LILLEY: Brad Bradford makes hard and fast pitch to replace Chow
Bradford makes a pitch to a group of business and political leaders on why he, and not John Tory, should be the one to replace Olivia Chow.
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Getting people who back Justin Trudeau, Mark Carney, Pierre Poilievre, Doug Ford, and Bonnie Crombie into the same room for a common vision is no easy task. On Wednesday, over lunch, more than 60 people gathered from politics and business to listen to why Brad Bradford should be Toronto’s next mayor.
As the city is talking about the possibility of John Tory mounting a comeback, or listening to my words on why he shouldn’t replace Olivia Chow as mayor, Bradford made his pitch. In the audience or on the stage were people who had previously backed Tory, Ana Bailão, Mark Sauders and other former candidates for mayor.
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The group of political and business leaders included people like Paul Godfrey, the founder and former chair of Postmedia — owner of the Sun, Joe Natale, the former CEO of Rogers, John Ruffolo of Maverix Private Equity and Jon Love, the founder of real estate developer KingSett Capital. On the political side, former Trudeau staffer Dani Saad rubbed shoulders with Arthur Hamilton, who was once lawyer for the Conservative Party under Stephen Harper and former Liberal MP Paul Zed.
The MCs for the event were Dennis Matthews, a former Harper staffer-turned ad executive and Genevieve Tomney, a communications consultant who ran Crombie’s Ontario campaign earlier this year.
Over lunch at the Royal York hotel, they heard from pollsters Hamish Marshall, who previously worked for Saunders on his campaign to be mayor and from David Coletto, CEO of Abacus Data and a longtime friend of Bradford’s.
Their message? That Chow is still currently in the driver’s seat, but there is a path for Bradford to beat her in the 2026 mayor’s race.
The polling presented to those in the audience and shared in broad strokes with me via email by those in attendance shows that Chow is vulnerable, but not weak. It shows that voters are open to change, and it is really unclear that Tory, the former mayor, is seen as the agent of change.
“There is a good argument to be made that if it is Chow vs. Tory, Chow will be able to argue that she hasn’t had time to fix the mess Tory left the city in leaving voters who want change with little choice,” a briefing note sent to me read.
“Chow’s going to be really tough to beat. There is no denying that,” one top Bradford backer said.
Speaking with several people in attendance was an interesting exercise. Some are willing to go all in on Bradford, others who are just getting to know him are willing to keep kicking the tires.
“I was impressed and definitely am supporting Brad this cycle,” said one former backer of Bailão.
“What I like is that he seems to be a fighter,” said one attendee who was only recently introduced to Bradford.
Others who agreed to speak on background said they were impressed enough to keep listening. One group that is small in Toronto but is likely to come out in big numbers for Bradford is Toronto’s Jewish community, which appreciates how vocal he has been in supporting them since the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.
“He’s really been there for the Jewish community,” said one key Liberal organizer from the Jewish community.
Of note, former Liberal Senator and stalwart of the Jewish community, Jerry Grafstein, was also in attendance.
The event, in the grand scheme of things, doesn’t mean much, but it could be the start of a serious push to unseat Chow as mayor. It is clearly an attempt to drum up early support and bring in supporters before they commit to other campaigns.
Former Toronto Sun columnist Anthony Furey has said he is thinking of running again but hasn’t committed. Bailão is enjoying having her name floated but isn’t returning calls about her possible entry. Meanwhile, Marco Mendicino, the former Liberal MP and cabinet minister, is too busy being Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Carney to kick off his campaign.
Bradford is sending an early shot across the bow to those other candidates, especially Tory, that he’s serious about running and is organizing early.
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