Lost track of the race to be Toronto's next mayor? Get up to speed here
CBC
Hello, potential Toronto voter. There's two and a half weeks to go before the city's mayoral byelection on June 26.
At this point in the campaign you may have already settled on your candidate of choice, or perhaps with a whopping 102 options you're working on narrowing down your top picks.
Or — and there is no shame in this — maybe you're just starting to pay attention to this whole election thing.
Either way, we've got you covered with a host of resources to help you get up to speed.
Advance voting opened Thursday and will continue until June 13. There are 50 advance polling locations across the city that are open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The city made a key improvement to make advance voting more convenient for this byelection: you can vote at any polling station you like, no matter what ward you live in. If you wait until election day, you'll need to vote at a polling place in your neighbourhood. The city's MyVote site is the best resource to find where that is.
You can learn more about how to vote and get answers to some FAQs about the process here.
If you applied successfully to vote by mail, Toronto Elections needs to receive your completed package by noon on June 15. The city has a good explainer on filling out your mail-in voting package here.
Unfortunately, yes. A mail-in voting drop box outside the Wellesley Community Centre on Sherbourne Street was vandalized on Tuesday night.
Toronto Elections estimates that about seven packages were damaged, meaning they won't be counted. Anyone who dropped a mail-in voting package in the box between 9:45 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. on June 6 is asked to call 416-338-1111 or email VoteByMail@toronto.ca to discuss options.
To stop any further vandalism, the city has opted to move drop boxes inside the locations where they were placed. That means they'll only be accessible during the normal operating hours of each building. Details will be posted by the city here.
With more than a hundred people in the race, there are a lot of promises being thrown out. It is, quite literally, impossible to keep track of them all, let alone make sense of all of them.
We tried to do the next best thing. We've broken down the major commitments of six of the top candidates on seven key issues: the budget, housing, livability, public safety, tenants rights, gridlock and public transit. You can compare them for yourself here.
There have also been no shortage of debates. They seem to be getting more heated as the campaign drags on and candidates try to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack.