Over 30 people have put their names forward to run become the next mayor of Toronto on Oct. 24. CityNews is taking a look at the top five contenders who are hoping to grab your vote:
Chloe Brown
Chloe Brown entered the Toronto mayoral race in Fall of 2022 . She grew up in the city and spent time serving with the Toronto Youth Cabinet. She said this foundation experience let to her work on the design and implementation of municipal and provincial job-training programs.
On her website, Brown said she has three big ideas to “restoring democracy” in Toronto, including using direct community investments in workforce development, foster ecosystems, and create stable and simplified tax rates.
Key platform ideas
- Cancel the rebuild of the Gardiner Expressway;
- Create a program called RentSmart that would be the first tenant-facing system to centralize all rental units and tenants into one platform;
- Develop an effective local development strategy that requires planners to work across departments and to empower residents and businesses to monitor and assess the plan;
- Reorganize police services to increase “public consent.” This includes:
- Investing in Community Violence Interventions;
- Decentralizing core activities of crime prevention from law enforcers and Toronto Police Services’ mandate;
- Transforming the Law Enforcement sector for Public Safety ecosystem and professionals.
- Analyze real-time curbside activity and share real-time parking availability data with drivers to improve safety for pedestrians, cyclists, and other curb users;
- Create an Environment Sustainability Office by merging Transform TO, Toronto Atmospheric Fund and Green Market Acceleration Program.
Sarah Climenhaga
This will be Sarah Climenhaga’s second run at mayor in the City of Toronto. Climenhaga finished in sixth in 2018, collecting just 4,765 votes or 0.6 per cent.
Climenhaga said as a lifelong resident of Toronto, she has worked as an executive director of a transportation non-profit where she said she worked with universities and large corporations to solve their commuting challenges.
Key platform ideas
- Adopt participatory budgeting for the city and listen to the ideas of everyone to address the budget constraints Toronto is facing and to be fair to residents who want to be sure their money is well spent;
- Ensure streets have rapid transit lines and dedicated, spacious, safe, and accessible pathways for everyone on foot or two wheels;
- Work with companies producing goods and services to support business models that include full responsibility for everything associated with what they create;
- Build on the many expert recommendations, staff reports and great ideas on what to do to increase housing in the city and provide the political will and use a collaborative approach to secure resident support to get these proposals into action.
Gil Penalosa
Guillermo Penalosa, who goes by Gil, is the founder and chair of 8 80 Cities, a non-profit organization that aims to make every city wonderful for the 8-year-old and 80-year-olds who live there.
His big ideas, including turning the island airport into a city park, have caught the attention of many, with some saying he is incumbent mayor John Tory’s main opponent.
Key platform ideas
- Cancel the Gardiner Expressway East and build a boulevard that would make way for the building of close to 8,000 homes;
- Turn the Island Airport into a large city park;
- Establish rent control in all units that receive any city funding and advocate for the Province to bring back rent control for all tenants.
- Create 100 per cent affordable housing on city-owned land;
- Disband the Toronto Police Service’s mounted unit and reallocate $5.9 million per year in savings towards Vision Zero road safety programs;
- To help small businesses, limit chain stores in new developments on main streets and include a right of application to local Community Councils.
Stephen Punwasi
Stephen Punwasi is a businessman who was born and raised in Toronto. He currently resides in the City’s west end but has lived everywhere from Bay Street to Jane and Finch. His most recent venture was Better Dwelling, a housing news site.
Punwasi says he is running for mayor because he believes the city has untapped potential and with the right leadership, he know it can be fixed.
Key platform ideas
- Create an “open-source city” that will produce essential and innovative software to power the next generation of cities;
- Reduce corruption by using this software to create transparency;
- Create a city-owned housing company which leverages city-owned land to build cost-stabilized rentals that operate transparently;
- Create a community venture fund that will have a city-owned portfolio take stakes in local start-ups and provide mentorship to help them grow;
- Start a climate innovation lab to help create open and cost-effective solutions to lessen the impact of climate change;
- Immediate transition and retrofit of all buses to electric.
John Tory
John Tory is looking to be re-elected for the second time to his third term as Toronto mayor. He won in 2018 with just over 63 per cent of the vote and is currently polling just over 50 per cent for the upcoming election.
The 68-year-old lawyer and former provincial PC leader said he plans to continue growing Toronto’s economy and transit expansion after leading the city through the last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Key platform ideas
- Continuing to build the $28 billion transit plan that includes the Scarborough Subway Extension, the Ontario Line, the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension, and the Yonge North extension;
- Continue funding the city’s police budget and expand the Neighbourhood Community Officer program and continue fighting for stronger gun control;
- Support small businesses by expanding the first-in-Ontario Small Business Property Tax subclass and increase the discount from 15 to 20 per cent;
- Expanding Bike Share Toronto in the suburbs with another 375 stations and over 2,800 more bikes prioritizing expansion in North York, Etobicoke North, and Scarborough and the first station on the Toronto Islands;
- Make sure projects are moving forward with a “use it or lose it” policy for undeveloped land which mandates developers start building on unused land within a certain timeframe or pay higher taxes and have zoning approvals expire.
To find out more about the promises these candidates have made should they become mayor, click here.
