The race for who will be Toronto’s next mayor is coming to a close, as election day is less than a week away.
With 102 mayoral candidates on the ballot, it can be a difficult choosing process for voters. To assist with this, Now Toronto and The Brandon Gonez Show held a mayoral debate on Monday night where city councillors Brad Bradford andJosh Matlow, former Scarborough MPP Mitzie Hunter, former Toronto Sun columnist Anthony Furey and policy analyst Chloe Brown were in attendance.
At one point during the debate, these candidates got an opportunity to reveal and debunk the biggest misconceptions about their personas and/or political campaigns.
Each candidate had one minute to speak their truths.
You can watch the full debate here.
BRAD BRADFORD
“I think that folks feel that city hall is disconnected from the issues that make a difference in their day-to-day lives and I would tend to agree with them. I’m an urban planner by training. I used to work in the bureaucracy and I saw it everyday, a lack of accountability, divisional silos, the attitude that whatever doesn’t get done today will get done tomorrow. It’s not good enough.
Torontonians are tired of waiting. I ran for council in 2018 to fix that and after being there for four years, I’ve seen more of the same. Endless debates, deferral and delay, the fact that nobody wants to make a decision. They just want to punt the issue down the road, especially when they’re difficult issues and it takes courage to stand up and do what is right.
I am for practical solutions that would make a tangible difference in people’s day-to-day lives. There’s a lot of campaign promises out there from my opponents that are going to be very expensive and are very disconnected from the real world challenges of implementation. You will get real leadership that will make a difference in your life from me when I’m elected as a mayor.”
READ MORE: Toronto mayoral candidates share their thoughts on if front-runner Olivia Chow is elected
CHLOE BROWN
“The big misconception is that I have no experience. Meanwhile, I was an intern in 2014 during the Rob Ford era where I watched most of the top six dance their way around Doug Ford and here I am in 2023 hearing the same cast promise change and I just can’t believe it.
This is where I am really putting myself forward as a faceless public servant who is enjoying being behind the scenes to expose that, yes, things are broken to make sure that we are strategically applying for this vision and getting the other governments to work with us and for us.”
JOSH MATLOW
“It’s often been said that I didn’t sort of go along with the mayor whether it be Rob Ford or John Tory and that is true but it wasn’t just to be oppositional. There were actually many things that we worked on very well together. I’m very proud of my work on the Toronto Seniors Strategy, implementing the Youth Equity Strategy, Rent Safe to protect tenants, expanding sidewalk snow clearing, expanding youth programs and so much more.
But I wasn’t prepared just to say you know, tell me how to vote on everything when I disagreed with it. When I thought that it was wasteful, when I thought it was wrong for Toronto and when I thought it even harmed people, including when the mayor in council refused to open warming centres when people were freezing outside last winter. So, the approach that I’m going to take is to focus on safety, affordability, livability, improving services and I’m going to be working with my colleagues to achieve that agenda that I will have a mandate for as mayor of Toronto.
MITZIE HUNTER
“I’ve heard it said that I have not worked at city hall and have no experience there. That’s actually not true. I was at the Toronto Community Housing Corporation as the Chief Administrative Officer and I definitely reported through to the city manager and mayor’s office and understand how city hall works, yet I bring a fresh set of eyes and a new perspective that is so needed right now at city council.
As Torontonians, you can ask yourself three questions: Who’s been transparent? Who brings the commitment and the experience? And who brings change and represents change? That is what I bring. You know, I’ve resigned my seat as a MPP. I have no old job to go back to. I’m all in because I firmly believe that we need a generational change at city hall. We need to do things differently and we have the opportunity to do that on June 26 and that’s why I’m asking for your support as mayor. We cannot go along with the same old, same old that has got us into this mess. We need to do things differently and that’s what I will bring as mayor.”
ANTHONY FUREY
“I was a newspaper columnist-broadcaster for over ten years in this city and I think that is an asset when people say ‘you haven’t served on council.’ I say well yeah that’s my selling point here. I wasn’t one of the people who broke it. I believe I can come in with a fresh perspective, an outside eye and be one of the people to fix it because when you’re in the media, you’re talking to people of all different expertise, all walks of life and they’re really giving you…You can have your finger on the pulse of what’s going on in the city and what’s going on with the issues.
You harness those voices and you empower them to join you at the mayor’s office to bring all the voices that have been left behind. I’m a father of three small kids. I know the city. I love this city. Toronto is a city worth fighting for and it is not compassionate to keep this stuff going on on our streets here seeing us move in the direction of places like Seattle. We got to turn Toronto around and I believe together we can fix this.”
Former city councillor and MP Olivia Chow and former deputy mayor Ana Bailão were invited but did not RSVP to their debate invites and former Toronto police chief Mark Saunders declined his.
