Ever since John Tory was elected mayor of Toronto in 2014, voter turnout in municipal elections has been in decline. In 2010, the year Rob Ford was elected mayor, turnout was 50.4 percent. Four years later, 54.7 percent of all eligible voters went to the polls to elect a new chief magistrate. However, in 2018, just 40.9 percent bothered to vote, and in 2022, turnout fell further, to just 29.7 percent.
With the recent release of detailed voter statistics from the 2022 municipal election in the Toronto Open Data catalogue, it is now possible to see how much turnout dropped in each ward.
I dig deeper into the last election’s dismal showing, and what it might mean for the upcoming mayoral by-election, at Spacing Toronto.
Sean Marshall 
One reply on “Voter turnout in the 2022 municipal election”
What has me truly concerned at this point in time is not so much the platforms, but that according to the results of Mainstreet Research, their polling shows the the most popular candidate at this time has only 8% of the ‘pie’ in potential votes.
https://www.mainstreetresearch.ca/2023_Polls/Toronto/Toronto_Late_Feb_2023_QP-1.pdf?_t=1677823873
This indicates an overwhelming need for a change in the Municipal Elections Act to allow for run-off selection.
Since that isn’t going to happen under the present regime at QP, one has to wonder what disaster awaits us at the polls.
Ms Keesmaat: Where are you? She’s wisely washed her hands of it and moved on.