Francis Crescia is a Toronto-based journalist specializing in politics, business, and cultural affairs.As the adage states, it is better to be lucky than good. Toronto mayor Olivia Chow has certainly enjoyed her fair share of luck throughout her political career. She and her husband, former NDP leader Jack Layton, were the country’s most famous progressive power couple, and they rode that fame to higher office. In 2023, Mayor John Tory abruptly resigned due to a sex scandal in which he admitted to engaging in a relationship with a 31-year-old female office staffer. His resignation triggered a chaotic, fast-paced election with over 100 candidates. This was Chow’s chance to pursue her dream of becoming mayor of the country’s largest city. Chow won with only 37% of the vote against a divided group of weak conservative candidates. This time, Chow will need more luck, as councillor Brad Bradford presents a compelling, future-oriented platform that has shifted the race and put Chow’s campaign on the defensive as his poll numbers rise.Chow has run a risk-averse campaign, thinking that her record as mayor and her name recognition would be enough to get re-elected. Her campaign has stumbled along as if in a "time warp," announcing policies that council has already passed. Every mayor has ambitious ideas for improving the city. Former mayor David Miller proposed the Transit City plan, a multibillion-dollar network of light rail transit lines; populist Rob Ford railed against the “gravy train” and wanted subways; and John Tory offered corporate-style pragmatism, creating SmartTrack for transit.Chow’s transit plan proposes freezing fares and offering free service after ten rides while ignoring service reliability and safety issues. On housing, she wants the government to be the master builder and disparages the idea of builders making a profit. By proposing a "Bad Landlords Task Force" to punish negligence, Chow risks demonizing an entire industry over the actions of a few bad actors. She plans to expand her student nutrition program to provide free lunch for over 300,000 students, open libraries seven days a week, and offer 1,000 free museum passes each month. At an event to protect libraries, Chow told a heartwarming story of how the library served as a refuge where her immigrant mother could go after work to escape her abusive husband. She stated that libraries serve as places for children, students, and seniors to access resources without spending money. She pledged that, if re-elected, she would add more drop-in centres and free snacks for young people, make life more affordable, and avoid cuts to the TTC and libraries. While safeguarding vulnerable populations is a worthy goal, a city of millions also demands reliable transit, safe streets, and robust economic opportunities. By focusing heavily on the lower end of the socioeconomic scale, Chow’s policies risk alienating and financially squeezing the middle-class taxpayers who foot the bill..Bradford’s campaign takes a comprehensive approach that will significantly impact people’s economic lives. Scrapping the municipal land transfer tax on the first $1.1 million of a home’s purchase price will save buyers $18,000. A one-year freeze on property taxes will be followed by strict caps tied to inflation. Additionally, Toronto Water will become a new public utility, reducing water bills and enabling long-term infrastructure spending. A detailed review of the city’s $19 billion budget to identify potential savings, along with separating the budget into operating and capital spending, will streamline the process and make more funds available for services. Bradford wants to tackle the youth unemployment rate, which stands at 17% and is the highest in the country, by partnering with the private sector to secure commitments for the creation of 15,000 full-time jobs.Toronto cannot afford another four years of Chow, as the city is at a crossroads regarding its future. It can choose to remain locked in a static grid of progressive ideas or become a dynamic twenty-first-century city that attracts top talent and embraces the dynamism of the AI revolution. Chow not only opposes data centres but also opposes any modernization of downtown Billy Bishop Airport. She refuses to sit on the Toronto Police Services Board, which oversees a police budget that has risen to $1.4 billion. And then there is the elephant in the room: closed construction tendering, which restricts construction contracts to big unions. Research from think tanks like Cardus indicates that opening up tendering could save the city $350 million annually. Bradford has argued that the city’s closed tendering system is a “disaster for our budget” and points to the significant savings that cities like Hamilton and Waterloo have achieved through open bidding.If Toronto wants to become a world-class city, it’s time to move past Chow’s time-warp administration and vote for real change. Bradford is a dynamic, young urban planner who has the energy needed to battle City Hall’s unelected bureaucrats. He has a concrete plan to deliver the thriving, functional city Torontonians deserve. A vote for Chow means four more years of mediocrity and a city dependent on government bailouts, while other major cities pass Toronto by.Francis Crescia is a Toronto-based journalist specializing in politics, business, and cultural affairs.
