Canada's biggest city Toronto makes history by electing a non-white Chinese Canadian Mayor Olivia Chow. She is also the first woman mayor in the city in more than a decade.

Toronto elects first 'non-white' Mayor

In February, Toronto's three-term mayor&nbsp;John Tory resigned after a controversy shook the foundations of his reputation. Vying to replace Tory as the next mayor is a rescue dog and a candidate who promises that he is "definitely a real man and NOT three raccoons in a trench coat".

The mayoral race is interesting, to say the least.&nbsp;

Now, you might wonder what a dog stands for. Molly, the seven-year-old rescue dog's most significant concern as per her owner Toby Heaps, is the city's use of winter road salt. This, as per Heaps, hurts her paws.

Molly's owner as per the Guardian is her stand-in for the elections. Talking to reporters, Heaps said that a victory for the rescue dog could mean big things and that it could lead to more "civilised discourse" during council meetings.&nbsp;

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"You’ve probably noticed when you have an animal in the room, people are more human," he quipped.

The "definitely a man, and NOT three raccoons in a trench coat" candidate is actually a grade 12 student, Meir Straus.&nbsp;

Meir, the candidate with a sense of humour says his focus will be on "housing, transportation, elections, city infrastructure, inflation, diversity, roads, hospitals, safety, crime, garbage, raccoons, weed-smell, roundabouts, organ-shortages, Canada geese, God, labour, street preachers, hipsters, uncomfortable benches, parkettes, speed bumps, and the inappropriate use of the word 'muck'."

His campaign website says "Vote Meir (pronounced Mayor) for Mayor: This job has my name on it."&nbsp;

Meir in his own words "has the vision that Toronto needs," and since at eighteen-year-old, he is the youngest candidate "So he's unlikely to die in office."

What's more, because he's not married, "he can't have any affairs" like the previous mayor.&nbsp;

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Three-time mayor John Tory had to abruptly resign in February of this year after news of an extramarital affair with a former staff member made the headlines. In his stead, the deputy mayor, Jennifer McKelvie, has served as interim mayor. However, McKelvie isn't planning on running for the by-elections.

Voting begins on June 8th and will run till June 13th, while the election day is 26 June and there are a total of 102 registered mayoral candidates.

Among the election frontrunners is Olivia Chow, the third choice in the 2014 elections. Also in the race are former provincial lawmaker Mitzie Hunter, councillors Ana Bailão, Brad Bradford and Josh Matlow and former police chief Mark Saunders.

(With inputs from agencies)

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In February, Toronto's three-term mayor John Tory resigned after a controversy shook the foundations of his reputation. Vying to replace Tory as the next mayor is a rescue dog and a candidate who promises that he is "definitely a real man and NOT three raccoons in a trench coat".

In February, Toronto's three-term mayor John Tory resigned after a controversy shook the foundations of his reputation. Vying to replace Tory as the next mayor is a rescue dog and a candidate who promises that he is "definitely a real man and NOT three raccoons in a trench coat". The mayoral race is interesting, to say the least. Now, you might wonder what a dog stands for. Molly, the seven-year-old rescue dog's most significant concern as per her owner Toby Heaps, is the city's use of winter road salt. This, as per Heaps, hurts her paws. Molly's owner as per the Guardian is her stand-in for the elections. Talking to reporters, Heaps said that a victory for the rescue dog could mean big things and that it could lead to more "civilised discourse" during council meetings. Also read | Using sugar substitutes for weight loss? WHO has a warning for you "You’ve probably noticed when you have an animal in the room, people are more human," he quipped. The "definitely a man, and NOT three raccoons in a trench coat" candidate is actually a grade 12 student, Meir Straus. Meir, the candidate with a sense of humour says his focus will be on "housing, transportation, elections, city infrastructure, inflation, diversity, roads, hospitals, safety, crime, garbage, raccoons, weed-smell, roundabouts, organ-shortages, Canada geese, God, labour, street preachers, hipsters, uncomfortable benches, parkettes, speed bumps, and the inappropriate use of the word 'muck'." His campaign website says "Vote Meir (pronounced Mayor) for Mayor: This job has my name on it." Meir in his own words "has the vision that Toronto needs," and since at eighteen-year-old, he is the youngest candidate "So he's unlikely to die in office." What's more, because he's not married, "he can't have any affairs" like the previous mayor. Also read | Pasta crisis grips Italy as price skyrockets 18%, govt says ‘monitoring situation’ Three-time mayor John Tory had to abruptly resign in February of this year after news of an extramarital affair with a former staff member made the headlines. In his stead, the deputy mayor, Jennifer McKelvie, has served as interim mayor. However, McKelvie isn't planning on running for the by-elections. Voting begins on June 8th and will run till June 13th, while the election day is 26 June and there are a total of 102 registered mayoral candidates. Among the election frontrunners is Olivia Chow, the third choice in the 2014 elections. Also in the race are former provincial lawmaker Mitzie Hunter, councillors Ana Bailão, Brad Bradford and Josh Matlow and former police chief Mark Saunders. (With inputs from agencies) WATCH WION LIVE HERE You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.

