In 2021, three major Canadian cities—Edmonton, Calgary, and Montreal—elected progressive mayors. But a year later, voters in Vancouver and Ottawa rejected their more progressive front-runners. Will Canada’s other great metropolis, Toronto, go more right or left in its upcoming mayoral byelection?
“If I were a progressive candidate in Toronto, I would be worried,” Richard Johnston, political science professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia, said in an interview.
Johnston closely followed the race in Vancouver where candidates campaigned on similar issues, and the more progressive side lost. When it comes to public safety, for example—a big issue in Toronto with its wave of transit attacks, just as it was in the Vancouver election—conservatives are often viewed as the stronger choice, he said….