Ontarians go to polls in municipal elections

A watershed election in Toronto will change the face of Canada’s largest city, and Ottawa’s mayor could get the boot.

By the end of the day cities across Ontario will have new leadership as the province’s municipalities hold scheduled elections. In Toronto, incumbent David Miller’s decision not to run has led to a hotly contested race that will come down to Rob Ford, George Smitherman, and Joe Pantalone. Ford and Smitherman have both vowed to radically cut funding at City Hall. Nine incumbent councilors aren’t running for re-election, meaning at least one fifth of the faces at city council will be new. In Ottawa, Jim Watson holds a 28-point lead over Larry O’Brien, the sitting mayor who admitted early in his campaign he’d done a bad job in his first two years in office.