Then-Immigration Minister Chris Alexander answers a question during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on May 25, 2015. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick
Toronto mayoral candidate Chris Alexander says he is dropping out of the race just weeks before election day after concluding he has no path to victory.
Alexander, a former Conservative cabinet minister, announced his withdrawal in a statement followed by a press conference at his campaign headquarters on Oct. 6, about half an hour before advance voting was set to begin.
In the post, he said he entered the race “to put serious ideas on the table,” citing a property-tax freeze, construction of affordable housing, improving the Toronto Transit Commission, and developing a plan to end homelessness.
Alexander said some of those ideas had been adopted by other candidates and that his campaign will have accomplished something if those candidates deliver on them.
“I am not endorsing anyone in this election,” he wrote, adding that voters should read other candidates’ platforms and ask what they cost. “I trust Torontonians to make the right choice.”
At the press conference, Alexander said that over the past weekend it became clear to him that the “path to success” was “not obvious and perhaps not there at all.”
He told reporters that polling data indicated his support had barely risen since he kicked off his campaign, so he and his team “wanted to take this difficult decision before advance polls open.” He said this would give Torontonians the chance to vote for someone who would see their campaign through to the end.
Toronto’s municipal election is scheduled for Oct. 26, and the deadline to officially withdraw as a candidate was Aug. 21. As a result, Alexander’s name will remain on the ballot.
Alexander was set to appear in a debate at Toronto Metropolitan University on Oct. 6, but it will now feature only current councillor Brad Bradford and incumbent Mayor Olivia Chow.
Recent polls have placed Alexander in a distant third, with 9 percent support among decided voters, behind Bradford and Chow, who has been polling in the lead throughout the campaign.
Alexander was elected MP for Ajax–Pickering in 2011 and served as federal immigration minister from 2013 to 2015.
He worked as a diplomat and served at the Canadian Embassy in Moscow before being selected as Canada’s first resident ambassador to Afghanistan in 2003.
With files from the Canadian Press.
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