Can Toronto’s Antizionist Mayor be Defeated?

Most Jews in Toronto are aware of the consequential Israeli election on October 27. But, by coincidence, Jews living in Toronto face a consequential municipal election the day before – on October 26, 2026.

Toronto has experienced an exceptionally serious and sustained rise in antisemitic hate incidents, with Jewish residents vastly overrepresented among victims of reported hate crime: Jewish-owned stores vandalized; rocks thrown through synagogue windows; bullets fired at the windows and doors of synagogues, bagel bakeries, and Jewish schools; weekly demonstrations in Jewish residential neighborhoods; and intimidating protests held just outside the doors of synagogues and Jewish community centres. Police cars are stationed in front of Toronto’s synagogues, Jewish schools, and community centres. Toronto has been described as among the Western world’s worst cities for antisemitism.

There are many reasons for this ignominious distinction. But the local political leadership has certainly been a major factor.  Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, elected in June 2023, just before October 7, and currently running for re-election, has an antizionist political posture, has used rhetoric denying the legitimacy or moral standing of the Jewish state, and repeatedly declined prominent occasions to show solidarity with Jewish communal concerns. She has been described as “Toronto’s Mamdani”, though without his good looks, charisma, or national prominence.

There are, of course, deeper sources behind Toronto’s current surge in antisemitism.

One uncomfortable truth is that two decades of immigration have changed Toronto’s demography, and demography is democracy. Across the greater Toronto area there are currently estimated to be about 200,000 Jewish residents and 750,000 Muslim residents.

Another uncomfortable truth is the sharp rise of left-wing antizionism, the contemporary version of the world’s oldest hatred. As one progressive antizionist activist, strenuously denying she was an antisemite, put it, “Antisemitism is hate towards Jews.  But antizionism is hate for Israel”. The important common denominator is hate.

Antizionism is now one of the principal pillars of the NDP, Canada’s small, left-wing third party.  In that politics-makes-strange-bedfellows Red-Green alliance, “Queers for Palestine” march alongside Islamic fundamentalists; progressive anti-imperialist sympathies extend to the Islamic Republic of Iran; and the Jewish state and its Jewish supporters abroad become the favoured enemy. The current NDP opposes the IHRA working definition of antisemitism, and espouses policies of BDS. The NDP’s current leader, Avi Lewis, who is nominally Jewish, characterizes Zionism as inseparable from colonialism and ethnic cleansing.

The NDP was not always so extreme.  For example, under the revered former leader Jack Layton, when the NDP in Parliament was temporarily Canada’s Official Opposition, the party combined a firm formal recognition of Israel’s right to exist in peace and security with advocacy for Palestinian rights and criticism of Israeli policy.  However, since Layton’s death in 2011, and especially since October 7, 2023, the party’s confrontational “pro-Palestinian” politics have morphed into open antizionism.

When Jack Layton died in 2011, he left behind a widow, the downtown Toronto NDP Member of Parliament, Olivia Chow.

Since her election as Toronto’s mayor in June 2023, Chow has been markedly unsympathetic to Jewish communal concerns and strongly anti-Israel, with real political consequences.

After every synagogue or Jewish school shooting, she issued lip service statements but failed to pursue or visibly champion any preventative measures.  For example, on December 19, 2024, after the third consecutive shooting at Bais Chaya Mushka Elementary School, Chow said: “Enough is enough. Antisemitism and antisemitic attacks have no place in Toronto.  The latest shooting at the Bais Chaya Mushka Elementary School is unacceptable. Once again students, families, and neighbours are waking up to safety concerns.”

She declined to attend a 2024 October 7 commemoration.

She did not attend the 2024 Israel flag-raising, explaining that she generally avoided country flag-raisings she regarded as “divisive”. Yet she attended City Hall flag-raising events for the Black Liberation Flag on August 1, 2024, the Metis flag in November 2024 and the Intersex-inclusive Pride flag in June 2026.

In June 2025, she did not attend Toronto’s premier Jewish community event, Walk with Israel, which drew 50,000 Jewish Torontonians and their allies.

In November 2025, speaking at the National Council of Canadian Muslims fundraising gala, Chow publicly referred to “the genocide in Gaza”. Despite strong objections from Jewish organizations, which described her statement as reckless, divisive, and dangerous, she stood by her remarks.

Most recently, she declined to participate in the September 8, 2026, mayoral-candidates’ debate on antisemitism and community-safety, organized by the Toronto Jewish Lawyers Forum.  Chow’s excuse for not attending was that it was the day before her September 9 campaign launch. However, on September 8, the day of the debate she declined to attend, she made a campaign appearance with Toronto’s police chief to make a pro forma announcement about additional police cars for Toronto synagogues during Rosh Hashanah.

Chow’s public record, including her categorical “genocide” accusation, repeated absences from major Jewish communal events, refusal to engage in the recent mayoral candidates debate on antisemitism, and resistance to strong bubble-zone protections, has persuaded many Jewish Torontonians that she is not only antizionist, but indifferent to their safety, and openly hostile to their communal standing.

That is why, in the Toronto municipal elections on October 26, 2026, Brad Bradford has attracted broad support in the Jewish community. Bradford has taken the Jewish community’s concerns to heart.  Recent polling reportedly places Bradford only six percentage points behind Chow.

But although it receives far less attention than the mayoral race, the election of Toronto City Council members is also critically important.

During Chow’s term, there was only one piece of municipal legislation that directly concerned the Toronto Jewish community: the so-called “bubble zone” bylaw, which was intended to prohibit demonstrations from taking place immediately outside places of worship, schools, and child-care centres.  The bylaw was first proposed in November 2023.  It took 18 months, several Council stages, and numerous separate votes before a version of the by-law was finally passed. Even then, nine counselors opposed the final, watered-down bylaw. This highlights that not only the mayor, but also local councillors members determine policy.

The municipal election on October 26 gives Torontonians options for better political leadership. Community leaders hope Jewish Torontonians will exercise their right to vote, hold politicians accountable for their actions, and help bring about a change for the better.