John Tory has decided not to run for mayor
Toronto’s former mayor said today that he wants to focus on his family. Read Tory’s full statement here
As October’s mayoral election comes into view, former Toronto mayor John Tory has confirmed that he will not seek re-election.
Tory was Toronto’s mayor from 2014 to 2023. He resigned after it was revealed that he’d had an affair with a city staffer. Olivia Chow won the by-election that followed and has occupied the mayoral position since.
Related: According to a new poll, Toronto voters would choose Olivia Chow over John Tory
Amid speculation that Tory would likely run again, he announced today that he will not enter the race. “And not because I lack the energy or the desire,” he said in a full-page statement. “I will not be running for mayor because 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.”
Tory added that he doesn’t want anyone to feel sorry for him. “I did hold myself accountable by stepping down, and I know that politics is a tough business—at times, brutal. What I’m asking for is your understanding.”
Though he won’t be running, Tory said he had been urged to by various business and community leaders.
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
