Matt Elliott: Why are Olivia Chow and Brad Bradford ignoring what Toronto TTC riders actually want? - Toronto Star
Olivia Chow and Brad Bradford are pitching transit plans, but a new poll shows they are missing what TTC riders want.
A recent poll showed that better service is the thing that would get people to use the TTC more often.
Matt Elliott is a Toronto-based freelance contributing columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @GraphicMatt.
Both of the leading contenders for mayor have been out making TTC announcements lately, but when it comes to what riders really want, it seems like Olivia Chow and top challenger Brad Bradford have transit priorities that are a bit off track.
Chow, who formally kicked off her re-election bid for mayor with a rally last week, is regularly highlighting her work to keep the TTC affordable. If anyone ever puts together a 2026 mayoral campaign drinking game, “Do a shot whenever Chow mentions she froze TTC fares” is a total gimme. She committed in an announcement last week to a 2027 fare freeze and implementing more fare capping to limit the amount frequent riders pay — including a new weekly cap.
Bradford, meanwhile, is portraying the TTC as a place where danger lurks. He’s focused most of his transit announcements on safety, pledging to speed up the installation of platform doors and add more police officers in subway stations. At Union Station last week, he decried “disorder” and promised to establish a dedicated police substation on site.
So we’ve got one candidate focused on transit affordability, and another candidate focused on transit safety. (There’s also, for the record, former federal immigration minister Chris Alexander, who is running a distant third in the race for mayor, and has promised to crack down on fare evasion and told the Star’s Mahdis Habibinia he favours “a combination of measures to generate more revenue, more ridership, and above all, better reliability.”)
The three leading candidates for Toronto mayor squared off against one another for the first time Monday evening.
