Maple Express | October 24, 2026 — Two Days Out, Toronto Mayor's Race 'Neck and Neck'

1. Two days out, Toronto's mayoral race is 'neck and neck'

Source: CP24

With just two days left before voters head to the polls, the frontrunners in Toronto's mayoral race made their final pitches across the city Saturday. Mayor Olivia Chow spoke to supporters in Scarborough, saying she will keep standing up for families and bringing costs down, while acknowledging the race is "neck and neck" and that Scarborough voters could decide the outcome.

Chow urged people to vote Monday, Oct. 26, and to bring a friend, a neighbour or a coworker. Polls conducted for CP24 and CTV News Toronto show challenger Brad Bradford has narrowed the gap to three percentage points, putting the race in a statistical tie.

Bradford campaigned in Etobicoke alongside Ward 3 council candidate Ted Opitz, who is trying to unseat incumbent Amber Morley in Etobicoke-Lakeshore. Bradford said Torontonians are "desperate for change" and that change is two days away. On taxes, Chow says she will keep property tax increases around the rate of inflation, while Bradford promises a first-year freeze and to scrap the land transfer tax on the first $1.1 million of a home's purchase price. Polls open at 10 a.m. Monday and close at 8 p.m.

2. Two people taken to hospital after Highway 404 rollover

Source: CP24

Two people were taken to hospital, one with serious injuries, after a rollover in the northbound lanes of Highway 404 near Steeles Ave. West overnight. Emergency crews were called around 2:30 a.m. and found two people trapped inside a vehicle resting on its roof.

Toronto Paramedic Services told CP24 that two adults were transported to a trauma centre; one had serious but non-life-threatening injuries and the other suffered minor injuries. Ontario Provincial Police said three lanes had reopened by about 5:30 a.m.

3. 'Always try to buy Canadian': demand grows for Canadian Halloween products

Source: CP24

Suzie Wisniewski, shopping for candy at a Food Fare store in Winnipeg, says she looks for Canadian products every time she shops, Halloween included. "I always like to try to buy Canadian where I can," she said. An online survey by Angus Reid for NextDoor Canada found 59 per cent of Canadians say supporting local or Canadian businesses is a priority for Halloween, rising to 68 per cent in Saskatchewan and Manitoba and 69 per cent in Atlantic Canada.

Store owner Ramsey Zeid has placed "Made in Canada" stickers along his shelves to help shoppers, but says Halloween candy is tricky: he has not seen Canadian-made Halloween candy, and most products say "prepared in Canada," leaving limited choices such as Coffee Crisps, Aeros, Oh Henry, Twizzlers and Nerds.

Sylvain Charlebois, director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, says many familiar treats are manufactured in Canada but their ingredients and ownership may be foreign, often American, and truly Canadian options tend to cost more and are rarely advertised. The same survey found 88 per cent of Canadians plan to spend less than $100 on Halloween this year, and about 65 per cent have set a budget under $50.

4. Some Ontario voters are turning to AI chatbots for election information

Source: CP24

Toronto lawyer Eric Apps had a rough idea of who would get his vote, but wanted a second opinion. In Parkdale-High Park, longtime councillor Gord Perks, 63, decided to retire, and the race ballooned to 10 candidates he did not know. He asked Claude, Anthropic's AI chatbot, for the top five polling candidates in his ward and their positions on bike lanes, housing and property taxes. "It laid them all out in a very easily digestible format," he said, though he noted gaps for candidates with less media coverage and advised taking AI "with a grain of salt."

Alissa Centivany, an associate professor of information and media studies at Western University, says chatbots are replacing search engines and news sites for some voters, and that the material they compile can include social media content that is "opinion," "untrue" or "inflammatory." McGill University researchers estimate about 40 per cent of Quebec voters turned to AI chatbots during the provincial election earlier this month and received false or outdated information. Alex Marland of Acadia University says it makes sense voters would seek help in municipal races where candidates carry no party label, but fact-checking remains up to users.

5. Carney wraps up Turkiye trip with visit to Istanbul's Kariye Mosque

Source: CP24

After three days spent building closer economic and political ties with Turkiye, Prime Minister Mark Carney is heading home to Ottawa. On Saturday morning he visited Istanbul's Kariye Mosque with his wife, Diana Fox Carney. The building, once a Byzantine church, is known for its architecture, frescoes and mosaics. The prime minister's office said the site was chosen to underscore Canada's recognition of cultural heritage as "a bridge between peoples and nations."

As he left, a Canadian tourist shouted "Go Oilers!" and Carney replied, "It looks good this year. Wait until the playoffs."

The tour marked the end of the first bilateral visit by a Canadian prime minister to Turkiye. Carney and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan forged a new strategic partnership in Ankara on Thursday covering defence and energy, and set the stage for free-trade talks in the coming weeks. "Our goal is not self-sufficiency; it is collective resilience," Carney said. Asked about engaging countries with differing values, he said "engagement is not approval." The two countries also formalized an expanded air transportation agreement that could nearly double direct flights. Carney is expected back in Ottawa Saturday evening.

