Toronto council races worth watching on election day

Though the competition for mayor’s chair has received most of the attention, there are also some hotly-contested races for the city’s 44 council seats.

Here are five wards to watch during Monday’s election.

Ward 2: Will Rob Ford win his old seat back?

Toronto's Ward 2 Etobicoke North council seat has been held by a member of the Ford family for years now. Rob Ford was the councillor for the ward for 10 years. His brother, Doug, took over the seat in 2010 when Rob ran for mayor, holding it for the past four years.

After Rob dropped out of the mayoral race to focus on recovering from cancer, he entered the competition for Ward 2.

Early in the campaign, Andray Domise, a 33-year-old financial planner, was seen as the most likely candidate to beat Ford, after he received high-profile endorsements from John Tory and former mayoral candidate David Soknacki.

But Munira Abukar, a 22-year-old Somali-Canadian who sits on the board of the Toronto Community Housing Corporation, also has name recognition. After she tweeted images of racist messages scrawled on her campaign signs, prominent people, including Olivia Chow, publicly condemned the act.

It appears that the Ford name is still strong. A small poll of 216 voters, taken by Forum Research in October, gave 45 per cent to Rob Ford, 15 per cent to Domise and 14 per cent to Abukar.

How many candidates are running in Ward 2? Fourteen candidates are in the running, full list here.

Ward 20: Big names vie for seat

Former mayoral candidate Sarah Thomson, former NDP candidate Joe Cressy and former NoJetsTO campaign organizer Anshul Kapoor are among the 22 hopefuls running to represent the residents of Ward 20, also called Trinity-Spadina.

Without an incumbent, it began as a wide-open race. Retired civil servant Ceta Ramkhalawansingh currently holds Adam Vaughan's former council seat, after being appointed by councillors in July. But she’s not standing as a candidate for the October vote.

Vaughan had vacated his seat to run federally for the Liberal party, after former NDP MP Olivia Chow left the House of Commons to join the Toronto mayoral race.

After a June byelection that saw him face off against Cressy, Vaughan was elected and is now the federal MP for Trinity-Spadina.

A small poll from Forum Research taken in the weeks before election day gave Cressy 42 per cent support and Thomson 12 per cent. Terri Chu, a self-described “ locavore, pilot, engineer, a former certified financial planner, dedicated cyclist and volunteer,” had 11 per cent support.

How many candidates are running in Ward 20? Twenty-two candidates are in the running, full list here.

Ward 7: Controversial incumbent in race that’s too close to call

Outspoken Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti has held Ward 7 York West for nearly 20 years.

But Nick Di Nizio, Mammoliti's chief opponent in 2010, is running against him again, and Mammoliti's uncensored comments have made headlines over the last four years.

Most recently, Mammoliti accepted an $80,000 gift from a fundraiser, a move that cost the councillor 90 days of pay in July. In June, he made headlines when he called the Toronto neighbourhood of Parkdale a "pedophile district."

Will the ward vote to keep the controversial candidate, or opt for a change?

We won’t know until the votes are counted, but a small Forum Research poll taken in the weeks before election day gave Mammolitti 33 per cent support, compared to 25 per cent for Di Nizio. One in four said they were undecided.

How many candidates are running in Ward 7? Eight candidates are running for the council seat. Full list available online.

Ward 30: Too close to predict

The fight for Ward 30 Toronto-Danforth is hard to predict, serving as a rematch for incumbent Paula Fletcher and her opponent Liz West.

In the 2010 election, Fletcher beat West by 259 votes, or 1.4 per cent of ballots cast.

Jane Farrow, the founding director of Jane's Walk, has also joined the race, with a similar political outlook to Fletcher. West and Farrow are both broadcast journalists.

Paula Fletcher had the most support – 39 per cent – in a poll of 324 voters by Forum Research, with Liz West at 24 per cent and Jane Farrow at 15 per cent.

How many candidates are running in Ward 23? Six candidates are running in Ward 30. Full list available online.

Ward 12: Incumbent Frank Di Giorgio could lose his seat

Veteran Coun. Frank Di Giorgio -- who has represented the York South-Weston Ward for 12 years -- is facing three other candidates in this race.

Former MP and city councillor John Nunziata threw his hat in the race just before the Sept. 12 deadline. Nick Dominelli, who came in second with 24 per cent of the vote in 2010, and Lekan Olawoye, an executive director of the non-profit For Youth Initiative, are also on the ballot.

Di Giorgio won the council seat with 27 per cent of the vote in 2010.

A small Forum Research poll taken in October suggests Ward 12 is still a toss-up: it gave Di Giorgio 16 per cent, Dominelli 17 per cent, Olawoye 15 per cent and Nunziata 19 per cent.

How many candidates are running in Ward 12? Four candidates are running in Ward 12. Full list available online.