Former MP Chris Alexander was running in the race to become Toronto's mayor. Voters head to the polls on Oct. 26.Jessica Darmanin/Supplied
Former federal Conservative cabinet minister Chris Alexander says he is dropping out of Toronto’s mayoral race, as polls have shown him in a distant third.
Mr. Alexander announced the move Tuesday morning at his campaign headquarters, just as advance voting in the Oct. 26 municipal election got under way across the city. His announcement was made too late for his name to be removed from the ballot.
But it appeared to clear the way for a head-to-head race between leading contenders Olivia Chow, a former NDP MP and the city’s incumbent mayor, and Brad Bradford, an east-end city councillor.
“Our path to success, it became clear to me over this weekend, was not obvious, and perhaps not there at all,” Mr. Alexander said Tuesday.
Mr. Alexander also said he is not endorsing any of the remaining candidates.
Public opinion surveys have consistently shown Mr. Alexander well behind the leaders.
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A Nanos Research survey released Tuesday showed Ms. Chow at 52.4 per cent among decided voters, Mr. Bradford at 42.6, and just four per cent for Mr. Alexander, CP24 reported. The poll of 755 Torontonians was conducted from Sept. 30 to Oct. 4. It was commissioned by cable-news channel CP24 and CTV News Toronto. CP24 said the survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Mr. Alexander was elected a Conservative MP for Ajax-Pickering in 2011 and served as federal immigration minister in Stephen Harper’s government from 2013 to 2015. Prior to politics, he worked in the Canadian Foreign Service, including as ambassador to Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005.
Despite sagging poll numbers, he was considered a possible spoiler candidate, potentially drawing centre-right support from Mr. Bradford, whose message has focused on combatting crime and traffic congestion.
Early in the campaign, Mr. Bradford had taken a combative stance toward Mr. Alexander, saying some views he held while in federal cabinet – such as his advocacy for a “barbaric cultural practices” tip line to report incidents of honour killings, forced marriages and polygamy – made him unfit for office.
As Mr. Bradford emerged from early voting on Tuesday, he was more complimentary, appealing directly to Mr. Alexander’s supporters by drawing parallels between the two campaigns. “If you were ever in the change camp, you were always looking at our campaign,” he said.
Ms. Chow also voted on Tuesday. She thanked Mr. Alexander for bringing new ideas to the campaign, but declined to speculate on how the withdrawal might influence the race, other than saying it’s now a stark contest between two opposing visions of Toronto.
“Do we move forward and build an even more affordable and caring city, and safer city,” she asked. “Or do we go backwards to the bad old days where there’s this cut and slash and burns, and neglect of public spaces, and everything falling apart in terms of the infrastructure?”