Today marks seven weeks until the Toronto mayoral byelection.

And as of this week, a record 73 people have now registered to run for Toronto’s mayor.

The deadline to join or drop out of the race is coming up this Friday May 12th at 2pm.

City staff have said for months that this is the largest byelection in Canadian history.

In recent days, they have begun to actively recruit thousands of people to fill temporary jobs to run both the advanced polls and voting stations on election day, June 26th.

Meantime, transit and traffic woes could end up being the wedge issue in the campaign.

The future of transit in Scarborough and the future of the Gardiner Expressway became prominent discussion points last week.

Candidate Brad Bradford is proposing to finish the Gardiner East rehabilitation two years sooner by allowing for 24/7 construction.

Olivia Chow, on the other hand, is proposing to tear down the section of the Gardiner east of Jarvis Street that city council committed to rebuild in 2016.

Chow also unveiled a plan to build a dedicated busway to replace Scarborough’s aging light rail transit. Her announcement came a day after the city’s executive committee endorsed a plan to run on-street priority bus lanes instead of the off-street busway to replace the SRT.

Ana Bailao and Mitzie Hunter have subsequently said they support building the busway.