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If you’ve found yourself scrolling on Instagram or Facebook this past week, you may have come across an ad that reads: “Under Olivia Chow, this city isn’t going anywhere.”
Depending on your age and political position, you might also come across another: “Brad [Bradford] will say anything. You can’t trust him to deliver on what Torontonians need.”
These attack ads have already reached hundreds of thousands of people ahead of a municipal election set for Oct. 26, according to summary data from the Meta ad library.
The ads have primarily attacked Mayor Olivia Chow or Coun. Brad Bradford — two of the highest-profile candidates expected to enter the race.
Progress Toronto and A Better City (ABC) Toronto are behind them, and the political advocacy groups are both looking to influence voters in the upcoming mayoral election.
Listen to the two groups on the Metro Morning podcast:
Municipal politics has, for the most part, remained independent from party politics. But ahead of the opening for nominations for the mayoral race on Friday, the emergence of groups like Progress and ABC — the former branded as left-wing, the latter centre-right — could impact the election, according to some political experts.
Both groups are young players in city politics
Progress and ABC Toronto are both relatively new political advocacy groups. Progress formed in 2018, while ABC formed in 2024.
Progress bills itself as a “progressive” advocacy group that seeks to “elect more progressive city councillors and public school board trustees,” according to its website.
The group was active in the 2022 municipal race and credits itself for the election of five progressive city councillors, and later Mayor Chow’s win.
Some members of Progress Toronto even went on to work in Chow’s office, like the group’s former executive director Michal Hay, who is now Chow’s chief of staff (she’s currently on paternal leave).
ABC Toronto bills itself as a group of “concerned citizens” who advocate for “practical solutions” to city issues like affordability and community safety.
The 2026 mayoral race marks its first involvement in a municipal election.
ABC Toronto and Progress Toronto have ran multiple ads targeting Mayor Olivia Chow and Coun. Brad Bradford since mid-April. (Meta ad library)Groups present contrasting election positioning
ABC Toronto’s founder and board member Jeffrey Kroeker and Progress Toronto’s executive director Saman Tabasinejad laid out their groups’ early election positioning on CBC Radio’s Metro Morning this week.
Tabasinejad blamed former mayor John Tory for the current issues plaguing the city, like transit woes and affordability concerns.
“What we saw during the last 10 years prior to Olivia Chow was cuts in services, cuts in transit, cuts in affordability … we saw [it] all around us,” she said, referring to issues like snow clearing and garbage collection.
The group’s ads on Meta platforms have targeted Coun. Brad Bradford, a Tory ally who ran against Chow in the 2023 mayoral byelection and announced plans to run for mayor again this year. Bradford has spent months positioning himself for the run with campaign-style social media videos and announcements criticizing the mayor.
“People are frustrated, rightfully so, because of decisions that were made under conservatives, who frankly are completely out of touch with the city,” Tabasinejad said.
Kroeker, on the other hand, blamed Chow for the same issues Tabasinejad raised, calling her three years in office “an abject failure.” The organization has specifically targeted Chow in their Meta advertising.
“This 10-year decline at the city is in part beholden to a council that is in dire need of change, and who subscribed to a more left-wing activist ideology,” he said in rebuttal to Tabasinejad.
“The folks that take our position on things believe that this current mayor’s office couldn’t organize a two-car funeral if its life depended on it,” he said.
ABC’s most recent ads on Meta platforms have gone after Chow, who has not formally declared a re-election bid but regularly talks about her plans for the city beyond 2026.
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Toronto mayor Olivia Chow sat down with CBC’s Lane Harrison to discuss what her goals are for the city for 2026.Provincial rule change makes advocacy groups more visible: expert
Advocacy groups like Progress and ABC “could have an effect ” on the municipal election, said Zack Taylor, an associate professor of political science at the University of Western Ontario who studies municipal politics.
But because these groups often use billboard and online advertising to get their messaging across, it makes it hard to audit for impact, said Taylor.
“Some people have referred to these groups as kind of shadow parties,” he said, noting that political parties “create machinery to fight elections … and to some degree these organizations are doing that.”
Taylor said that’s not necessarily a new concept, but it’s become more apparent after a provincial rule change mandated registration for all third party advertisers in municipal elections.
Tabasinejad said Progress Toronto sees the upcoming election as “an opportunity to really shape city council.”
Kroeker said ABC Toronto will engage with voters to make “a generational change at city hall, both in the mayor’s office but also throughout all of council.”