The majority of polls are now closed in Toronto, where residents had to choose their new mayor on Monday from the record number of 102 candidates who entered the race.
This hotly contested campaign must have been sparked when former mayor John Tory resigned just months into his third term in October. He admitted to having had an affair with a member of his staff.
A record 102 candidates lined up to replace him, with around half a dozen names rising to the top of the pack during the 12-week election campaign.
Former NDP MP and former city councilor Olivia Chow, widow of Jack Layton, became the favorite. She finished third in the 2014 mayoral race.
Former Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders and former Deputy Mayor Ana Bailão seem the best-placed candidates to threaten Ms.me Chow in the polls.
Former Liberal education minister Mitzie Hunter, city councilors Josh Matlow and Brad Bradford and right-wing columnist Anthony Furey round out the list of top candidates.
The campaign was marked by issues of housing affordability, public safety and municipal finances.
Whoever is elected on Monday will inherit a municipal budget with a pandemic-related shortfall of nearly $1 billion, in part due to reduced public transit revenue and rising housing costs .
The next mayor will also inherit powers that will allow him to pass budgets with only a third of council support, veto by-laws and unilaterally shape the city’s top-level administration. Several of the leading candidates have vowed not to use those powers to overrule the council.
Polling stations are open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. at 1,445 polling stations across the city. Advance voting held earlier in June recorded 129,745 ballots, an increase of 14,000 from early voting last October.