What to know
- Olivia Chow was photographed greeting people outside the Walmart at Dufferin Mall on Saturday.
- The Reddit post quickly drew thousands of upvotes and plenty of comments about Chow’s visibility around the city.
- Toronto’s municipal election is Monday, Oct. 26, with polls open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
- Recent polls disagree on the state of the mayoral race, with some showing Chow narrowly ahead and others putting Brad Bradford within striking distance.
Nothing says Toronto politics quite like a mayoral candidate working the crowd outside the Dufferin Mall Walmart.
A photo of Olivia Chow greeting people outside the store Saturday night quickly took off on Reddit, where the original poster wrote: “Toronto needs a mayor who will hang out at Dufferin Mall Walmart.”
The post had drawn thousands of upvotes by Sunday, along with comments from Torontonians sharing their own recent Chow sightings around the city.
The timing didn’t hurt.
Toronto votes Monday in a municipal election that has tightened considerably in its final weeks. Recent polling has produced conflicting results, with some surveys showing Chow narrowly ahead of Brad Bradford and others putting the two effectively neck-and-neck.
Olivia Chow’s Dufferin Mall stop gets Toronto talking
The photo itself is fairly ordinary.
Chow, wearing a blue jacket, appears to be speaking with someone outside the Walmart entrance. The Reddit poster said she was “saying hi to everybody.”
But online, the location became part of the appeal.
“Politicians in the streets are the real ones,” one Reddit user wrote.
Another described Dufferin Mall Walmart on a weekend as “the belly of the beast,” adding: “It’s where the real people are at.”
Others said they had recently spotted Chow at Dufferin station, Kennedy station, Maple Leaf Gardens Loblaws and community events across the city.
That same theme carried over to X.
“My Mayor,” one person wrote.
“She’s chill as heck btw,” another said.
Someone else posted: “My brother saw her at Kennedy station last week. She’s active!!!”
Another person, apparently nearby, wrote: “I’m literally on Dufferin right now beside the mall. Salute to Olivia.”
The very Toronto appeal of a Walmart campaign stop
Part of the reaction seems to be less about Walmart itself and more about proximity.
Several commenters praised the idea of a mayoral candidate spending the final campaign weekend in everyday places rather than sticking to rallies and staged appearances.
One Reddit user wrote: “You’ve gotta respect a mayor who is willing to do last minute campaigning at regular places where regular people go to.”
Not everyone saw anything unusual about it. Another commenter pointed out that retail stops, transit stations and neighbourhood visits are standard get-out-the-vote campaigning in the final days of an election.
And that is, ultimately, what Chow was doing.
Toronto voters head to the polls Monday, Oct. 26, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Still, as far as campaign photo ops go, Dufferin Mall Walmart may be difficult to beat for sheer Toronto specificity.
