5 candidates vying to be Toronto’s mayor to square off in debate Monday | CBC News

Five candidates vying to be mayor of Toronto will square off in a debate Tuesday afternoon, the second of only two contests that incumbent John Tory will participate in before the Oct. 24 vote.

The 90-minute debate, hosted by the Toronto Region Board of Trade and moderated by TVO journalist Steven Paikin, is set to begin at 2 p.m ET. It is being held at the Carlu event space downtown. You’ll be able to watch the debate in this story via TVO’s YouTube account.

In addition to Tory, participants include Gil Penalosa, Chloe Brown, Sarah Climenhaga and Stephen Punwasi.

According to a news release from the board of trade, the debate will be centred on the following themes:

• Thinking like a region.
• Housing.
• Transportation.
• Technology.
• Cutting red tape.

“As a region, we face pressing issues that threaten our quality of life such as a climate crisis, housing affordability and labour shortages,” a news release about the event said.

“We can’t afford to lose the sense of urgency and ‘can-do’ attitude that carried us through the pandemic. We have the solutions at hand — now it’s time to implement them.”

Last week, Tory, Penalosa, Brown and Climenhaga were among those who debated at an event hosted by the seniors’ group CARP. 

Tory was put on the defensive about his two-term record in office, while his rivals for the mayor’s chair painted a picture of a city that is struggling with crumbling infrastructure and public spaces and facing a nearly $1-billion budget shortfall.

You can read more about that debate here.

Monday’s contest comes just days after the advance voting period ended. Despite this year’s period being longer than previous elections, results show that turnout fell by almost seven per cent from 2018, and almost 30 per cent from 2014’s record.

On election day, Monday, Oct. 24, voters can head to 1,460 polling locations across the city from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m to cast their ballot. For more information, you can check out the city’s voting website.

In total, there are 31 people running for mayor — comprising by far the longest list on your ballot. They are:

• Blake Acton
• Avraham Arrobas
• Darren Atkinson
• Chloe Brown
• Drew Buckingham
• Elvira Caputolan
• Kevin Clarke
• Sarah Climenhaga
• Phillip D’Cruze
• Cory Deville
• Alexey Efimovskikh
• Isabella Gamk
• Arjun Gupta
• Peter Handjis
• Robert Hatton
• Monowar Hossain
• Soaad Hossain
• Khadijah Jamal
• Kris Langenfeld
• John Letonja
• Tony Luk
• Ferin Malek
• Gil Penalosa
• Stephen Punwasi
• D!ONNE Renée
• Kyle Schwartz
• Knia Singh
• Sandeep Srivastava
• John Tory
• Reginald Tull
• Jack Yan