In yet another sign Toronto’s election campaign is unofficially underway, a political advocacy group has launched attack ads against Olivia Chow, declaring her a “failed mayor” and calling for change.
Candidate registrations for the Oct. 26 municipal election don’t open for another five weeks, on May 1. But on Thursday, centre-right organization A Better City (ABC) Toronto released a trio of 30-second spots targeting Chow, which it says will run on TV, radio, digital and social media.
The ads take aim at the mayor’s record on everything from crime to traffic congestion, to transit and tax increases.
“Olivia can’t clear snow in the winter, nor can she keep pools open in the summer time,” one of the ads states, referencing complaints about winter maintenance and the unexpected shuttering of some public pools during a heatwave last summer.
“Potholes galore. People are lined up at food banks. Homelessness and tent cities are everywhere. With Olivia Chow you pay more but you get less,” the ad continues. “She’s a failed mayor. It’s time for a change.”
The ad also incorrectly claims Chow “has raised property taxes on homeowners and renters by more than 25 per cent.” However, the source of the claim is an article from 2025, the year of Chow’s second budget, and the increase it references includes a tax hike John Tory imposed in his final year as mayor.
In her three budgets Chow has raised property taxes by 9.5, 6.9 and 2.2 per cent, for an increase of about 19 per cent. Critics have accused her of making life in the city unaffordable, but she has defended the higher raises in her first two years by saying she inherited a “financial mess” and needed to boost revenue to fix public services.
Asked about the ads, Chow’s spokesperson Braman Thillainathan said in an email the mayor was “focused on her work to deliver a safer and more affordable city for all Torontonians,” and although “any Torontonian can express their view of city government,” the mayor “does not agree with misleading the public.”
The ads state that gun violence and home invasions have risen since Chow took office, but Thillainathan countered that Toronto Police Service data show incidents of major crime are down. Response times for 911 calls have improved, and the city has funded a five-year hiring plan for the police, he added.
Kelly Aizicowitz, interim executive director of ABC Toronto, wouldn’t say how much the spots cost. The group has also declined to reveal its funders, with Aizicowitz saying only that the organization is drawing support from “citizens who are worried about the decline of our city.”
While the election is more than 200 days away, would-be mayoral candidates started jockeying for position months ago. Chow hasn’t said yet whether she intends to run for re-election, but her lower-than-expected 2026 property tax increase was widely viewed an election-year budget, and she released campaign-style documents touting her spending plan.
Coun. Brad Bradford (Beaches—East York) announced in October he will vie for Chow’s job this fall, and has started to roll out policy proposals.
Meanwhile former MPP and councillor Michael Ford, the premier’s nephew, is also considering a mayoral campaign.
Bradford spoke at ABC Toronto’s launch event last year and has similar messaging as the group — both are calling for “generational change” at city hall — but his office said he “had no involvement whatsoever” in the attack ads and has “no relationship with ABC Toronto.”
The ABC ads could be a sign of the role outside political groups will play in this year’s municipal election. There are no political parties at city hall but third-party groups, which have declared positions and register to campaign for or against candidates, are becoming more influential.
Progress Toronto has been credited with helping get Chow and other progressives elected to council in previous years, and ABC was formed in early 2025 partly to counter the group’s success. ABC hasn’t said whether it will officially register to take part in this year’s election.
IntegrityTO, an anti-Chow group that is popular online, campaigned unsuccessfully against a left-leaning candidate in September’s Scarborough-Rouge Park council byelection.
