charges of sexual assault, which prompted him to step down from his positions as deputy mayor and chair of Toronto’s Economic and Community Development Committee. He somehow still ended up securing 55% of votes, versus just 13% from the closest runner-up. The other noteworth y point in the east end of the city of Toronto is in Ward 23 Scarborough North where the unexpected death of previous councillor Cynthia Lai, who was seeking re-election, Jamaal Myers won in this ward with 51% of the vote. Myers is one of the youngest members of council at 39 and has a strong background in law.
Former Toronto Police Service officer John Burnside, who lost Ward 15 to Robinson in 2018, took this ward back with strong support from Mayor John Tory and got over half the votes cast in this election. It needs to be noted that this was the only race where John Tory endorsement was able to carry the day. Other races that the mayor endorsed were all losers.
Ward 9 Davenport was a race that l was watching after Ana Bailao decided not to seek re-election after 12 years serving in her role as councillor. Alejandra Bravo is the new representative for Davenport receiving over 70% of the vote. The other candidate was a distant second. Grant Gonsalves was backed by John Tory which was a kiss of death endorsement. Former Public School Board Trustee Ausma Malik has been elected as councillor of ward 4. This bustling downtown ward has the largest business sector in the country. These two women candidates are both from the progressive movement and both have some interesting progressive ideas to bring to our city. John Tory indicated again that this will be his last term as mayor… it is still to be seen. He will surpass Art Eggleton as the longest serving mayor of Toronto….my favourite mayor, for the record. John Tory doesn’t come close to the record that Mayor Eggleton had on the City of Toronto with its lasting impact.
Honorary mentions on this Municipal elections are that Bonnie Crombie was re-elected to a majority third term and is someone to watch as a future provincial leadership candidate for the Liberals. Patrick Brown was returned in Brampton for a second term as mayor with a lot of smoke and controversy surrounding his campaign. Steven Del Duca in Vaughan and Andrea Horwath in Hamilton barely held on to win these races.
With all time low voter turnout, municipal elections need to be revamped and new legislation should be brought in to level the playing field. Incumbents have a big edge and many of these politicians never want to move on and that creates much of the apathy because they have the cash to win.
Term limits need to be implemented by serving only two terms which gives fresh new ideas and new blood to these important positions. We need to refresh democracy, and this can only be accomplished with term limits.
This Municipal system has created a culture of mediocrity….
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