David Miller (Canadian Politician) - 2010 Election

2010 Election

On September 25, 2009 Miller announced that he would not seek a third term as mayor in the 2010 election, citing family reasons. An Ipsos Reid poll earlier that month revealed that almost 8 in 10 Torontonians wanted Miller replaced as mayor, over dissatisfaction at his handling of the 39-day municipal strike. Many of Miller's supporters had defected to other potential candidates, likely to be former Ontario Progressive Conservative leader John Tory or Deputy Premier George Smitherman.

In early October 2010, Miller gave his endorsement to Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone, who claimed that he was “no clone of David Miller”, but whose platform largely continued the status quo with Miller's policies, in contrast to the other mayoral candidates who advocated sweeping changes. Pantalone was lagging considerably behind Councillor Rob Ford and former Ontario Deputy Premier George Smitherman in polls, and Smitherman dismissed Miller’s support of Pantalone saying “If voters wanted the status quo, David Miller would still be in this race.” Miller has accused Ford and Smitherman of wanting to "tear down Toronto”, and suggested that Smitherman posed the greater danger as mayor. Late in the campaign, Smitherman left a voice-mail with Miller to ask Pantalone to withdraw from the race but Miller never returned the call. (Back in the 2003 mayoral election, Smitherman had worked for the campaign of Barbara Hall, which tried to persuade Miller to drop out of the race.)

Ford was elected mayor with 47.1% of the vote, while Smitherman and Pantalone finished second and third, with 35.6% and 11.7%, respectively.