Rescue dog, 'NOT three racoons in a suit,' and 100 more candidates sign-up for Toronto mayoral election race

Canada&rsquo;s second-most internationally beloved politician with the initials JT was in&nbsp;New Delhi Wednesday to speak to business leaders and politicians&nbsp;&ldquo;to let the world know Toronto is open for business&rdquo;.&nbsp;

The twenty-odd minute speech was dubbed, &ldquo;Opportunities in Toronto in the evolving global landscape&rdquo;.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Tory insisted he was here as a salesman for Toronto, the first mayor from the city to visit India in 20 years. Premier Kathleen Wynne visited in February 2016, and the chatter before Tory began speaking anticipated a visit to India from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (the other &quot;JT&quot;) later this year or in early 2018.

Mayor Tory&rsquo;s sell should be easy. Whenever I tell Indians here I myself come from Toronto,&nbsp;they instantly become visibly excited and tell me of their four thousand relatives who live there.

Tory began with facts: Canada is a safe and stable parliamentary democracy&nbsp;with 1.2 million people of Indian-origin living there, good for three per cent of the country&#39;s&nbsp;overall population. One out of every two people in Toronto was&nbsp;born outside&nbsp;Canada.&nbsp;

Tory emphasised that Toronto&nbsp;wants Indian students to enroll in&nbsp;its high-quality&nbsp;schools, and was glad to say&nbsp;that some graduates would head back to India while some would remain in Canada, to&nbsp;both country&#39;s benefit.

The Toronto film industry got special mention, as cinema could be the heart of the cultural link between the two countries. For decades, many American movies&nbsp;were&nbsp;actually filmed in Toronto (it can easily be dressed up to look like&nbsp;American cities, and Canadian taxes greatly lower production costs). It&#39;s easy to see why Toronto wants to capture&nbsp;the growth potential of linking up with Bollywood.&nbsp;

Toronto has historically been pitched as a centre of&nbsp;commerce and&nbsp;a haven for multiculturalism,&nbsp;but the cliche for the latter has&nbsp;received an&nbsp;update. Even conservatives like Tory pitching Toronto-multiculturalism&nbsp;are too sophisticated&nbsp;now to say&nbsp;racism there does not exist, so they add a caveat: We&rsquo;ve made progress, but we must do more. This was a major theme. While this contains some of the passive smugness the world may not know to detest Canadians for, the cliches Tory invoked is too true to dismiss, especially at a time when the United States and many European countries are closing their borders.&nbsp;

Trump loomed large, but Tory artistically&nbsp;avoiding saying&nbsp;his name aloud. He repeatedly said he was unwilling to comment on the situation elsewhere, including in Europe, and said that Toronto is simply sharing&nbsp;its positive story that has led to its success.&nbsp;

Tory claimed he is &ldquo;furiously resisting polarisation&rdquo;, and that he has categorically denounced racist incidents when they do indeed come up in Toronto, for which he said he is roundly commended by citizens people.&nbsp;

With him was the newly-elected Toronto city councillor Neethan Shan, the city&rsquo;s first Tamil councillor. Tory referred to Shan as &ldquo;a breakthrough&rdquo;, and said it was important for visible minorities to see themselves in the institutions that impact their lives, in order to instil trust.

Tory spoke about bus shelter ads featuring a white and black person with a caption prompting the viewer--&nbsp;who&nbsp;would you hire? He cited this as evidence that the government is deliberately trying to provoke people into thinking about&nbsp;barriers different people face.&nbsp;

While this comes from a man who during the 2014 mayoral race <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B350l2WVzik" target="_blank">claimed </a>white privilege does not exist, whether the mayor himself has genuinely evolved on this file or whether he&rsquo;s speaking for the city broadly, the thrust of his point about the city holds. He was selling Toronto, not him.

Tory framed inclusivity as both something that arises naturally in Torontonians because it&rsquo;s the decent thing to do, rather than something to merely say out of&nbsp;rote political correctness, but also framed inclusivity as being a powerful case to draw&nbsp;business.&nbsp;

He pointed to a Toronto-based piracy-detection company that chose to locate there because, surely among other reasons, it was the easiest place to find people who speak so many languages from around the world.

Anecdotally, so many&nbsp;Indians have told me they would love&nbsp;to&nbsp;visit if not move to Canada that Tory&rsquo;s speech to win them over seems hardly necessary, until you remember he was talking less to individual Indians than to Indian business.

Tory started his trade mission&nbsp;to India at the Delhi-based headquarters for the digital payment company&nbsp;Paytm,&nbsp;and will meet&nbsp;officials from <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2017/03/02/mayor-john-tory-to-lead-trade-mission-to-india-and-sri-lanka.html" target="_blank">Tata</a>, India&#39;s largest conglomerate, about &quot;expansion plans&quot;.

