Meet Your Candidate: Brad Bradford
Ahead of Toronto’s 2026 mayoral election, Street Voices connected with the candidates to ask 8 key questions. Here are their unedited responses.
Toronto mayoral candidate Brad Bradford takes part in a debate in Scarborough, Ont. on Wednesday, May 24, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
Who’s running to lead Toronto — and what do they have to say about the issues affecting your everyday life?
Ahead of the Oct. 26 municipal election, Street Voices emailed 8 questions to the top 5 mayoral candidates, according to a poll in September. The questions were all the same for fairness, and they touched on issues including affordability, housing, youth employment, transit, support for Black and racialized communities, and funding for BIPOC artists.
Three candidates have responded: Brad Bradford, Olivia Chow, and Sarah McVie. Chris Alexander dropped out of the race as of Oct. 6, and Odessa Paloma Parker dropped out on Oct. 21.
Here’s what the candidates who responded have to say about the issues that matter to you. Please note that we have not edited their answers.
We are posting the candidates in alphabetical order by last name: Brad Bradford, Olivia Chow, and Sarah McVie.
Brad Bradford
1. Why are you running for mayor, and what are your top three priorities if elected?
I'm running because I believe in this city. I believe Toronto can be the best city in the world to raise a family, build a business and reach your full potential, and I think most people who live here can feel how far we are from that right now. Toronto isn't broken. It's stuck. Olivia Chow is asking people to settle for a city that costs more and delivers less, and I won't do that. This campaign was never about the last 3 years. It's about the next 4, the next 10, the next 20, and whether we settle for what we've got or reach for what we could be.
My top three priorities are making this city more affordable, keeping it safe, and getting it moving again. Affordable means a property tax freeze in year one, water bills cut by about $300 a year for the average household, renters included, and the Land Transfer Tax gone on the average home. Safe means 1,000 more front-line officers, an officer at every subway station, and real investment in the community programs that keep young people out of harm's way in the first place. Moving means a 15-minute service guarantee on the TTC, so the bus actually comes. I want a young person growing up in this city to be able to start a career, buy a first home and build a life here. We're on the cusp of change. Change is within our grasp. To change the city, we need to change the mayor.
2. This city continues to become unaffordable for young people and working families. What will you do to address this?
I hear from young people every day who are working hard and wondering if they'll ever afford a home here, and from families stretching every paycheque just to stay. 77,000 people have already left Toronto. Not because they stopped loving this city, but because they stopped believing it's a place where they can build a good life. Here's what nobody at City Hall wants to say out loud: the province has never given the city more money, and NDP Mayor Chow still raised property taxes nearly 20%, the largest increase in the city's history. If she's re-elected she'll raise them another 20% at least. That's nearly $700 more a year on the average home, and nobody can tell you what they got for it. Food bank visits are up 340% since 2019, 4.1 million last year alone. City Hall has a management problem, not a revenue problem.
So I'm focused on the levers the city actually controls, and on relief people can feel. I'll freeze property taxes in year one, for homes and for businesses. I'll cut water bills by 25%, about $300 a year for the average household, and I'll make sure that saving reaches renters, not just landlords. I'll eliminate the Land Transfer Tax on homes under $1.1 million. Toronto is the only city in Canada with its own land transfer tax, and it's 5 figures in cash on closing day. Scrapping it saves up to $18,000, and for most first-time buyers in condos it disappears entirely. I'll pay for all of it by finding the waste, starting with the first full, independent, line by line review of City Hall spending since 2011, not by asking families for more. Every household budgets. So should City Hall.
3. Many young people, particularly Black and racialized youth, face barriers to finding meaningful employment and gaining work experience. What would you do to create more jobs and opportunities for youth across Toronto?
Young people in this city are doing everything they were told to do, and it still isn't adding up. Youth unemployment in Toronto is over 15%. Across the country, the share of young people with a job fell last year to its lowest level since 1998, and if you're Black, Arab or new to Canada it's worse: unemployment for Black youth ran at more than 23% last year. City Hall runs 40 youth employment programs, and the numbers still got worse. That's Toronto right now. Not broken. Stuck. Meanwhile this city holds 1.4 million private-sector jobs, and no mayor has ever stood in front of those employers and asked them to hire this city's kids.
So I will. On day one I'll launch the Toronto Youth Employment Challenge, with a public goal of 15,000 permanent, full-time jobs for young people by the end of my term. Employers fund the jobs, not taxpayers. I'll personally recruit 10 to 15 CEOs as founding partners, build a single public portal where every job pledged and every job filled is published for everyone to see, and require that at least 30% of the internships, apprenticeships and partner positions go to equity-deserving youth, because the young people who've been shut out the hardest should be first in line, not an afterthought. Boston's mayor did this. New York's CEOs did this. Toronto has never tried. A first job is the best affordability program ever invented, and I want a young person in Jane and Finch, Malvern or Rexdale to know there's a real future for them in this city.
4. What would you do to address the housing and homelessness crisis, including the needs of people struggling to find or maintain affordable housing?
Half this city rents, and a lot of people are renting while they save for a first home or just trying to hold on to the one they have. I understand how stressful that is, and I don't think anyone should accept that 4.1 million food bank visits in a year is the best Toronto can do. For buyers, the Land Transfer Tax on a home under $1.1 million is gone, which can save up to $18,000 and takes the biggest barrier off the table for a first-time buyer in a condo. For every household, water bills come down by about $300 a year, and I'll make sure renters see that saving too.
