I wonder how Daniel Irmya feels today? He finished last in Monday’s Toronto Mayoralty election, with just 27 votes.

By contrast, the winner, former MP and city councilor Olivia Chow, received 269, 372 votes. The second place finisher received 235,175.

I didn’t follow the campaign at all. I don’t live in Toronto. So I was surprised to discover Monday just how many people had entered the race for the mayor’s job. Daniel Irmya finished only three votes behind Jack Weenen, who got 30 votes. They have the distinction as the only candidates to receive 0.00 percent of the vote.

There were 102 names on the ballot. I recognized two or three. And I was left wondering why bother to run when you know you can’t win. Except that I know the answer.

People run for public office because they have a vision, they want to make their community a better place. It must be saddening to discover that no-one shares your vision. Nineteen of the 102 candidates received fewer than 100 votes each. More than 700,000 people voted.

Only 13 candidates made it to a thousand votes. Only nine were the choice of at least one per cent of the voters. Only three were above the five per cent mark.

The Mayor of Toronto, whomever he or she may be, can be considered to be the most popular politician in Canada. It is the biggest city with the most voters, so the winner of the mayoralty race has received more votes than any other politician in the country. The Prime Minister isn’t chosen by the people, he is elected as a Member of Parliament.

That means that, in 2021, 22,848 people actually voted for Justin Trudeau (though millions voted for other Liberal candidates). That is fewer than 10 per cent of the number who voted for Olivia Chow on Monday.

Looking at the results, I was curious about Daniel Irmya. What motivated him to run? What issues did he champion?

After investigation, I can see why he finished last. No website, almost no news mentions except for his name in a list of candidates.

Which has me wondering again what motivated him to run. Most elections have a filing fee, so it must have cost him something.

His name will go into the record books as the guy who finished last. Maybe that is what he was aiming for. But I guess we will never know.