Tory closed by&nbsp;issuing&nbsp;a personal guarantee that he would &ldquo;bend over backwards&rdquo; for &ldquo;entrepreneurs and risk takers&rdquo; in order to welcome them and give them access to &ldquo;smart people there&rdquo;.&nbsp;

Indians seem to have always had&nbsp;a soft spot&nbsp;for&nbsp;Canada, and maybe particularly&nbsp;Toronto, but in&nbsp;an era of post-demonetisation and President&nbsp;Trump, it&#39;s nice to see&nbsp;Toronto make an extra effort to welcome&nbsp;them, and their money, to the city.&nbsp;

(WION) 
&nbsp;

John Tory emphasised Toronto as a centre for commerce, culture and multiculturalism in an effort to increase Indo-Canadian ties

Canada’s second-most internationally beloved politician with the initials JT was in New Delhi Wednesday to speak to business leaders and politicians “to let the world know Toronto is open for business”. The twenty-odd minute speech was dubbed, “Opportunities in Toronto in the evolving global landscape”. Tory insisted he was here as a salesman for Toronto, the first mayor from the city to visit India in 20 years. Premier Kathleen Wynne visited in February 2016, and the chatter before Tory began speaking anticipated a visit to India from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (the other "JT") later this year or in early 2018. Mayor Tory’s sell should be easy. Whenever I tell Indians here I myself come from Toronto, they instantly become visibly excited and tell me of their four thousand relatives who live there. Tory began with facts: Canada is a safe and stable parliamentary democracy with 1.2 million people of Indian-origin living there, good for three per cent of the country's overall population. One out of every two people in Toronto was born outside Canada. Tory emphasised that Toronto wants Indian students to enroll in its high-quality schools, and was glad to say that some graduates would head back to India while some would remain in Canada, to both country's benefit. The Toronto film industry got special mention, as cinema could be the heart of the cultural link between the two countries. For decades, many American movies were actually filmed in Toronto (it can easily be dressed up to look like American cities, and Canadian taxes greatly lower production costs). It's easy to see why Toronto wants to capture the growth potential of linking up with Bollywood. Toronto has historically been pitched as a centre of commerce and a haven for multiculturalism, but the cliche for the latter has received an update. Even conservatives like Tory pitching Toronto-multiculturalism are too sophisticated now to say racism there does not exist, so they add a caveat: We’ve made progress, but we must do more. This was a major theme. While this contains some of the passive smugness the world may not know to detest Canadians for, the cliches Tory invoked is too true to dismiss, especially at a time when the United States and many European countries are closing their borders. Trump loomed large, but Tory artistically avoiding saying his name aloud. He repeatedly said he was unwilling to comment on the situation elsewhere, including in Europe, and said that Toronto is simply sharing its positive story that has led to its success. Tory claimed he is “furiously resisting polarisation”, and that he has categorically denounced racist incidents when they do indeed come up in Toronto, for which he said he is roundly commended by citizens people. With him was the newly-elected Toronto city councillor Neethan Shan, the city’s first Tamil councillor. Tory referred to Shan as “a breakthrough”, and said it was important for visible minorities to see themselves in the institutions that impact their lives, in order to instil trust. Tory spoke about bus shelter ads featuring a white and black person with a caption prompting the viewer-- who would you hire? He cited this as evidence that the government is deliberately trying to provoke people into thinking about barriers different people face. While this comes from a man who during the 2014 mayoral race claimed white privilege does not exist, whether the mayor himself has genuinely evolved on this file or whether he’s speaking for the city broadly, the thrust of his point about the city holds. He was selling Toronto, not him. Tory framed inclusivity as both something that arises naturally in Torontonians because it’s the decent thing to do, rather than something to merely say out of rote political correctness, but also framed inclusivity as being a powerful case to draw business. He pointed to a Toronto-based piracy-detection company that chose to locate there because, surely among other reasons, it was the easiest place to find people who speak so many languages from around the world. Anecdotally, so many Indians have told me they would love to visit if not move to Canada that Tory’s speech to win them over seems hardly necessary, until you remember he was talking less to individual Indians than to Indian business. Tory started his trade mission to India at the Delhi-based headquarters for the digital payment company Paytm, and will meet officials from Tata, India's largest conglomerate, about "expansion plans". Tory closed by issuing a personal guarantee that he would “bend over backwards” for “entrepreneurs and risk takers” in order to welcome them and give them access to “smart people there”. Indians seem to have always had a soft spot for Canada, and maybe particularly Toronto, but in an era of post-demonetisation and President Trump, it's nice to see Toronto make an extra effort to welcome them, and their money, to the city. (WION)

Toronto mayor visits New Delhi to promote Canada's largest city to Indian business, students

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Toronto elects first 'non-white' Mayor

Rescue dog, 'NOT three racoons in a suit,' and 100 more candidates sign-up for Toronto mayoral election race

Toronto mayor visits New Delhi to promote Canada's largest city to Indian business, students