A Last-Minute Plea to Vote for Olivia Chow
The Toronto mayoral race is predictably tightening as Election Day fast approaches. The choice is obvious to me; Olivia Chow should be re-elected. I wrote about this in a previous post a few months ago. Earlier this month, I voted for her. I mailed in my ballot as soon as I could. When I cast my ballot, though, she was leading by double digits. Now most polls have her with a much smaller lead, and a few have Brad Bradford leading slightly. I believe the race is leaning towards Mayor Chow overall, but I am certainly more nervous than I was before.
Bradford can’t be trusted. He’s a known flip-flopper who just sticks his finger in the wind. He ran as a progressive before, but since that lane is taken now, he’s moved to the right. Beaches-East York folks know best that he’s in it for himself. The residents of his ward have consistently complained that he’s an absent councillor, and that he seems more occupied with his own ambitions.
He fearmongers about crime a lot and wants to hire 1,000 more cops. Crime in Toronto is down overall, and homicides specifically are at the lowest level they’ve been in decades. Despite this, Torontonians feel like it’s going up (much like the rest of the country). Toronto is one of the safest large cities in Canada, and the world, but if voters feel unsafe, that can be a powerful motivator.
Personally, I don’t think we need 1,000 more cops for a crime wave that doesn’t exist, and more cops won’t solve the root causes of many crimes. We need to tackle issues like poverty, homelessness, and untreated mental health issues, among other things.
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Under Mayor Chow’s leadership, homelessness is down, bucking the provincial trend. She’s gone after slumlords and passed measures to help with housing costs. She has also expanded mental health support. If she’s re-elected, she wants to continue her fight against slumlords with a bad landlords task force. She has plans to help with the cost of living in her next term by tackling grocery prices with a ban on surveillance pricing, funding free school lunches, and opening city-owned grocery stores. She also wants to help with transit costs by implementing a weekly TTC cap and keeping the fare freeze in place.
Bradford acknowledged years ago that “Far too long there’s been the burden on frontline officers. We’re routinely asking them to be mental health crisis responders, marriage counsellors, provide support to sexual assault victims, and the list goes on. There are agencies that are better equipped for this, we need to think what that looks like.” Oh, and he voted to cut the police budget. But that was then, during the height of the BLM movement. Now he’s gunning for Conservative voters, though, so time to jack up police spending and fearmongering!
Bradford has made it clear he would not fight back as hard against our corrupt premier as our current mayor does. He has openly supported Doug Ford’s position as a bike lane gets ripped up and our local democracy is violated. The bike lane on Bloor Street West being destroyed right now is one that Bradford himself voted for. But bike lanes have become a “culture war” issue, so Bradford is trying to gin up support however he can.
Bradford has also been exposed for speaking alongside horribly bigoted people, and his supporter list includes many right-wingers like Tim Hudak, Erin O’Toole, Ben Mulroney, Conrad Black, and billionaire Tobi Lütke. They’re flocking to him because they think he’s on their side. And he is. After all, this is a man who, aside from his, let’s say, ambitious police goals, has promised to cut the land transfer tax and freeze property taxes for a year, but thinks we can’t pay for free school lunch. Other right-wing stances he’s taken include his unwavering support for Israel while they commit genocide and his plan for potential water privatization.
Progressive leadership is needed desperately right now. Our province is declining on various metrics (thanks, Doug Ford), and Mark Carney has taken a hard right turn since being elected. We need someone in charge who will stand up for low-income and marginalized people, and who fights back against austerity and Ford’s shenanigans. Olivia Chow has a lifetime of public service and has shown herself to be an honest person who stands on principle. That’s the exact type of person we need leading this city. Someone who’s in it for us, and not just for themselves.
If you live in Toronto, and you haven’t already, please get out and vote for Mayor Chow. Brad Bradford is in this so he can have the title of mayor. Olivia Chow is in this to actually improve the city and keep it moving forward. To me, that’s an easy choice.
