Over 30 Candidates Registered To Become Toronto’s Next Mayor

Registration for Mayor opened on May 2, 2022.

Every four years, Torontonians decide who will lead their city as Mayor.
This year and an overwhelming amount of candidates, more than 30, have registered to have their names on the ballot. The large field has already made it difficult for candidates with little name recognition to attract media attention.

As a result of such a large field, great candidates with good ideas for moving the city forward will never get their message heard and will undoubtedly be shut out from participating in any live tv debates.

Elections cost a lot of money, and in a city like Toronto, where everything is expensive, most campaigns operate on a shoestring budget. They can not compete against high-profile candidates, multi-millionaires, billionaires, and popular incumbent Mayor, John Tory.

Tory served as the leader of Ontario’s Progressive Conservative (P.C.) Party and radio talk show host before winning the Mayoralship in 2014, preceding Rob Ford. In 2018, Tory won his landslide re-election by garnering a record-setting 63.49% of the votes.

Tory chose a more low-key approach to building up his candidacy. He focused on promoting himself through positive advertisements. He also appealed to voters by highlighting his business background and promoting himself as an accessible leader for Toronto residents. His strategy paid off; he was able to rally more votes than any other candidate during the nomination process. By Election Day, Tory had picked up more votes than any other candidate in history for a Toronto mayoralty race compared to previous elections.

Even though it seems like every city should hold an easy mayoral election with a small field of candidates, Toronto is proving that notion wrong. Some residents may feel overwhelmed and confused by selecting among several well-known politicians from such a large field of candidates. Still, it forces them to research who aligns the best with their values and priorities.