John Tory shook up the Toronto mayoral race on Tuesday, but not in the way many had expected.
After months of speculation that the politician who resigned abruptly from the city’s highest office three years ago was planning a comeback bid this fall — and an acknowledgment from the man himself he was mulling a run — Tory announced he has decided not to enter the race.
In a surprise statement, Tory said he was proud of his record as mayor and thanked “all of those who have been urging me to run again.” He acknowledged he gave another campaign “serious consideration” but ultimately decided: “I will not be running.”
His decision, first reported by the Star shortly before he made it official, reshapes what had been expected to be a heavyweight electoral bout this year between the current mayor and her predecessor, and potentially leaves the door open for another high-profile centre-right challenger to take on progressive Mayor Olivia Chow.
Chow, who won the June 2023 byelection to replace Tory, has yet to announce her political intentions, but she’s expected to contest the Oct. 26, 2026 vote.
Coun. Brad Bradford (Beaches — East York) has already declared he intends to run.
The 71-year-old Tory said he arrived at his choice not because he lacked “the energy or the desire” to seek office, but because of the toll a potentially punishing campaign would take on those close to him.
“I feel I cannot put my family and the people I care about through the inevitable attacks on me and my personal life that we’ve started to see before I’ve even announced my intentions,” he said in his statement.
Tory was already facing hard-hitting ads
The popular former chief magistrate quit just months into his third term in February 2023 after the Star revealed he had a relationship with a woman who had worked in his office. The city integrity commissioner later found that Tory broke ethics rules in his handling of his affair with the staffer, who was 31 when Tory quit. Speaking on Newstalk 1010 on Tuesday, Tory said he still has “a relationship” with the woman.
Although his statement didn’t specify which attacks he was referring to, amid rumours of his potential resurgence last year, left-wing advocacy group ProgressTO started posting hard-hitting ads about his affair. The group, which backed Chow in the last election, said in a post to its website that Tory had “quit in disgrace over sexual misconduct with a young employee.” It also compared him to former New York City governor Andrew Cuomo, who stepped down in 2021 over sexual harassment allegations. Tory was never accused of harassment and the integrity commissioner concluded his relationship with his staffer was consensual.
“This is a good news day,” ProgressTO executive director Saman Tabasinejad said Tuesday. She said at one time Tory may have “expected to coast to victory,” and that the ProgressTO campaign may well have played a role in his staying out. “I think he was scared to run on his record and we would have forced him to run on his record.”
‘A lot of respect for John’
Chow, for her part, thanked Tory for his “many years of service.”
“I know he loved the city,” she told reporters in a brief scrum at an event Tuesday.
Bradford, a former Tory ally who split with him in 2023 after he endorsed the councillor’s rival in that year’s byelection, said in a statement he had “a lot of respect for John’s decision.”
“John Tory has given years of service to this city. I will always be grateful for the support he gave me when I first decided to run,” Bradford said. “The personal sacrifice that comes with public office is immense and it is often overlooked. It is a massive challenge for the people closest to you, and they have to come first.”
Coun. Jon Burnside (Don Valley East) said he was disappointed by Tory’s announcement. The pair were both first elected in 2014 and were close allies, and Burnside said he had been hoping to reunite with him at city hall. The former mayor, Burnside said, had a vision for the city that extended beyond just solving the issues of today, namely congestion and housing.
“We need candidates who are well-rounded; that’s what I saw in John Tory,” he said. “Toronto is just treading water, we need someone who can make it the world-class city that it could be.”
Tory news good for Bradford, mixed for Chow: pollster
Confirmation that Tory won’t seek to reclaim the mayoralty follows months of reporting from the Star and others that he was considering a return from self-imposed political exile. In September, Tory told reporters at a gathering of former council members he was weighing a run, saying “I do run into lots of people on the street who encourage me to get back into politics.” Public opinion polls repeatedly showed he would give Chow a stiff contest.
Darrell Bricker, CEO of polling firm Ipsos, said Tory’s departure from the scene is a double-edged sword for Chow. While her greatest rival is out of the race, she’d likely been hoping for a crowded field running to her right. Bricker said he thinks Tory’s absence does provide unambiguous benefit to Bradford. He’s the mayor’s most prominent challenger, for the time being at least, and will have an “opportunity to get some more attention” now and emerge as the consensus anti-Chow candidate.
“There’s enough opposition to the direction of the city that somebody will try to be that,” said Bricker. “The question is, will it be Brad Bradford? Or does anybody else now see an opportunity?”
Nominations open May 1.
A lawyer and former leader of the Ontario PC party, Tory was first elected on a promise to restore civility to city hall after the scandal-plagued mayoralty of Premier Doug Ford’s brother, Rob. In his more than eight years in power, Tory governed from the centre-right, mostly keeping property tax increases in line with inflation. He also helped advance major projects such as the controversial Scarborough subway extension, and was praised for his steady leadership through the COVID-19 crisis.
Critics said his tax policies starved the city of revenue needed to adequately fund city services, however, and he failed to complete signature initiatives such as his SmartTrack transit plan and proposed Rail Deck Park.
Tory says family dissuaded him
Before the Star revealed his relationship, Tory had easily won re-election twice and was on track to become Toronto’s longest-serving mayor.
In a Feb. 10, 2023 press conference that shocked the city, he described the affair as a “serious error in judgment” and said he was stepping down “to reflect on my mistakes and to do the work of rebuilding the trust with my family.”
In his interview with Newstalk, he suggested it was his family who talked him out of running again over fears it would be painful for them to have his affair re-litigated in public.
“I think they were actually right and I needed them perhaps to tell me that, to be perfectly honest,” he said.
He also suggested it was unfair of political opponents to attack him over his relationship, because he had “owned what happened” by resigning, and a city ethics watchdog had already “examined every aspect” of it.
In a 122-page report released in October 2023, then-integrity commissioner Jonathan Batty found Tory breached council’s code of conduct over the affair, because he failed to follow guidelines that govern council members’ dealings with their staff, and exercised improper influence.
The latter finding was related to Tory voting on city council items to advance Toronto’s bid to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup, after the woman he was in a relationship with had taken a job at Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment and was working on the soccer tournament. Despite Batty’s findings, the commissioner recommended council not impose any penalty on the former mayor because he had already left office.
While Tory said he is likely done with electoral politics, he said he plans to continue contributing to the city through his work with WoodGreen community services, the Scarborough Health Network and Toronto International Film Festival.
With files from Robert Benzie and Kate Allen
