Six take-aways from the CBC’s Toronto mayoral debate

Five leading candidates traded barbs in the latest debate of the Toronto mayoral campaign on Tuesday.

The event, hosted by CBC, took place at a critical point of the election, with advance voting for the June 26 contest set to begin on Thursday.

Josh Matlow, Mitzie Hunter, Mark Saunders, Olivia Chow and Ana Bailão took part, while a sixth leading candidate, Brad Bradford, wasn’t able to attend after he and his wife announced the birth of their second daughter on Monday.

Here are six take-aways from the debate:

Moderator Marivel Taruc shook up the proceedings by asking candidates rapid-fire questions about their favourite spots in Toronto. It was a change from the policy discussions that generally dominate debates, and allowed mayoral hopefuls to give voters a glimpse of how they experience the city they want to lead.

Matlow said his favourite patio is the Black Bull on Queen Street West, while Hunter named the AGO as her top tourist attraction, and Chow picked the 510 Spadina line as her most beloved TTC route. Saunders picked Sugar Beach as his favourite beach, and Bailão, a former city councillor, got a plug in for Do West Fest in her old Davenport ward, naming it Toronto’s best street festival.

Chow even dared to weigh in on one of Toronto’s most divisive questions: which is better, the west end or east end? After giving it some consideration, she took the risk of alienating half the city and actually answered. West end, she declared. 　

Chow has taken a lot of heat from other candidates for her refusal to say how much she would raise property taxes, with rivals warning that residents will be in for sky high increases if she’s elected. The former NDP MP again declined to put a number on her tax plan Tuesday, except to say any rate hike would be “modest.”

Chow defended not providing a hard figure by saying that since Rob Ford’s mayoralty council has been “doing budgeting backwards” by first setting the property tax rate, and then determining service levels. She said if she’s elected, she’ll determine what services are needed and then set tax rates to pay for them.

Saunders, who was police chief from 2015 to 2020, has been leading the attacks Chow’s financial plans, and touted his experience managing the force’s $1-billion budget as evidence he would be a good steward of city finances. But he took sustained fire Tuesday over his own financial plans.

When moderator Shawn Jeffords asked why he hadn’t put forward a more detailed financial platform, Saunders suggested publicly available city budget documents don’t have enough information to allow him to craft a costed plan.

Chow asked why 911 call wait times went up while he was chief, despite the force’s operating budget increasing by 12 per cent. Saunders blamed council, which he said had not met his requests for more money for police communications, and asserted he did his best with the resources the city allocated.

“These people here are responsible for not giving the proper money,” he said, referring to Matlow, who currently represents Toronto—St. Paul’s, and Bailão, who was councillor for Davenport for 12 years before leaving city hall in 2022.

Hunter, who until last month was Liberal MPP for Scarborough-Guildwood, wasn’t buying Saunders’s explanation. “You can’t have it both ways. You said you were managing a billion-dollar budget but now you’re saying it was badly managed,” she said.

In recent debates, candidates have focused their attacks on Chow, who polls suggest is the clear front-runner in the race. But on Tuesday, there was significant infighting among the four candidates chasing her. That may indicate a change in strategy of the trailing pack, or merely be the result of the debate format, in which moderators dictated who candidates could direct their questions to.

In one heated exchange, Hunter accused Matlow of delaying the Scarborough subway extension, a project that he long opposed while arguing in favour of building a cheaper LRT in Toronto’s eastern suburb.

“What are you talking about?” Matlow shot back, calling Hunter’s accusation “dishonest and wrong.” He argued that council’s decision to abandon the original LRT plan was why Scarborough transit was delayed, and said Hunter supported the LRT before she ran successfully for the Ontario Liberals.

Perhaps with an eye to gaining the support of the more than 450,000 voters who live in Scarborough, Bailão joined in attacking Matlow, saying he “tried to stop the Scarborough subway every step of the way.”　

There has been little discussion of the climate crisis this mayoral campaign, but a rare discussion of the topic came when Taruc asked the candidates whether they would commit to fully funding the city’s TransformTO plan, to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.

Matlow claimed he was the only candidate that has dedicated TransformTO funding in his platform, through a commercial parking levy that would raise $200 million annually for the plan.

Hunter said climate resiliency was woven into her platform, including her plans to plant more trees, invest in public transit and add solar panels to new housing.

Chow, who said she was hoarse from the smoke above Toronto Tuesday from wildfires made worse by climate change, also said she would invest in public transit, implement eco-energy retrofits for public housing and introduce waste reduction programs.

Bailão said the city should lead by example by making new municipal buildings carbon neutral, and continue plans to buy electric transit vehicles.

Saunders was the only one who didn’t unequivocally commit to funding the city’s plan. He said his proposals to tackle gridlock would reduce emissions, as would his plans to expand the subway grid, but the TransformTO plan has “flaws.” In a post-debate scrum he cited what he described as unrealistic timelines for transitioning to electric vehicles and conducting school trips by walking, biking, or transit.

Candidates’ viewpoints have sometimes been lost in a sea of sound bites this campaign, but the moderator asked a series of yes or no questions on pressing city issues that provided refreshing clarity about where mayoral hopefuls stand.

Citing resident complaints over issues like potholes, rundown garbage bins and dead raccoons being left to fester in the streets, Taruc asked whether candidates believed that Toronto has fallen into physical disrepair. Saunders and Bailão said no, Matlow and Hunter said yes, while Chow split the difference by responding “not completely.”

In welcome news for thirsty park-lovers, all five agreed that residents should be allowed to legally drink in city parks, although Saunders said the idea should be piloted first.

Ben Spurr is a Toronto-based reporter covering city hall and municipal politics for the Star. Reach him by email at bspurr@thestar.ca or follow him on Twitter: @BenSpurr