Rachel Chernos Lin will become Toronto’s newest city councillor.
The former Toronto District School Board trustee and board chair easily won Monday’s city council byelection for Ward 15 Don Valley West with 12,899 votes (54.76%), nearly doubling the number received by former journalist Anthony Furey, who came in second place with 7,343 votes (31.17%.
Voters in Don Valley West went to the ballot boxes to fill a seat on city council made vacant after the death of Jaye Robinson, who lost her battle with cancer in May at the age of 61.
Robinson was first elected in 2010 and served the ward for 14 years. Her son Sam Robinson, hoping to win his mother’s seat, finished third in the byelection with 1,271 votes (5.4%).
In 2019, Robinson stepped away from her duties after being diagnosed with breast cancer, resuming her seat in late 2020 after undergoing a round of chemotherapy.
In recent polling, affordable housing ranked overwhelmingly as the top issue in the ward at 29%, followed by traffic (18%,) transit (12%,) crime (11%,) and taxes (7%.)
Sixteen candidates were vying to win the seat.
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