With one week left in Toronto’s mayoral race, Brad Bradford is returning to a classic challenger’s promise: open the books. The candidate renewed his pledge on Monday to conduct a line-by-line review of the City of Toronto’s spending, which would be the first exercise of its kind since 2011.
Bradford argued that incumbent Olivia Chow has “made her peace with less,” and that the city is “not even close” to reaching its full potential. The spending review pitch sits alongside his transit proposal for signal priority across the entire streetcar network, which Chow has attacked, and her counter-charge that he would give away control of Toronto’s water supply to the provincial government.
Voters interviewed in recent days have put affordability and transit at the top of their priorities, and both campaigns are now framing the final week around competence and cost: Chow defending her record in office, Bradford arguing the city is settling.
Toronto votes next week in a race that polls have described as neck-and-neck. Whoever wins will inherit the budget Bradford wants to audit line by line — or, if Chow holds on, the record he spent the campaign attacking.
