Toronto votes for new mayor after Rob Ford

Agence France-Presse

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Toronto votes for new mayor after Rob Ford

WARREN TODA

Canada's biggest city Toronto go to the polls to elect a successor to crack-smoking Mayor Rob Ford, who quit the race to seek treatment for cancer

OTTAWA, Canada – Canada’s biggest city Toronto went to the polls Monday, October 27, to elect a successor to crack-smoking Mayor Rob Ford, who quit the race to seek treatment for cancer.

The culmination of a long and sometimes bitter campaign was expected to be close between three main candidates vying to replace the bombastic mayor.

Radio broadcaster John Tory, considered a moderate conservative, led the pack in his second try in a decade for the job of chief magistrate.

But Olivia Chow, a former MP and widow of late popular Canadian politician Jack Layton, and Ford’s brother Doug, who stepped in to replace him on the ballot, were close behind, according to polls.

A record 161,147 early ballots were cast across the city’s 44 wards in the lead-up to the main event on Monday.

Rob Ford won the last election in 2010 with 47 percent of 813,984 votes cast.

This one has shaped up to be a fight between the so-called “Ford Nation” of suburban residents demanding lower property taxes and opponents – mostly urbanites – who desperately want to turn the page on the scandals at city hall, challenging the electorate to vote for anyone but a Ford. They also are hoping for increased transit funding to ease traffic gridlock.

Ford, who earned global notoriety for smoking crack cocaine while in office, last month abruptly ended his re-election campaign to undergo chemotherapy for cancer.

The 45-year-old Ford had only returned to work in June after two months in rehab for drug and alcohol abuse, including the use of crack cocaine.

His drug abuse was first revealed last year when an alleged drug dealer tried to sell a video of him smoking crack to the media.

At first, Ford denied using the illegal drug, but later acknowledged he had smoked crack while in a “drunken stupor.”

Since then, he has been filmed numerous times in public behaving erratically and once smoking crack with his sister, just prior to his seeking help.

Toronto’s city council stripped him of most of his mayoral powers last November over his misconduct, while calls for his resignation dogged him.

Nevertheless, his support remained relatively high as he campaigned on a give-me-another-chance platform over the summer.

After the mayor announced he was halting his campaign to focus on healing, his brother Doug Ford, who is also a city councillor, stepped in to run in his stead. – Rappler.com

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