The poll,<\/a> published Tuesday, found that 52.4 per cent of decided voters responded that they would vote for Chow if an election were held today, compared to 42.6 per cent for Bradford and four per cent for Alexander.<\/p>\nThe deadline to officially withdraw as a candidate in Toronto\u2019s municipal election was Aug. 21. That means that while Alexander is suspending his campaign, his name is likely to remain on ballots.<\/p>\n
\u2018I\u2019m a realist\u2019<\/p>\n
Alexander said he will not be endorsing anyone in the race. <\/p>\n
He added that he \u201cthought long and hard\u201d about whether he would endorse another candidate, but that he couldn\u2019t find a candidate that was \u201caligned.\u201d <\/p>\n
Alexander said the the decision to quit the campaign was made \u201cindependently\u201d and there were \u201cno behind the scenes\u201d conversations with other candidates or \u201cquid pro quos\u201d for a post-election role. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf I could help implement one or more of the ideas that we put forward in this campaign or that I thought was important for Toronto, I would definitely consider it,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Alexander noted that he plans to go back to the private sector. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think I will take a more lively interest in city issues,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
He urged voters to read all the platforms, including his, to see what candidates are offering. <\/p>\n
\u201cSee which candidates align with you the most. Look at the ideas that we put forward and others have put forward, and challenge the other candidates by email, at debates, through media, in any way you can,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cAsk what promises cost. Is it within the mayor\u2019s power? Or whether the numbers add up? We can\u2019t afford to have a Toronto that is more fiscally fragile than it has been in recent years. Don\u2019t decide based on lawn signs, social media, or what your neighbour tells you. Have those conversations but make up your own mind.\u201d <\/p>\n
When asked why he didn\u2019t stick it out until the end, Alexander replied, \u201cI\u2019m a realist.\u201d <\/p>\n
He noted that the other two campaigns were \u201cquite far ahead\u201d and he didn\u2019t think he could catch up. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere are some people who say, \u2018Everybody makes up their mind in the last week. Look at Ana Bail\u00e3o.\u2019 There is no guarantee of that,\u201d Alexander said. <\/p>\n
Bail\u00e3o saw a surge in support during the final stretch of the 2023 mayoral byelection after former mayor John Tory endorsed her as a candidate. <\/p>\n
He noted that this race is a different \u201cbeast\u201d with an incumbent and \u201canother candidate who has been running for a very long time.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought we had a chance of catching up faster. It didn\u2019t happen,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
He called his platform a \u201ccentrist, progressive, non-partisan, action-oriented agenda.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is out there for anyone to agree with and adopt,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we\u2019ve made one contribution to this race I think it is ideas and we have no ownership of those.\u201d <\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters after the announcement, Olivia Chow acknowledged Alexander put forward \u201csome really good ideas.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI want to thank Chris Alexander for coming forward, for having some really good ideas on like building supportive housing, it was a very comprehensive package that he put forward,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Toronto\u2019s municipal election is scheduled for Oct. 26.<\/p>\n
Related Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chris Alexander has announced he is dropping out of the race to become the next mayor of Toronto.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":922991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[712,43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-922990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-apple-news","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=922990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/922991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=922990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=922990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=922990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}