Public safety is fast becoming the defining battleground of the Toronto mayoral race, with the campaign increasingly shaped by clashing visions of how to keep the city secure. Councillor Brad Bradford, the primary challenger to incumbent Mayor Olivia Chow, has put crime at the heart of his pitch to voters ahead of the October 26 vote, framing the race as a choice about safety.
Bradford has leaned heavily on the theme in a string of campaign videos posted to social media, several of them focused squarely on public safety and accusing the mayor of not doing enough to address it. In one, he declares that the people with strollers do not surrender this city to the people with guns, and he casts the issue in stark terms, arguing that a city that is not safe is not free.
The challenger, an urban planner turned politician, has tied his message to how residents feel rather than to the raw statistics. He says he has spoken with people across all 630 square kilometers of the city who tell him they feel less safe every day, and he has made announcements about the need for more police officers, seeking to tap into voters' emotions on the issue.
Bradford has pointed to polling to back up his argument, saying that when Torontonians were asked about crime, no matter what kind, the answer was that it is going up. He acknowledges that in many cases crime is in fact going down, and by significant amounts, but stresses that the perception has not caught up, insisting that people certainly do not feel like they are safer.
For her part, Chow has not been campaigning directly, instead continuing to make announcements in her role as mayor, including plans for a community hub in Scarborough unveiled during the week. She highlights a different approach to safety than Bradford's push for more enforcement, emphasizing prevention and opportunities for young people rather than policing alone.
The mayor notes that she has invested heavily in recreation programs since taking office, with 15,000 young people currently enrolled, and frames that spending as a way to give youth purpose. Her 2026 budget, presented in the same purple as her campaign website, states that the city is getting safer and includes plans to make the TTC more affordable in 2027 as part of a caring-city agenda. This year she also oversaw a 93 million dollar increase to the police budget.
The contest is unfolding against the backdrop of Chow's earlier rise, having won the mayoralty in a by-election three years ago on the strength of her focus on Scarborough. Observers say the mayor now has a voter coalition she must work to activate and retain, while Bradford tries to convert unease about safety into support. Torontonians will choose their preferred path forward on October 26.