Toronto’s mayoral race has largely centred on Olivia Chow and Brad Bradford, but with 53 candidates on the ballot, some lesser-known contenders say voters are missing out on an alternative vision for the city.
With just three days to go until Torontonians hit the polls, four mayoral hopefuls spoke to CP24 about their plans to tackle homelessness, affordability and transit.
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- WATCH: Alternative mayoral debate at 6:30 p.m. ET Oct. 23
According to the latest exclusive Nanos poll for CTV News and CP24, 49.8 per cent of decided voters support Chow compared to 46.6 per cent for Bradford while another four per cent support other candidates.
Here’s a closer look at some of those other names on the list.
Laura Dean: Treat homelessness as an emergency
Municipal and land-use planning lawyer Laura Dean says Toronto needs to move beyond political sparring and focus on delivering actual practical solutions.
“Let’s get a plan in place and let’s do it. Let’s stop with the theatrics,” she said.
Dean, a seasoned lawyer with over a decade of experience, identified homelessness as the city’s most urgent challenge.
She says she’s calling for a coordinated response across governments that establishes measurable targets and expands access to housing and treatment.
“We need to treat this like an absolute emergency,” she said.
She says she would also keep property-tax increases around inflation in her first year, examine potential capital-budget savings and improve coordination of construction and road closures to ease congestion.
On Premier Doug Ford’s involvement in Toronto, Dean accused him of using public safety for political gain.
“He’s playing politics with Toronto. He’s using public safety as a wedge issue. He’s putting lives in danger,” she said.
Despite her criticism, she said she would work with the province where cooperation benefits the city.
Read more about her campaign here.
Darrell Brown: A different approach to housing and revenue
Former CNE CEO Darrell Brown wants Toronto to adopt a homes-first approach to homelessness, providing stable housing before expecting people to address addiction or mental-health challenges.
“I actually think we need 100,000 publicly supported housing units in this city,” he said, adding that his main proposal is “home first.”
According to his campaign website, Brown, originally from Halifax, has been a yearslong advocate for putting the interests of others first. In 2022, he housed seven Ukrainian refugees in his home following the 2022 Russian invasion. He has also supported Syrian refugees during the Syrian civil war.
Brown also believes Toronto needs to diversify its revenue sources, pointing to options including congestion pricing and sales taxes.
“You cannot run this city on a property tax,” he said.
On public safety, he favours community investment, youth employment and social programming over simply increasing police numbers.
Brown also criticized the election’s focus on the front-runners, arguing other candidates have long been overlooked across the city’s mainstream media.
“There are some incredibly talented people in that pool of 53 that have been totally ignored,” he said, adding that “there’s always going to be an incumbency bias.”
He says a group of alternative candidates have organized a virtual debate for Friday Oct. 23, at 6:30 p.m., which will be moderated by Chloe Brown, a candidate running for Ward 1 Etobicoke North.
Roberto Curto: Make Toronto a city young people can stay in
For grassroots candidate Roberto Curto, improving Toronto’s transit system is central to making the city more affordable and livable.
“Toronto’s become more expensive, more frustrating, and in some ways I think less fun,” he said.
Curto, 29, wants improved streetcar infrastructure, expanded bus service and a costed pilot for overnight subway service on Friday and Saturday nights so people wouldn’t have to leave bars and clubs early to catch the last train.
He said that expanding the transit service during late nights would help with affordability by reducing reliance on surge-priced rideshares.
He also supports expanding discounted TTC fares for lower-income residents and pursuing a city charter to give Toronto greater revenue-raising powers.
“I don’t want leaving Toronto to feel like the only way to move forward in life,” he said.
While acknowledging he does not expect to win, Curto believes supporting alternative candidates can still influence the city’s direction.
“A vote for me probably would go a lot farther than one vote for one of the main two candidates,” he said.
Corey Deville: People focused policy
For Canadian entrepreneur Cory Deville, key topics like cost of living, safety and economic opportunity need to be what he describes as “the aggressive focus of the city.”
“It falls to us as people to embody the change we want to see in the world, and I believe our first step to reifying a people-focused future is by embodying the courage of our convictions to be the first movers of that change,” he said in a statement to CTV News.
Deville’s campaign is centred around a “people first policy” which includes ideas such as repurposing underutilized real estate.
It also includes tasking CreateTO to rapidly increase urban density and affordable housing options by acquiring two-to-three story homes to convert into self-contained micro-apartments for vulnerable and transitional demographics.
Deville says if elected mayor, he would host a monthly contest for youth entrepreneurs where winners would receive $5,000 to $25,000 in non-dilutive funding to seed their startup idea.
“This would directly support youth employment, because it creates job opportunity through entrepreneurialism,” he said. “People focused policy must be the priority of Toronto.”