For renters, the plan is simple: keep your home, cool your home, and build more homes. Keep your home means enforcing the renoviction rules the city already has and publishing the results, so bad landlords can't count on City Hall looking the other way, and funding the eviction prevention programs that actually keep people housed. Cool your home means a maximum heat standard with a cool room in every rental home, because nobody should be sweating through July on the 14th floor with no relief. Build more homes means giving non-profit and co-op builders clear rules and early money so young people priced out of the neighbourhoods they grew up in can find homes they can afford and keep. And nobody should be left outside in a city this wealthy. I'll work with the province and community partners to get people out of encampments and shelters and into housing, with the support they need to stay there.
5. Over the years, we have continuously seen stories of violence and crime that have resulted in tragedies deeply impacting our communities. What will you do to address gun violence and youth crime, especially the deaths of Black teens?
Every young life lost ripples through a whole community, and too many families in this city, far too many of them Black families, have buried a child. No parent should go through that, and no community should ever be expected to get used to it. I won't pretend there's one answer. There are two, and a mayor has to do both. The first is prevention. The surest way to steer a young person away from violence is to give them something to lose: a first job, a place to belong, and a reason to believe the city is on their side. That's why the Youth Employment Challenge, with 30% of positions reserved for equity-deserving youth, is as much a safety plan as a jobs plan. I'll back the community organizations already doing this work in the neighbourhoods that need it most, and I'll measure every dollar spent on youth safety against results, because young people deserve programs that work, not programs that just exist. The risks young people face don't end on Labour Day, and the support shouldn't either.
The second is enforcement people can trust. A small number of repeat violent offenders are doing most of the damage, and I'll target enforcement at them and press Ottawa and Queen's Park on bail reform so they aren't back on the street in days. I'll hire 1,000 more front-line officers over my first term, with a focus on transit and public spaces. And I know that in a lot of neighbourhoods in this city, trust in policing has to be earned. That's why I'll take the Mayor's seat on the Police Services Board, so City Hall is directly accountable for how policing works in every community, not just some of them, and why I'll make sure people in a mental health crisis get help from people trained to give it. A city that is not safe is not free, and that has to be true in every neighbourhood.
6. Toronto has a large and diverse arts and culture community. We cover many events happening in the city, and we've talked to many BIPOC artists and grassroots organizations who say they struggle to get access to funding and opportunities. What would you do to make arts and culture funding more accessible and equitable, particularly for emerging and BIPOC artists?
Every artist who leaves takes a piece of Toronto's identity with them, and too many are being priced out of the city they help make worth living in. The grassroots organizations you're talking to are right. The money is hard to get, the paperwork is worse, and the people with the least administrative capacity are the ones most likely to give up. It takes about 20 documents to put on a show in this city, and festivals are dying in permit queues. Arts and culture deserve better than being treated like paperwork.
This isn't new ground for me. I served on the board of the Toronto Arts Council, and at Olivia Chow's first budget I moved to put $2 million more into the Toronto Arts Council and $900,000 into the local arts service organizations, the neighbourhood-level bodies that are often the first and only funder an emerging or BIPOC artist ever gets. The mayor and her allies voted it down. As mayor, I'll keep arts funding stable and predictable so organizations can plan more than one season ahead. I'll create one front door for event permits, with the fee refunded if the city misses its own deadline, which matters most to the small festivals that can't afford a consultant to navigate City Hall. I'll cut the red tape that's strangling venues, bring the festivals back to our public spaces, and keep those spaces safe and clean so culture can happen there. And I'll build more homes, because the artist who can't make rent doesn't just need a grant. They need a city they can afford to live in.
7. Black and racialized communities often depend on transit to get around the city. What is your plan to make public transit more reliable and safe for people?
For a lot of people, transit isn't a choice. It's how they get to school, to work and home again, and when it fails, they pay for it in ways that never show up in a TTC report. Every delay is a time tax: the class you were late for, the shift you couldn't take, the evening with your family you missed. Under Olivia Chow, too many people are paying it, and the people paying the most are the ones with the least room in their day. I'll bring in a 15-minute service guarantee across the TTC, so the bus actually comes. I'll make streetcars faster with full signal priority and put smart signals at all 2,500 intersections. And I'll make the Eglinton East LRT my first priority transit project, because Scarborough was promised real rapid transit and got painted bus lanes instead. The communities that depend on transit most have waited long enough.
Feeling safe on transit starts with the basics. I'll put platform edge doors at every subway station and set clear, published standards for lighting and cleanliness, so a station at 11 at night looks the way it should. I'll put a visible police presence at every subway station, so riders know help is there when they need it, and I'll make sure people in crisis on the system get a response from people trained to help them. Reliable, safe transit is the most powerful affordability tool this city has, and I'll treat it that way.
8. What sets you apart from the other mayoral candidates, and what do you want voters, especially those who feel their voices do not matter during municipal elections, to know about you?
Olivia Chow stood on the debate stage and declared that Toronto has reached its full potential. We haven't. Not even close. 4.1 million food bank visits isn't our full potential. The worst commutes in North America isn't our full potential. Half a million more people and not one more police officer on the street isn't our full potential. The mayor has made her peace with less. I haven't. I'm a city planner by training. I know how cities are supposed to work, and I know this one can work a lot better than it does. What sets me apart is a plan with numbers attached for the three things families feel every day: a city you can afford, a city that feels safe, and a city that moves.
To anyone who feels their vote doesn't matter in a municipal election, I hear you, and here's what I'd say. City Hall is the level of government closest to your life. It decides whether the bus shows up, whether the rec centre is open, whether your rent money goes further and whether your kid can find a first job. The neighbourhoods that get ignored are the ones that stop voting, and the ones that stop voting keep getting ignored. The way to break that is to show up, and I'll meet you there. Before election day I'll have been in all 25 wards of this city, because no neighbourhood should be taken for granted and none should be written off. We're on the cusp of change. Change is within our grasp. Together, let's build a city we can all be proud of again.
