John Tory is seeking re-election for a third term as Mayor of Toronto, but several challengers hope to dethrone the incumbent in the upcoming October 24, 2022 municipal election.

Ten candidates, including Tory, have thrown their hats in the ring as of June 30, including a few returning candidates and several newcomers.

John Tory

The first candidate on the list needs no introduction, elected in 2014 after the turbulent Rob Ford years with refreshingly boring middle-of-the-road stances and securing a second term in the 2018 election.

Tory had previously run for mayor in 2003, losing to David Miller, before making a move into provincial politics as the leader of the Ontario PC Party. His career in Ontario politics came to an end in 2009. After a return stint to broadcasting and years of speculation, he was elected to his first term as Toronto's mayor in 2014 and re-elected four years later.

Sarah Climenhaga

Sarah Climenhaga's name may be familiar to Toronto voters, as she was among the candidates to run in the October 22, 2018 election.

Climenhaga placed sixth in the running with 4,765 votes, though her progressive urban policy pledges were largely overshadowed by the higher-profile former chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat's last-minute campaign. She has since taken on an anti-mandate stance in regards to vaccines, distancing her from her progressive base.

Climenhaga later represented the Green Party of Canada in the Toronto—St. Paul's riding in the 2019 federal election, coming in a distant fourth place with 4,042 votes, or 6.76 per cent of the total.

Kris Langenfeld

Langenfeld was another candidate to run in 2018, though his campaign was met with less love from voters, garnering just 695 total votes.

His campaign website appears unchanged since the last election but offers up a confused platform that includes a mix of car-centric pitches like moving bike lanes to side streets while also advocating for progressive stances like inclusionary zoning and police reform.
 

Cory Deville

Among the newcomers in this election, Cory Deville is a self-described "serial entrepreneur," according to his Instagram page, which is also filled with shirtless photos of the guy.

His LinkedIn page claims that his company, Deville Ventures, "blurs the lines between micro venture capital, growth incubator and consulting firm."

Sure. Okay, man.

John Letonja (AKA Mr. Nobody)

Referring to himself as Mr. Nobody, John Letonja claims to be "an experimentalist not a politician," though I don't think anyone was going to mistake him for the latter.

His platform — almost entirely lacking in any meaningful punctuation or grammar — includes difficult-to-read pledges to "stop wasting tax payers [sic] money on senseless projects we [have] done already," and boldly promises to singlehandedly solve the pandemic.

Phillip D'Cruze

This candidate has little more than a fledgling social media presence and no website, but his platform appears to be heavily geared towards renters and the under-housed.

D'Cruze is calling for a 20 per cent rent reduction across all homes and retail businesses for three years, increased fines for landlords who fail to maintain properties, and a sweeping rezoning of the city that would designate 75 per cent of land for new apartment buildings.

Reginald Tull

Reginald Tull has spent the last few years working to complete his memoir based on his life experiences growing up in Toronto. And now he wants to run the city.

His platform, like many other candidates, focuses on hot topics like affordable housing and the global health crisis but also has controversial bits like a commitment to reinstate unvaccinated city employees.

Blake Acton
 

A former police officer who served for 30 years (with a brief modelling stint his 20s), Blake Acton is firmly on the right of the political spectrum with views equating homelessness to crime, promises to reinstate unvaccinated city employees, and blames congestion on bike lanes.

According to a feature in the Toronto Sun, Acton lives in the wealthy enclave of Rosedale. A true man of the people.

Tony Luk

Tony founded CanHome Group over 31 years ago, which he describes as a one-stop shop for Canadian immigration services. Luk ran in the January 15 Councillor Ward 22 Scarborough-Agincourt by-election, falling to Nick Mantas.

Now he's back with loftier ambitions, and based on his campaign to become councillor, it's expected that Luk will run on a similar platform of stimulating the local economy, clamping down on dangerous streets, and most notably, support for a proposed Sheppard East Subway Extension.

Kyle Schwartz

The last candidate on this list is also the one with the least available information. Kyle Schwartz was among the very first to submit his bid to become Toronto's next mayor, nominated as a candidate on May 2, the same day as Tory, Tull, Luk, and Acton.

Without a website, email address, or any social media profiles publicly available, this candidate's platform remains a mystery, at least for now.