John Tory wins Toronto mayor's race, ending the 'Ford Nation' era

Toronto elected a new mayor on Monday, with businessman and longtime civic activist John Tory replacing the controversial and scandal-plagued Mayor Rob Ford. Tory has promised a return to normal life for Canada's largest city.

Tory currently has 40 percent of the vote in the count, according to CBC News, followed by city councilman Doug Ford — Rob Ford's brother — with 34 percent; in third place is Olivia Chow, a major name in Canada's left-wing New Democratic Party, with 23 percent. This surprisingly close results may yet widen for Tory, as the polls had tended to show him with a somewhat stronger lead over Doug Ford.

Rob Ford is not gone, though — he easily won election to his old seat on the city council. Ford dropped out of the mayoral race in September in order to deal with a health crisis that turned out to be a diagnosis of cancer. His brother Doug, who had held the seat on the city council, agreed to run for mayor in his place.

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Still, this brings to a close Rob Ford's tumultuous four-year tenure as mayor. In the latter part of his term, Ford gained worldwide infamy for his drug abuse and a recent stay in rehab — plus a variety of other outlandish behavior such as knocking over a city councilwoman and a reported audio recording which he used a variety of racial and ethnic slurs.

Tory ran for mayor in 2003 as the main center-right candidate, losing that race to a left-leaning opponent. He later shifted to provincial politics as the leader of Ontario's Conservatives, representing the party's moderate wing. During this race Tory positioned himself a centrist candidate — contrasted with the Ford brothers as right-wing populists, and Chow on the left — winning the support of many people in both the Conservative and center-left Liberal camps, plus a large section of the business community.