“Byelections are usually sleepy little elections,” Rachel Chernos Lin said in her car on Thursday, between a morning door-knocking run and an afternoon canvassing at a retirement home.
Chernos Lin is running in the Don Valley West byelection to replace the late Jaye Robinson, who passed away in May, vacating a council seat she held for nearly 15 years.
“This byelection is very different. It feels like there’s a lot at stake,” she said.
"It really is a strong local candidate with a lot of experience — that's me — and I'm in a really tight race with someone who is just visiting and really wants to be mayor,” Chernos Lin said. ”He's talking a lot about the mayor and I think we should be talking about the issues facing Don Valley West.”
The rival candidate she was referring to is Anthony Furey, a former Toronto Sun columnist who entered a crowded field during last year’s mayoral byelection.
Furey, a conservative, came away with a surprisingly good result for a newcomer to elected politics, placing fourth with nearly five per cent of the vote.
He was just behind former Toronto police chief Mark Saunders, who got 8.5 per cent of the vote. Former deputy mayor Ana Bailão finished second with 32.5 per cent. Both had powerful backers.
Saunders had Ontario Premier Doug Ford in his corner along with several other prominent conservatives. Former Toronto mayor John Tory endorsed Bailão.
In the end, Olivia Chow won with just over 37 per cent.
Saunders has stayed quiet since the mayoral election. Bailão returned to her job as head of affordable housing and public affairs with Dream, a development company with a big presence in Canada and properties in the U.S. and Europe.
Furey, however, has kept his sights set on local office. His campaign did not respond to two interview requests from TorontoToday.
Should Furey win, the opposition at city hall could be realigned.
According to Matt Elliott’s City Hall Watcher, Chow can normally count on the support of 20 councillors on consequential votes, a large majority that has allowed much of the mayor's agenda to easily pass.
Chernos Lin said she’s not in the business of taking sides just yet.
“There are probably things we see slightly differently, and then there are other things where we would be aligned,” she said of Chow’s politics.
Just four councillors reliably vote against Chow on a consistent basis.
Beaches—East York Coun. Brad Bradford is one of the four. He also ran for mayor last year, finishing eighth, with just over one per cent of the vote.
Bradford isn’t all opposition. Just this week he worked with the mayor's office on a proposal to get more dense housing on major streets across the city.
He isn’t afraid to criticize the mayor on many issues. Earlier this week, he spoke to reporters shortly after Chow unveiled a major new program intended to incentivize purpose-built and affordable rental units.
Bradford called part of the plan “completely pie in the sky” while within earshot of some of Chow’s senior staff, who were mingling with some reporters after the announcement.
Should Furey win Monday’s contest, he could supplant Bradford as the leading voice of the right against Chow.
Furey has come out against many of Chow’s most visible policies and decisions.
According to his campaign website, if elected Furey would oppose more bike lanes on major streets. He said Torontonians can't handle another large property tax increase. Renaming Yonge-Dundas Square to Sankofa Square should be scrapped. He’d work to address what he said are people’s safety concerns on the TTC and fear of carjackings. He’d hire more police officers and “phase out” safe injection sites.
The campaign has also been rife with accusations of bigotry.
Progress Toronto, a left-leaning interest group, is running an anti-Furey mailer campaign that cites past columns he wrote that were critical of Islam, pro-Donald Trump and anti-vaccine.
Evan Sambasivam, who ran in the byelection but dropped out to support Chernos Lin on the urging of former premier Kathleen Wynne and John Tory, said he withdrew to “stop Anthony Furey and his white nationalist rhetoric.”
“Today, the greatest public service I can do is to prevent a self-interested racist from getting a seat on council,” he added.
In response, Furey threatened to sue Sambasivam.
Sambasivam and Dhruv Jain, the other candidate who dropped out to support Chernos Lin, have both canvassed for her in recent weeks.
On Thursday, Coun. Josh Matlow wrote a long post on X denouncing Furey and endorsing Chernos Lin.
The wave of cynical, divisive populism spreading across Canada is threatening to find another foothold in Don Valley West (Ward 15) as voters go to the polls on November 4th to elect a new City Councillor after the tragic passing of Jaye Robinson. Far right pundit Anthony Furey..
