The Star to co-host debate featuring Toronto mayoral candidates on May 31

The event will be held at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Ted Rogers School of Management.

Thestar.com
March 14, 2023
Thea Gribilas

The Toronto Star, United Way Greater Toronto and Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) will jointly host a mayoral candidates debate on May 31.

The debate, which will also be livestreamed, is set to take place at TMU’s Ted Rogers School of Management with candidates focusing on the critical social and economic challenges facing Toronto.

“This is a precarious moment for our city, where strong leadership is more critical than ever,” said Toronto Star publisher Jordan Bitove. “Affordability, safety, transit, homelessness are among the key issues that demand solutions informed by a vision for our city’s future.”

“During this mayoral campaign, the Star is committed to engaging the entire city in a conversation about the future and pushing the candidates to lay out a roadmap for a stronger, more cohesive, more caring Toronto for all,” said Bitove.

The debate will be part of the lead-up to the Monday, June 26 byelection for a new Toronto mayor after John Tory announced his resignation last month following a Star investigation that revealed he’d had an extramarital affair with a staff member in his office.

Nominations for mayoral candidates open on Monday, April 3.

“We are thrilled to be welcoming the candidates, students and the community to our campus,” said TMU president Mohamed Lachemi. “By engaging the electorate and providing an opportunity for informed public dialogue, this partnership … is helping to support voting accessibility, informed public policy debate and a more vibrant and thriving democracy in our city.”

Josh Matlow, who is actively considering the possibility of running for mayor, said that there are critical issues that need to be discussed in the byelection, and that this debate will provide a forum for those conversations.

“A wonderful thing about a debate like this is the organizers invite candidates into the same room, the same stage, to provide residents with competing visions and ideas -- and I would hope, obviously, that it would be a substantive political debate,” said Matlow.

“Hopefully, I would like to think (the debate) would inspire people to engage in our local democracy,” he added.

Daniele Zanotti the president and chief executive officer at United Way Greater Toronto added that “civic engagement is critically needed now.”

“We need to drive solutions to poverty and inequity now, as Toronto is growing.”

Tory, whose February 10 announcement of his resignation shocked the city, had been mayor of Toronto for just over eight years.

Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie will serve as Toronto’s mayor until the June 26 byelection.