Inside the Toronto election campaign: #FreePaul, Presto on the Ferry and everything else you missed

The long weekend is here, but Toronto mayoral election news doesn’t stop.

This week we had the first major debate of the season with many more to come (four next week alone). Some candidates took increasingly strong stands against Premier Doug Ford, and the Star’s Edward Keenan spent some time with high-profile mayoral hopeful Mitzie Hunter.

Here is what else you might have missed.

#FreePaul

An unexpected folk figure emerged from the first major mayoral debate: Brad Bradford’s “best friend Paul”. While speaking about Toronto’s unaffordable rents, Bradford shared an anecdote he’s told many times about a man making a “good middle-class income” who rents a basement apartment for $1,000 and “can’t afford to live anywhere else, can’t afford to move”. Except, on Monday, Bradford revealed that the man is his childhood friend Paul, and that the basement involved is in Bradford’s home.

The Star briefly spoke to Paul this week, who was surprised to become the subject of memes and even a song. He confirmed that he is in fact real, is in fact Bradford’s best friend and does in fact live in Bradford’s basement. With the average one-bedroom rent averaging $2,501 in Toronto — and with the city’s own more conservative estimate for a studio apartment at $1,317 — it’s safe to say Paul is getting a sweet deal (one that this one-time basement-dwelling reporter felt lucky to be paying back in 2012).

The question is which of the mayoral candidates (obviously Paul has a preference) will make housing affordable enough for him to be able to live fully in the light. Perhaps Paul might find a spot in one of the office buildings Bradford has proposed converting into housing, something the Star’s Victoria Gibson recently chronicled.

Presto for the Islands

In a well-timed announcement as the ferry starts its summer schedule, Ana Bailão said she would expand Bikeshare not just into the suburbs but in the city’s largest park — the Toronto Islands. She’d also push Metrolinx to expand Presto card use to the Islands and make ferry fares free for kids under 12.

What about the future of getting to the Islands on those aging ferries? Replacing the boats comes with a hefty price tag and made the headlines last year after a ferry crash at the Jack Layton Terminal, which injured 20 people, one seriously. The city is planning for two electric ferries to take float in late 2024 or early 2025, the Star reported last year, but at the time a request for proposals for building the boats had yet to be issued.

Tender Loving Care

Bradford proposed this week to open tendering for city construction projects to contractors who use non-unionized workers or workers not covered by a city agreement with nine major trade unions. Bradford claims this would save $200 million annually and speed up construction, but this has been slammed by unions and by rivals who have noted Bradford supported implementing a union preference procurement policy in 2019 when the province introduced legislation that would allow cities to do open tendering. And while Bradford says there are big savings to be had from increased competition, a 2019 staff report was far less confident.

“It is unclear how much increased competition the City will receive on its construction tenders as a result of becoming a non-construction employer and consequently it is not possible to determine with any certainty what, if any, savings will result,” the report said.

May the odds be ever in your favour

Will we see Steve Paikin striding across our television screens explaining how to do a same-game parlay for the mayoral election? Probably not. But, for the first time, you can now bet on who will become Toronto’s next mayor — an unexpected result of Doug Ford’s government legalizing online gambling last year.

Olivia Chow is the favourite (if you bet $10 on her as of Friday, you’d win $4), followed by Mark Saunders ($45), Ana Bailão ($55), Mitzie Hunter ($130), Brad Bradford ($170), Josh Matlow ($170) and Chloe Brown ($180).

Will this increase voter turn out? Is this a mockery of democracy? Will this reporter ever learn what a same-game parlay is? Only time will tell, but in the meantime check out our handy poll tracker.

Alyshah Hasham is a Toronto-based reporter covering city hall and municipal politics for the Star. Reach her via email: ahasham@thestar.ca or follow her on Twitter: @alysanmati

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