Former Conservative Member of Parliament Chris Alexander has dropped out of the race to become Toronto’s next mayor.
At a news conference Tuesday morning, Alexander said he realized his path to success “was not obvious and perhaps not there at all.”
His team wanted to announce the decision ahead of advance polls opening, he said, “so that all Torontonians have the chance to vote for someone who is going to see their campaign through to the end.”
“We were in this to change the outlook to make it a three-way race. But with three weeks to go, I think that would be very hard to do,” he said.
Alexander said his decision to run wasn’t made “lightly,” and that he still feels the other candidates vying for the city’s top job aren’t fiscally responsible, ambitious or detailed enough.
He also said he was not endorsing another candidate.
“In another four years from now, I fear we’ll be back here again and I’m worried we may be worse off in the city,” he said.
Alexander told reporters that one of the campaigns had previously asked him to withdraw from the race, but he made his decision without “succumbing to anyone’s pressure.”
Former MP Chris Alexander enters Toronto’s mayoral race
Alexander urged voters and his supporters to inform themselves about the other campaigns, and to challenge candidates on the issues they care about most.
“Toronto is an amazing city with a great future ahead, we all have to engage to unlock that potential,” he said, while also thanking his team and supporters for all their work over the last few months.
Looking ahead, Alexander said he’ll likely go back to working in the private sector, along with “a more lively interest in city issues.” He said a political role is not out of sight in the future, but that it’s too early to consider another election in Toronto.
A lack of support in the latest polls was a deciding factor in his decision to drop out, Alexander said.
A new poll, released by Liaison Strategies on Tuesday, put Alexander at a distant third-place in the race, with only 9 per cent support from respondents. Meanwhile, Chow came out on top with 48 per cent support among decided and leaning voters and Bradford followed up with 40 per cent.
The poll was based on a survey of 1,000 Torontonians from Oct. 3 to 4.
Participants of the survey were reached through interactive voice response (IVR), interviewed on landlines and cell phones. The resulting data was weighted to match targets based on the 2021 census. For the total sample, the margin of error is +/- 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The margin is higher for subsamples and totals may not add up to 100 per cent due to rounding, Mainstreet said.
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Before politics, Alexander worked in Canada’s foreign service and served as the first resident Canadian ambassador to Afghanistan between 2003 and 2005.
From 2011 to 2015, he served as MP for Ajax–Pickering and was also the federal immigration minister in Stephen Harper’s government from 2013 to 2015. He drew headlines for his barbaric cultural practices bill in 2014, which sought to address so-called honour killings, child marriages and polygamy.
With Alexander’s withdrawal, there are 52 people are running to be the mayor of Toronto. You can find the full list on the city’s website.
