Karen Stintz has dropped out of the Toronto mayoral race. The Ward 16 councillor and former TTC Chair never managed to garner the type of voter interest required to be a true contender, consistently polling at lower than 10 per cent of the projected vote. Stintz entered the race on a wave of optimism given her victories on Toronto transit expansion, first reviving the former Transit City plans and then backing a Scarborough subway line. That change in direction, however, would dog her on the campaign trail, with accusations that she was a flip-flopper becoming commonplace.

The presence of John Tory in the race also posed problems for the Stintz campaign. Although her platform focused more firmly on transit, the two candidates fall around the same place on the political spectrum, and the former leader of the provincial PCs has more clout to lean on. As of the last poll, Stintz was at 4 per cent of the vote, clearly a losing battle. Stintz will not, contrary to some rumours, turn her efforts toward re-election at city council.

What do you think? Will Stintz's departure shakeup the mayoral race?

Photo from Karen Stintz's Facebook page