Francis Crescia is a Toronto-based journalist specializing in politics, business, and cultural affairs.By re-electing incumbent Mayor Olivia Chow, voters sent a clear message: Toronto will remain woke, broke, and unsafe. Sweeping the downtown core, Chow secured 532,201 votes to Brad Bradford’s 404,013. Chow won by a margin of 13%. Chow ran a listless campaign bereft of new ideas, frequently evading questions in the debates. However, she avoided major blunders. In the final stretch, realizing that Bradford was gaining momentum, her campaign pivoted aggressively. Chow targeted Bradford with fear-mongering tactics, falsely accusing him of wanting to privatize the city's infrastructure by separating Toronto Water into a city-owned utility — a move she claimed would pollute drinking water and lead to service cuts.Ultimately, Chow’s victory owed less to her personal campaign and more to the formidable NDP socialist machine. Progress Toronto, the strategic brains behind the operation, utilized targeted voter lists, and in the final days of the race, thousands of volunteers dropped over 20,000 flyers in critical suburban battlegrounds like Scarborough and Etobicoke. Major public unions like CUPE Local 79, with its thousands of members, also played a decisive role in the outcome, spending weeks door-knocking, managing phone banks, and running aggressive get-out-the-vote initiatives. The union’s efforts extended past the mayor’s race and successfully helped elect a wave of progressive city councillors. The reward for this union mobilization is a continuation of the status quo: Toronto’s multi-billion-dollar infrastructure and construction contracts will remain protected and closed to open tendering. This closed-shop model excludes non-union competition. Bradford advocated dismantling it, claiming it would save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.Bradford ran an effective campaign with an innovative platform aimed at transforming Toronto into a truly international city, instead of leaving it stuck in a progressive time warp. Yet, despite his strong personal execution, his campaign made costly strategic missteps. Bradford spent far too much time trying to woo left-wing voters in downtown Toronto instead of locking down the suburbs. Historically, a suburban surge is the blueprint for a centre-right victory; when Rob Ford won the mayoralty, he lost the entire downtown core but swept the suburbs with his powerful “stop the gravy train” message. Bradford’s inability to consolidate that suburban base ultimately cost him the race, culminating in the symbolic loss of his own council ward, alongside a critical drop in support from the local business community. And in the heart of Ford Nation, Etobicoke North, which is traditionally conservative, he lost. .Bradford made safety his number one priority, but he failed to back it up with the human stories of crime victims. He never truly leaned into the alarming reality that Toronto home invasions are skyrocketing and assaults keep increasing. He should have relentlessly attacked Chow for wanting to protect criminals, pointing out that her ultimate solution to a surging crime wave is simply building more recreation centres. Instead, Bradford ran a classy, strictly fact-oriented campaign. When Chow shifted to highly negative tactics during the final days, he chose not to respond in kind — a tactical move that cost him at the ballot box.He missed the opportunity to remind voters of Chow’s true political background. For instance, during her September 2026 visit to New York, Chow met with Zohran Mamdani, the newly elected socialist mayor. Their two offices are now in close contact, actively sharing policy ideas. As a result of this ideological partnership, Toronto is now moving forward with a pilot program to launch city-owned, non-profit grocery stores. The proposed grocery stores are in addition to Chow's ambitious promise to have the municipality construct thousands of new housing units. The irony is that the city is already Toronto’s biggest slumlord. The municipality controls over 60,000 community housing units, an astounding 69% of which are currently in “poor” or “critical” condition, requiring billions of dollars in backlogged repairs.The municipal election also saw a wave of new progressives successfully capture office across various city wards. Mike Layton, Chow's stepson, easily secured his seat. As a strong advocate for climate change initiatives, Layton is poised to be a future mayor, continuing the NDP dynasty. With progressives executing a total takeover of the country’s largest economic engine, the financial fallout will be severe. As we approach 2027, the city is projected to face a deficit of $1.1 billion. To avoid a drastic increase in property taxes, Chow will once again need to appeal to the federal Liberals and Premier Ford's financially strapped Conservatives for substantial bailouts.Ultimately, the Canadian Left thrives on taking and spending money that is earned by others. They operate on the fundamental belief that an economy does not exist to generate wealth based on merit, but rather to be seized and directed toward progressive causes. Good luck, Toronto. You're going to need it.Francis Crescia is a Toronto-based journalist specializing in politics, business, and cultural affairs.
