The mayor of Toronto, Canada’s largest city, John Tory, resigned after an extramarital affair he had with an employee 37 years his junior came to light.
Tory announced her resignation at a press conference on Friday evening, an hour after The Toronto Star newspaper revealed details about the relationship.
Re-elected for a third term in October 2022, the 68-year-old mayor called the relationship “an error of judgment”.
“It came at a time when Barb, my wife of more than 40 years, and I had been separated for long periods of time as I carried out my responsibilities during the pandemic,” Tory said.
The politician emphasized that he did not want the image of the municipality to suffer from the scandal. “I will step down as mayor so that I can reflect on my mistakes and do the work to restore my family’s trust,” he said.
Married since 1978, with four children and six grandchildren, Tory is a prominent conservative businessman who became mayor of Toronto in 2014, with Portuguese descendant Ana Bailão as Vice President at the time.
The politician was elected in part on a pledge to restore the position’s respectability following the turbulent tenure of another Conservative mayor, Rob Ford, who was embroiled in a series of scandals between 2010 and 2014.
Ford, who suffered from drug and alcohol addiction, made several public appearances drunk.
In 2013, Ford was accused of sexually assaulting a woman and video was released shortly after that of the mayor of Toronto smoking “crack”, a form of cocaine.
Source: DN
