Olivia Chow is still the leading mayoral candidate, but Brad Bradford is catching up
If the election occurred today, Chow would earn 49 per cent of the decided vote, and Bradford would take 40 per cent
With Toronto’s municipal election just over three months away, a new poll has shed light on two candidates considered to be frontrunners: Mayor Olivia Chow and Brad Bradford, the current city councillor for Beaches–East York.
According to a new Liaison Strategies Toronto Pulse survey, Chow maintains a nine-point lead over Bradford among decided and leaning voters. But the poll results show Bradford’s standing is improving.
If the mayoral election occurred today, Chow would earn 49 per cent of the decided vote, and Bradford would take 40 per cent.
The survey sampled 1,000 Torontonians from June 28 to 30.
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In May, when the same question was asked to poll respondents, Chow came away at 50 per cent, and Bradford at 37 per cent.
“This is still Olivia Chow’s race,” David Valentin, principal at Liaison Strategies, said in a statement accompanying the poll results. “...But the movement since May is toward Bradford.”
The results also show that while Chow is the clear favourite downtown, Bradford is the leading candidate in Etobicoke. Numbers indicate a tighter race in North York and Scarborough.
When Bradford ran for mayor in the 2023 by-election, he secured just over one per cent of the vote.
“Bradford’s advantage is that his vote number is moving,” Valentin continued. “His problem is that he is still not fully introduced to the city. Twenty-nine per cent have a favourable impression of him, 23 per cent have an unfavourable impression, 13 per cent are not sure, and 35 per cent say they are not familiar with him.”
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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.
