Articles

Rob Ford in Toronto: Why the Ascendancy of Hard-Right Populism in the 2010 Mayoral Election?

By Parastou Saberi and Stefan Kipfer

On October 25th, the citizens of Toronto voted decisively for a hard-right populist mayor: Councilor Rob Ford. With an unusually high voter turnout (52.6%), Ford received 47.1% of the vote, about the same as the combined vote for his main competitors, former Liberal cabinet minister George Smitherman (35.6%) and deputy mayor Joe Pantalone (11.7%). Among the city’s 44 wards, only 13 did not vote as a plurality or majority for Ford.

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