In municipal elections today, Canada's largest city elected right wing City Councillor Rob Ford as Mayor, defeating openly gay Member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament George Smitherman and Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone.
The results represented a confirmation of polls and predictions for much of the campaign, which showed Rob Ford leading throughout the campaign. Two months ago, Ford's lead over Smitherman was polled at more than 20%.
With about half of the polling places reporting, Ford has about 50%, Smitherman 32% and Pantalone 15%. The CBC is declaring Ford the winner about 15 minutes after the polls closed.
During the closing weeks of the campaign, several centre and centre-left candidates dropped out of the race in order to prevent the right wing Ford from winning the race. In the end, three major candidates remained in the race - Ford, Liberal Party member Smitherman, and Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone (allied with the incumbent Mayor David Miller and the left wing New Democratic Party.) Pantalone's vote collapsed to under 20% of the vote as left/centre voters rallied to Smitherman in an effort to defeat Ford.