RAITT: A vote for a spoiler candidate is a vote for Olivia Chow

Chris Alexander's decision to run for Toronto mayor will only hurt Chow's top contender -- Brad Bradford

Published Jul 28, 2026  •  3 minute read

Former federal immigration minister Chris Alexander talks about his plans to run for the Conservative leadership during an editorial board meeting at the Toronto Sun on Tuesday, April 18, 2017. Photo by Dave Abel /Toronto Sun

I grew up in rural Nova Scotia, raised by my grandparents, in a house where you argued politics at the kitchen table and were grateful for work. Cape Breton teaches you two things early: What happens to a community when the economy leaves and how little patience working people have for politicians playing games while it does.

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I’ve spent most of my working life in Toronto. Ten years at the Toronto Port Authority, where I started as counsel and worked my way up to harbourmaster, then president and CEO. Then Ottawa as minister of natural resources, labour and transport. These days I work on Bay St. with companies deciding where to invest and for the last five years I’ve co-chaired the Coalition for a Better Future with Anne McLellan, a Liberal, because we both believe growing this country’s economy shouldn’t come with a party membership card. This spring a Liberal prime minister asked me to help advise on Canada-U.S. economic relations. I said yes without blinking. Country over party. Results over jersey colours.

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So take what follows in that spirit.

Toronto Councillor Brad Bradford, left, and Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow. Photo by Ernest Doroszuk/Sean Kilpatrick /Toronto Sun/The Canadian Press

Toronto’s troubles cause for concern

Toronto is in trouble. Talk to anyone who’s tried to pull a permit, open a restaurant, move goods across this region or put a shovel in the ground. Ask the family whose home was broken into or the senior who won’t take the subway after dark. It’s never been harder to do business here, to build here or to feel safe here. And when Toronto stalls, Canada stalls. This city is the engine of the national economy.

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Now let’s talk about the numbers. In 2023, Olivia Chow became mayor with 37% of the vote. She didn’t win an overwhelming mandate. She won a split because the rest of the city carved itself into a half-dozen pieces. But it worked and she’s the mayor because of it.

This time the race is different. It’s come down to two serious contenders: Chow and Councillor Brad Bradford and the latest public polling puts them nine points apart and closing. For the first time in years, there’s one credible path to change at City Hall.

And now, with less than 90 days to election day, Chris Alexander has entered the race as another option on the right.

I sat around a cabinet table with Alexander. I like him. He hasn’t called to ask what I think, so I’ll offer it here free of charge. I don’t doubt for a second that Alexander sees greater potential in Toronto or that he wants to serve the people of this city humbly and well. But there’s an old truism in politics: Success is about timing. And Alexander simply doesn’t have enough time to beat Chow. No citywide organization, no municipal record and 12 weeks to build both. That’s not a knock on him. It’s just the calendar. His campaign carries one unwanted consequence and only one: Splitting the vote for change and re-electing Chow.

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Boost for Chow’s re-election hopes

Here’s what I can’t understand. How does anyone who knows how hard it is to do business in Toronto, to build anything in Toronto or to keep Toronto safe, look at that math and push for a spoiler candidate?

You don’t get to complain about the permits, the gridlock and the crime, then split the only vote that can change the city for the better. Whoever is telling Alexander the city needs him in this race is really telling him the city needs Chow re-elected. I hope he sees that in time.

I’ve spent my career watching Liberals and Conservatives find common ground when it matters. It’s happening again, right now, in this city. Liberals and Tories, businesspeople, builders and police advocates are lining up behind Bradford: A city planner by trade with a real plan, including 1,000 more frontline officers, traffic that moves and a city where you can build again.

This is no time for political games. This is our children’s and grandchildren’s future. This is about protecting what generations before us worked to build. Where I come from, we know what losing a city’s future looks like. Toronto doesn’t have to find out.

— Raitt is a former federal minister of transport, labour and natural resources and a former president and CEO of the Toronto Port Authority. She has officially endorsed Bradford for mayor.

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