Chow held a double-digit lead over councillor Brad Bradford with most polls reporting Monday night.

Her campaign watch party, held at the same west-end venue where she celebrated her 2023 byelection victory, erupted into chants of “Olivia” as television broadcasters called the election for Chow.

"My friends, tonight we celebrate. Tomorrow, we get back to work. Because an election victory isn't the finish line. It is a responsibility," Chow told the raucous crowd shortly after 10:30 p.m.

Olivia Chow was re-elected as Toronto's mayor, fending off a challenge from councillor Brad Bradford. Chow's re-election pitch rested largely on her track record, and she will be expected to make good on new promises, including capping transit fares at 10 rides a week and building more affordable rental housing.

Her re-election pitch rested largely on her track record, highlighted by the deal to upload city expressway costs to the province, tighter rules for bad-faith evictions, and reduced 911 wait times. She will be expected to make good on new promises, including capping transit fares at 10 rides a week, building more affordable rental housing and expanding a school nutrition program.

She vowed to create a task force to pursue landlords with the worst track records and empower the city to complete more repairs in buildings where owners had chronically refused court-ordered work.

Bradford's campaign attempted to cast Chow as out of touch with the city's anxieties and grievances, leaning hard on issues of crime, transit safety and traffic congestion. Opinion polls in the waning days suggested the race could be a dead heat.

Some observers speculated that tightening race could mirror a broader Canadian political climate driven by voter dissatisfaction and a growing desire for change, citing recent incumbent defeats in British Columbia and Quebec elections. Mayoral incumbents in Mississauga and Hamilton were both unseated by wide margins on Monday night.

But in Toronto, it was Chow's message that triumphed. Unofficial results on election night suggested she secured more than 50 per cent of the vote in what was a two-way race with Bradford.

Chow was raised in a highrise apartment in St. James Town, a familiar landing in the downtown core for working-class newcomers, after her family immigrated from Hong Kong when she was 13. She was first elected as a school board trustee in 1985, sat for 13 years on Toronto city council until 2005, and then went to Ottawa as an NDP MP alongside her late husband, former federal New Democrat leader Jack Layton.

She made a failed bid for mayor in 2014 only to successfully return in the 2023 byelection after John Tory's resignation. Chow, 69, heads into a full four-year term with several key allies also winning their own re-election bids and other new progressive faces ascending to city hall.

"I have never forgotten what Toronto gave my family, and I have spent my life trying to give back because Toronto is a city that believes in people, a progressive city, a city of compassion, a city to welcome newcomers. A city that stands up for working people, celebrates our differences and believes everyone deserves a fair chance," she said.

Results were delayed by over an hour in Toronto as the city said it extended voting at some locations to accommodate those still in line. Results began to trickle in after 9 p.m. with the first batch of votes showing Bradford with a slim lead. That lead, and the initial buzz at his campaign headquarters, vanished as more polls reported.

Bradford conceded defeat and congratulated Chow on her re-election.

"I implore all of us, everybody in a leadership position here in Toronto, to make sure that we spend the days, weeks, and months ahead bringing this city back together, healing this city, making sure that this is a city for everybody — a city that's safe for everybody and a city where nobody is left behind," Bradford said.

At the council level, Mike Layton, Chow's stepson, was poised to reclaim his former seat in University-Rosedale after stepping away from municipal politics. The ward incumbent Dianne Saxe, who instead opted to run in Toronto-Danforth to avoid a faceoff with Layton, lost that race to Sara Ehrhardt.

Diana Chan McNally, one of the city's most vocal defenders of people experiencing homelessness, won in Parkdale-High Park, the seat left open by the retirement of longtime progressive councillor Gord Perks.

While Chow held off her challenger, other councillors were not so successful. Monday's election put an end to more than four decades of city politics for Frances Nunziata, who lost to progressive opponent Chiara Padovani in York South-Weston. Shaun Chen, the former federal Liberal MP who resigned earlier this year, unseated transit chair Jamaal Myers in Scarborough North.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 26, 2026.

—With files from Kathryn Mannie and Maan Alhmidi