What to know
- Chris Alexander has suspended his Toronto mayoral campaign ahead of advance polls opening Tuesday.
- Recent Liaison Strategies polling put Alexander at nine per cent support, behind Olivia Chow at 48 per cent and Brad Bradford at 40 per cent.
- Alexander said his campaign had failed to gain momentum despite efforts to close the gap and apologized to supporters who planned to vote for him.
- His departure leaves Chow and Bradford as the two leading candidates with less than three weeks until election day on Oct. 26.
Former MP and mayoral candidate Chris Alexander has officially dropped out of the Toronto mayoral race ahead of advance polls opening today.
Alexander made the announcement on Tuesday morning, ahead of advance polls opening at 10:00 a.m.
Alexander registered to run in July; recent polling has put his campaign in a distant third, with polling from Liaison Strategies on Tuesday showing his campaign with only nine per cent support compared to Olivia Chow with 48 per cent, and Brad Bradford with 40 per cent.
“I just don’t see us catching up, I don’t see that path,” Alexander told reports on Tuesday morning.
Alexander said he intended on making the race a three way race, but it fell short.
“With three weeks to go that would be very hard to do,” Alexander said.
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Despite the efforts, he did not move the polls.
“Really the polls haven’t changed in over two months, despite our best efforts to move them,” he said.
Alexander said his campaign was a “different beast” in the race, and hoped the outcome would change.
“We thought we had a chance of catching up faster, but it did not work,” he said.
Although some of his supporters may still be on their way to the polls as they open at 10:00 a.m., Alexander issued an apology to voters who planned on choosing him on the ballot.
“Im very sorry that we didn’t have a better outcome for them, but they still have time to make a difference and their vote still matters,” he said.
Alexander said it was crucial that he suspend his campaign before the polls open.
“It would have been irresponsible to pretend that we are in a different place,” he said.
Now that he has suspended his campaign, he says that he plans on going back to the private sector, advising companies, and sitting on boards. He says there’s “a lot of work to do” in the private sector.
Alexander says despite the change of events he wouldn’t count out a political role in some capacity in the future.
With Alexander backing out, this puts Chow and Bradford in a two-horse race with just under three weeks until the election day on Oct. 26.
