What does Toronto’s low 2022 election turnout look like for individual wards?
We mapped the wards with the highest and lowest voter turnout.
The dust has settled on the 2022 Toronto municipal election, sending mayor John Tory back to City Hall for a third term with a commanding 62 per cent of the mayoral vote.
But the voter turnout hit a record-low of 29 per cent, a sharp decline from the 2018 election’s 41 per cent turnout.
The lower turnout meant that Tory was re-elected with about 342,000 votes in a city with a voting population of over 1.89 million, whereas in 2018 he secured his second term with almost 480,000.
Numerous potential causes have been proposed for the low figures, including voter apathy, a lack of accessible information about candidates, and a sense that many races were already decided in a city where the average councilor serves for 13.8 years.
Voting may also have been hampered because the election fell on the same day as both Diwali, the most important religious celebration of the year for many Hindus and Jains, and Bandhi Chhor Divas, a religious celebration for Sikhs.
Whatever the cause, voter engagement is low. But how is this city-wide trend borne out at the individual-ward level? To answer that, we mapped the most- and least-engaged wards by voter turnout.
Some wards were clearly more engaged than others
While turnout was low across the city — no individual ward hit the city-wide 41 per cent threshold of 2018 — it wasn’t equally low in every area. The highest turnout was in:
- Ward 4 Parkdale-High Park (38 per cent), where incumbent Gord Perks secured a narrow three-per-cent victory over challenger Chemi Lhamo, a well-known activist in Parkdale with a large supporter base in the neighbourhood.
- Ward 19 Beeches-East York (36 per cent), where incumbent Brad Bradford comfortably held onto his seat with a 32 per cent lead over his rival, Jennie Worden.
- Ward 14 Toronto-Danforth (35 per cent), where incumbent Paula Fletcher was re-elected with a landslide 72 per cent of the vote.
On the other hand, the wards with the lowest turnout were:
- Ward 23 Scarborough North (17 per cent), where lawyer and community advocate Jamaal Myers was elected councilor after incumbent Cynthia Lai died last week, and joined a crowd of newly-elected progressives as one of three new Black councilors.
- Ward 10 Spadina-Fort York (23 per cent), where Ausma Malik replaced outgoing incumbent Joe Cressy to become the first Muslim woman wearing a hijab on City Council.
- Ward 7 Humber River-Black Creek (21 per cent), where incumbent Anthony Peruzza soared to re-election with 61 per cent of the vote, beating challenger and Ward 4 school board trustee Christopher Mammoliti.
In the middle of the pack was Ward 18 Willowdale with 28 per cent, now represented by Councilor Lily Cheng after incumbent John Filion decided to retire from politics this year.
Ward upsets and fresh faces on City Council
While sixteen out of seventeen incumbent councilors were re-elected, nine new faces were elected for the first time. The crop of inducted progressives included three new Black councilors, bringing the total to four, and the first hijab-wearing Muslim woman on City Council, Ausma Malik.
In Ward 11 University-Rosedale, the progressive stronghold vacated by outgoing incumbent Mike Layton, former Ontario environmental commissioner Dianne Saxe was elected after a tight race.
Meanwhile, Ward 9 Davenport saw Tory ally Ana Bailão replaced by Alejandra Bravo after the outgoing deputy mayor decided not to seek re-election. Bravo is also a progressive and widely expected to form part of the left-wing opposition to Tory.
Michael Thompson was re-elected in Ward 21 Scarborough Centre as he faces sexual assault charges in court. His lawyers have said he intends to plead not guilty.
And in Ward 5 York-South Weston, the longest-serving member of City Council, Frances Nunziata, emerged victorious from a nailbiting contest with a slim 94-vote victory over her nearest rival, tenant advocate and social worker Chiara Padovani. Former City of York mayor Nunziata is now in her twenty-fifth year on City Council.
Code and markup by Chris Dinn. ©Torontoverse, 2022