Toronto mayoral hopefuls jockey to knock Olivia Chow from top spot as election day nears

With just over two weeks to go before election day, the top candidates to become Toronto's next mayor see one obstacle in their way: Olivia Chow.

The race front-runner appears to have a significant lead, if the polls are to be believed (more on that here). She has a pile of lawn signs up around the city and her voice is on the radio and TV.

With their runway quickly running out, experts say the campaign could turn negative in its remaining days as candidates try to chip away at Chow's support.

"There is never a point in any campaign when someone is unbeatable," former city councillor Joe Mihevc said. "However, I would think that there are many people in the Olivia Chow campaign that are feeling the momentum, and feeling good about where they are standing right now."

Chow has been here before. She had a lead in the 2014 campaign but ended up finishing in third place.

Mihevc said the key for her will be to work hard to turn her support into votes at the polls. Byelections are notorious for low voter engagement, so the margin for victory will likely be tight, he added.

"That is a very, very big effort and she seems to have the machine to be able to do that."

York University public policy professor Zac Spicer said Chow's team face critical decisions in the coming weeks. Does she run a traditional low-risk front runner campaign or push the envelope in a bid to fend off attacks and woo new voters?

"I think she is going to be playing a lot more offence over the next couple of weeks," he said. "Her campaign team has been here before... So I think that they're not going to sit back."

Ten weeks into the campaign, Mark Saunders seized on the anti-Chow theme on Thursday, announcing a new website and fashioning himself as the alternative to the former NDP MP, appealing to the other candidates to stand by him.

"I am the only candidate who can stop Olivia Chow," he said at a news conference. "A vote for any other candidate is a vote for Chow. I invite all the other candidates to join me in this campaign."

Spicer said it's not surprising that an "anyone but Olivia" campaign has started to crop up. But he thinks it could be too late for Saunders, who has polled a distant second behind Chow, to make up the ground required. 

And just because Saunders has dubbed himself the one and only "Stop Chow" candidate, doesn't make it so, he added.

"I think that a lot of campaigns now are trying to play catch up, they're going to be a lot more aggressive in the next couple of weeks," Spicer said.