— Josh Matlow (@JoshMatlow) October 31, 2024
Matlow’s staff have also lent a helping hand on the ground, Chernos Lin said.
The endorsements don’t stop there. Energy Minister Stephen Lecce canvassed for Furey. Toronto Sun columnist Brian Lilley — who worked with Furey at the paper — just wrote a piece endorsing him. Independent MP Kevin Voung also came out for Furey.
Scores of other conservative politicians and backroom heavyweights — like former federal cabinet minister Peter Van Loan and former top staffer to Doug Ford Laryssa Waler Hetmanczuk — have taken to social media and the streets of Don Valley West to lend support to Furey.
Tory and Wynne aren’t the only ones pulling for Chernos Lin. Liberal MPP Stephanie Bowman, who represents Don Valley West at Queen’s Park, and Rob Oliphant, the area’s representative in Ottawa, have endorsed her.
Chernos Lin doesn’t think her association with Liberals is a bad thing, even though Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is a massive drag on the party’s brand.
“Has it backfired on me? People are certainly trying to use it against me,” she said. “I can't really control who endorses me, who doesn't endorse me. I think of it as a badge of honour, because I think these are all fine people who have worked hard over the years to represent our community.”
Despite all the attention Furey’s views have garnered, Chernos Lin is avoiding those issues and keeping her pitch focused on her experience.
“I’m everything that Anthony Furey is not,” she said.
She’s been the ward’s Toronto District School Board (TDSB) trustee for six years and chaired the board for two.
“I have lots of experience and experience matters,” she said. “I live in the riding (Furey lives just south of the ward) and I have a proven track record of getting things done.”
“I've brought capital projects into the ward. I've managed a $3.4-billion budget for the TDSB,” she continued. “I have brought a lot of common sense to my work in the TDSB. I'm a trustee that got rid of cell phones in schools, and I have the work ethic to show for it.”
On housing, one of the biggest issues facing the city, she doesn’t think tall towers are the way to go.
“I understand we need housing, and I understand we need different types of housing but I just worry that we're going to end up like Yonge and Eglinton at Bayview and Eglinton, and at Yonge and Lawrence, the same thing,” she said.
She’d prefer low- and mid-rise buildings along the ward’s bigger streets that have larger units for families. Getting density into neighbourhoods, however, isn’t a priority.
“I think most people would prefer to keep it along avenues,” she said.
She’s also concerned the ward doesn’t have enough infrastructure and community space — like rinks and parks — to serve current residents, let alone those moving into the new and planned developments.
On bike lanes, another hot-button issue being partially stoked by provincial intervention, she also tried to strike a middle ground.
“I think it's being used as a bit of a wedge issue,” she said. “We need to really think carefully about what the future of the city is, and what does the city with bike lanes look like? Because we're not going to get rid of all of the bike lanes.”
She pivoted to other, less controversial traffic calming measures.
“We could be making sure we're getting really strong smart signal technology in place so that traffic is flowing as best as it can,” she said.
Chernos Lin said the city should incentivize builders by “making sure that they're not taking up extra lanes of traffic unnecessarily, and that they're building as quickly as possible.”
CaféTO, the city program that lets restaurants set up patios on streets and sidewalks, is also in her crosshairs.
“I think we have to also think carefully about CaféTO in the north part of the riding, whether that's still something we want to have because that also causes congestion,” she said.
Chernos Lin and Furey aren’t the only candidates in the riding. There are a dozen more but a recent poll suggested it’s a two-horse race.
Liaison Strategies’ poll has Furey at 38 per cent support, compared to 33 per cent for Chernos Lin, while 30 per cent of respondents were undecided.
The interactive voice response poll of just 547 eligible voters has a margin of error of 4.19 per cent, according to Liaison.
Over 4,000 voters have already cast a ballot in advance polls.
Election day is Monday, Nov. 4. The ward’s 49 polling stations will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Editor's note: This story previously referred to Stephen Lecce as education minister. He is the energy minister.
