From improving the city services hotline to a Stop Chow campaign, candidates weigh in
Here’s what key candidates running in Toronto’s mayoral byelection were up to on Thursday:
Ana Bailão
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Ana Bailão announced a plan to fix 311 for residents, including expanding it across all city divisions to provide residents with a single point of contact for all service requests; streamlining response processes and improving customer experience; allowing residents to track the progress of their 311 service requests; and making each division head directly accountable to the mayor for their performance against defined service levels.
Olivia Chow
Olivia Chow shared her plan to protect affordable housing units and renters through her $100-million Secure Affordable Homes Fund to stop renovictions by helping purchase, repair and transfer affordable rental apartment buildings to not-for-profit, community and Indigenous housing providers (i.e. land trusts). Chow would also explore securing the right of refusal for the City of Toronto, which would allow the city to acquire properties that are already listed for sale to secure them as affordable units.
Josh Matlow
Josh Matlow announced his approach to negotiate with other levels of government to secure a better financial deal for Toronto. Matlow has identified five priority funding areas that should be the responsibility of other levels of government: Social housing, TTC operating costs, health care, refugee settlement services and court services.
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Mark Saunders
With 18 days to go until election day, Mark Saunders started what he called the stopchow.ca campaign, asking voters not to vote for the front-runner — at least according to the polls — in Chow, while asking other candidates to throw their support behind him, claiming he’s the only one who can beat her.
Mitzie Hunter
Mitzie Hunter wants to work with other big-city mayors across Canada in seeking a “new deal” that secures one point of the existing HST to benefit all municipalities. Her plan includes leading a coalition of mayors in seeking that one point of the HST; ending double transit fares; securing funding for refugee-related costs; building more transit; recouping health expenses; and securing equitable federal support for new affordable housing.
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Anthony Furey
Anthony Furey started his morning by speaking with transit riders at Islington Station, did an interview with Zoomer Radio’s The Morning Zoom with Sam & Jane and then canvassed around the Bloor and Royal York area.
Brad Bradford
Brad Bradford tweeted out his support of Toronto donating three more emergency vehicles to Ukraine. He also reiterated his support of 24/7 construction on the Gardiner rebuild and unlocking 7 1/2 acres of land to get housing built faster, saying “another environmental assessment, as proposed by Olivia Chow, will make these problems worse.”