6. Nova Scotia rescue brings back 68 animals from 'high-kill' shelters

Source: CP24

A Nova Scotia-based animal rescue brought back 28 dogs and more than 40 cats from a trip to Georgia this month, part of an effort to save animals from overcrowded shelters that resort to euthanasia. "We're a really small team of people and we try to do rescues at least four times a year," said Daniela Arreola Gala, rescue operations co-ordinator for Fly With Me. The group works mostly with shelter partners in the United States and some in Mexico.

All but two of the cats from the trip have found forever homes, she said, while six of the dogs have been adopted and many good applications are being processed. Arreola Gala is fostering a small dog named Fig, found as a stray in Georgia, who has severe separation anxiety and needs a patient home, ideally with someone who works from home. Another dog, Paquito, came from Mexico City, where he spent more than a year in a shelter after being found as a puppy; all his siblings were adopted and he was not.

7. Cuban ambassador asks Canada to keep opposing U.S. embargo

Source: CP24

Cuba's ambassador to Canada is urging Ottawa not to drop its public opposition to the decades-long U.S. embargo. "We are confident that Canada will stay with us, as they have done in the past," Rodrigo Malmierca Diaz told The Canadian Press, adding that "the blockade and this intensification is, in practice, killing people." The United Nations votes next week on a Cuban motion, submitted almost every year since 1992, calling for an end to the U.S. economic, commercial and financial embargo. Canada has voted in favour multiple times.

The Trump administration has imposed a de facto oil blockade, cutting off Venezuelan shipments in January and threatening tariffs on countries that sell oil to the island. Cuba produces only 40 per cent of the fuel it needs, and shortages led Air Canada and other airlines to cancel flights in February. Ottawa has pledged $13 million in humanitarian aid for Cubans through international organizations rather than the Cuban government.

Global Affairs Canada spokesperson Thida Ith said Canada's voting position "is being considered in advance of the vote," while continuing to call on Havana to implement reforms, respect political and economic rights and release all political prisoners. In July, Canada was among 30 countries that abstained on a procedural vote to hold a UN debate on the embargo.

8. British Columbians vote in early election with David Eby's job on the line

Source: CP24

British Columbians go to the polls Saturday in an early election called by NDP Leader David Eby, described as the biggest gamble of his political life. Polls are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. after a five-week campaign dominated by health care, housing, a record provincial deficit and the cost of living.

Eby called the snap vote two years early, initially saying he needed a new mandate to deal with challenges posed by U.S. President Donald Trump; on Friday he said the election was needed to end a "stalled out" legislature where the NDP held a one-seat majority, and that he regretted not making that clearer. At dissolution the legislature officially had 47 New Democrats, 29 Conservatives, two Greens and 13 Independents, with two vacant seats, though the Conservatives went into the campaign holding about 37 seats after independents returned to the party under interim leader Lorne Doerkson.

Elections BC says ballots cast on election day will be counted by hand because of the tight timeline of the snap election; mail-in and absentee ballots will not be counted until about two weeks after election day. More than 891,000 advance votes were cast, about 24 per cent of registered voters. The NDP promised a new tax bracket for incomes over $1 million to fund health care and price caps on some basic groceries; the Conservatives promised no tax increases and to raise the basic personal exemption from $13,216 to $32,000, a $1,000 cut for most workers; the Greens proposed taxing household wealth over $50 million.

9. 'I'm trying to propose to you': Mississauga couple gets engaged mid-marathon

Source: CP24

A Mississauga couple got engaged in the middle of the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon last Sunday. Gowsic Thevendran, 37, proposed to his girlfriend of two years, Shaarujaa Nadarajah, 31, at Bay and Wellington streets just before the two split off — he was running the full marathon, she the half. The moment was caught on camera and the video drew more than 450,000 views on Instagram alone.

"It was just the moment, and I was really happy," Nadarajah told CTV News Toronto on Friday. The two met on Bumble in September 2024, about a week after Thevendran moved to Mississauga from Montreal; she said she had a rule against dating "suburban men" but he was an exception. They later learned her parents lived about five minutes from his home.

The plan did not go as scripted: Thevendran missed his mark for a more private spot, found a public photographer on the spot, and ended up proposing in one of the busiest stretches of the 42.2-kilometre route. Nadarajah first thought he was injured, then thought he was reaching for an energy gel, until he said, "I'm trying to propose to you." She ran one of her fastest splits over the final 400 to 500 metres, and the couple celebrated at King Taps with family and friends. Wedding planning will wait until she finishes her MBA at the end of November.

10. Alouettes beat Argonauts 33-16 as both teams rest starters

Source: CP24

Dustin Crum ran for two touchdowns and Caleb Evans threw two scoring strikes as the Montreal Alouettes beat the Toronto Argonauts 33-16 on Friday night at BMO Field in the CFL regular-season finale for both teams. Crum earned his first win in five career starts against Toronto. A crowd of 13,198 watched.

With both teams having already clinched the top two spots in the East Division, the result had no bearing on the standings and both sides rested a number of starters. Montreal finished 14-4 and Toronto 9-9. The Argonauts host the fourth-place team from the West in the East semifinal on Oct. 31, with the winner visiting Montreal for the division final on Nov. 7.

Toronto's Kevin Mital had three catches for 27 yards to pass 1,000 receiving yards in a season for the first time, becoming the fourth Argonauts receiver to reach the mark this year after Damonte Coxie, David Ungerer III and Tyler Kahmann — a franchise first.