AGAR: The Left’s perfect Toronto only exists on X

Commentator Tom Parkin paints much too a rosy picture of Toronto under Mayor Olivia Chow

Published Sep 14, 2026  •  Last updated 10 minutes ago  •  3 minute read

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow on March 19, 2025. Photo by Jack Boland /Toronto Sun

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Is there a case for re-election of Olivia Chow as mayor of the country’s largest city?

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Tom Parkin, a leftist commentator who has worked in politics in Canada and in the Canadian labour movement, wrote on X, “It upsets the right-goons with their ‘everything is broken’ despair story, but in Toronto

• crime is down
• asking rent is down
• traffic deaths are down
• drug deaths are down
• homelessness is down
• TTC ridership is up and
• fares are frozen

“Why would we want to go backward?”

I would love it if all of these things were true.

I’ll take it on point by point without Parkin’s juvenile name-calling.

Figures show some crime on the rise

Item 1 – crime is down.

Homicides are down.

But then, the Toronto Star writes, “Despite many crime numbers going down, there are still some that are rising or showing spikes. Carjackings and auto thefts felt rampant in 2023 and 2024, but those numbers have come down in recent years.

In 2025, theft over $5,000 crime rates were rising in Toronto, fuelled by online scams and frauds.”

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Unfortunately there has been a rise in home invasions in the early part of 2026.

Religious and race-based hate and violence are up, but since it is mostly against Jews, Chow – and perhaps Parkin – don’t seem to really care.

The good news is that crime is down in the same way across North America, so I’m not sure we can give Olivia Chow a win on that one. Where crime is down, she is riding a tide.

Data contradicts his rent, traffic deaths claim

Item 2 – asking rent is down.

According to CMHC baseline data in 2023, the yearChow was elected mayor, rents were from $1,414 to $2,168 with peak asking rents climbing even higher mid-year.

Average overall asking rents were hovering around$2,450 as of August 2026.

Up – not down.

Item 3 traffic deaths are down, Tom Parkin says.

Toronto Police Services show 25 fatalities in 2023. Sadly, they have gone up every year since with 32 so far this year.

Up, not down.

Opiod-related EMS calls on an upward trajectory

Item 4 – drug deaths are down.

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He is right there. But in other ways the crisis is getting worse.

According to a CBC chart, in 2025 Toronto had 528opioid-related EMS calls.

So far – this chart was made in early July – 2,058 opioid-related EMS calls in 2026. It doesn’t seem the drug related devastation of Toronto is getting better.

Item 5 – homelessness is down.

An article of alarm in 2025 in the CBC told us Toronto’s unhoused population more than doubled in three years, (while Chow was mayor,) reaching an estimated 15,400, which the CBC called a “crisis.”

A recent Financial Accountability Office report puts the total at 19,462 in 2024/25.

Up, not down.

He’s not wrong about the TTC

Item 6 – TTC ridership is up.

From the TTC webpage on operating statistics, it reported that in 2023, average daily passenger trips where fare was paid was 1,236,982, while in 2025, that figure was 1,294,512.

That’s up, by 4.5%. Not huge, but it is up.

His last item is that TTC fares are frozen

That is subjective as a good thing.

Some want fares eliminated altogether. They are the people who believe transit should be free to use. Some people want riders to pay full fare. They don’t want to pay someone else’s bill.

Election day will be here soon enough.

It is not as rosy as Parkin would have you believe.

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