Chris Alexander, a former Conservative cabinet minister and ambassador who once made headlines for Ottawa’s handling of the Syrian refugee crisis, is entering the race to become Toronto’s next mayor.
Campaign spokesman Wilf Dinnick said in an email late Tuesday that Alexander would officially register his campaign Wednesday morning.
In a news release announcing his candidacy, Alexander said Toronto has given him everything. But he added the city has been “standing still.”
Vowing to better Toronto’s economy, transit system, housing and infrastructure, the former member of Parliament for the former Toronto-area riding of Ajax-Pickering said the city under his leadership would get back on track.
“A city with this much talent, strength and potential should not be underperforming, and it doesn’t have to be,” Alexander said in the news release.
“At our best, we are a city of great achievements. With vision and teamwork, we can get back on that track, and I believe we will.”
A win in the Toronto election, set for Oct. 26, would be a return to the public eye for Alexander after nearly 10 years.
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Alexander, who was born in Toronto to a high school gym teacher and a lawyer, spent 18 years as a Canadian diplomat. He worked at the Canadian Embassy in Moscow, and from 2003 to 2005 was Canada’s ambassador to Afghanistan.
He later became one of two deputy special representatives of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.
Alexander was elected to the House of Commons in 2011 as part of Stephen Harper’s Conservative government. In 2013, he was tapped to be Harper’s immigration minister, a role he served in until 2015.
Leading up to the 2015 federal election — which ended in Justin Trudeau’s Liberals clinching a majority — Alexander became embroiled in controversy amid questions about the government’s handling of the Syrian refugee crisis.
He was also criticized for promising, along with then-Labour minister Kellie Leitch, to create a telephone tip line for “barbaric cultural practices.”
At the time, Alexander said the legislation would help protect women and girls from forced marriages and “stand up for our values.”
Alexander ended up losing his seat in the newly created riding of Ajax to Mark Holland, who held the riding for the Liberals until he announced in 2024 he would not seek re-election. He was succeeded last year by Jennifer McKelvie of Mark Carney’s Liberals.
Despite his election loss, Alexander did not immediately leave the political realm. He was an early contender in the race for leader of the federal Conservatives, of which Andrew Scheer was declared the winner.
Alexander’s campaign website says since 2015, he has been an executive, strategic adviser and corporate director. He also spent time living in Kenya and moved back to Toronto in 2022.
His wife is Hedvig Christine Alexander, a former officer in the Danish Army Reserve, and they have three children.
Alexander said on his website that in a world of uncertainty, municipal institutions and services need to be at their best and added, “Toronto’s success is not assured.”
“In the next phase of my public service, I want to put everything I’ve learned to work for the city that gave me and my family so much — and that I’m proud to call home today,” he said.
Alexander is among more than a dozen candidates who will have registered for Toronto’s 2026 mayoral race.
Incumbent mayor Olivia Chow announced earlier this year she would seek a second term. Coun. Brad Bradford, who lost to Chow in Toronto’s 2023 mayoral byelection, has also thrown his hat in the ring.
Hey Mike, what makes him a racist? And you do understand that a candidates for municipal office have to be confirmed residents to run for that office?
Chris Alexander – a racist from the draconian Harper era and not even a Torontonian. He’d be an even worse choice than the shameless Brad Bradford.
If he wants to be mayor of TO, he’ll have to dye his hair purple and learn to cringe dance.
I could care less about Syrian refugees. The next government took extreme measures and flooded our country with low skilled immigrants.
The CBC manufactured much of that “news” that plagued Alexander during that election campaign. The CBC waited two days and then published a tiny little correction, after public opinion swayed against him and helped turn the tide away from Harper and to Trudeau.
The drowned toddler on the beach was shocking. What was also wrong was CBC reporting that the Canadian government had turned down his family’s request for asylum. There was no such request. The uncle of that child had submitted a request for the uncle and the uncle’s children, not the family of the child who drowned.
Also the CBC kept referring to the child as “Alan” when that wasn’t even the proper spelling of his name. They couldn’t even get that right. And I suspect they did that to give him a name that english speakers could relate to, to make us more emotionally invested in this poor child, and to further vilified Harper. Thats also why the never mentioned the drowning of his older brother, also a child, on that same beach. His brother did not have a name that could be used to manipulate our emotions. We had to hear the full story days later by other media.
The CBC so quickly wanted to attack Harper that it rushed out a piece with multiple errors and with incorrect names.
A cockroach would be a better choice than Chow