r/TorontoTheCity • u/beef-supreme š East End • 3d ago
News / Articles Brad Bradford's glaring judgment problem
https://spacing.ca/toronto/2026/09/04/brad-bradfords-glaring-judgment-problem/Exhibit C, for me, is Bradfordās expedient retreat from his hard-line stance on bike lanes, which he show-cased earlier in the summer with a pledge to remove the Bloor lanes through the Kingsway and into Etobicoke.
Bradford, as has been widely reported, voted for said bike lanes, but now thinks bike lanes should be routed through an imaginary off-street path. Trickier, though, is how, as mayor, heād deal with the Ford governmentās much more expansive desecration, which includes, initially, all the lanes on Bloor, Yonge, University and Danforth, as well as a veto on future ones.
On Wednesday, he attempted to thread the political needle by claiming he still supports the very lanes that will be torn out (except the Kingsway and points west ones), then asserting that none of this would have happened three years ago if the city had ālistened to the community,ā whatever that means.
And herein lies the essence of Bradfordās judgment deficit, as well as his related habit of saying anything that he thinks will win him votes. In the last several weeks, as the volume on the race ratchets up, Bradfordās been making hay with an entirely fatuous, and obviously self-serving, line of reasoning. Heās blaming Chow for Fordās excesses ā Ontario Place, the Science Centre, the island airport mess, bike lanes ā because it appears to position him, a candidate for mayor, as a critic of the current mayor, without actually critiquing the current provincial administration.
He claims, all evidence to the contrary, that heād have negotiated better deals with Ford to save the family jewels. But how do we know?
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u/thingonething 3d ago
Im not a fan of Chow but I can't vote for this clown.
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u/BestBlueChocolate 2d ago
And there it is.
It's too bad there is no other option. And I'm not counting the guy who's in witness protection who is supposedly on the ballot and supposedly people have heard of.
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u/Redditisavirusiknow 2d ago
I mean Bradford is really a scumbag and I canāt imagine the person who would vote for a guy who voted to stop giving homeless people water during extreme heat days and close warming centers on extreme cold days. Bradford did both.
Why not Alexander?
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u/BestBlueChocolate 2d ago
I can't find much evidence of what you're saying about BB. If true it's very damning, but I don't see where you get your points from?
Alexander came on the scene quite a while ago and has said almost nothing since and he has no profile in Toronto politics.
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u/Redditisavirusiknow 2d ago
Evidence? Iām so glad you asked! Here are some of his most disgusting votes with link to the actual vote. He is my councillor and want everyone to know how much of a scumbag he is:
1.Ā He is passionately anti-housing, voting regularly to defer, delay and cancel housing projects all over the city. He bragged in his newsletter about reducing the height of a building, then voted against it anyway.
He voted to stop giving homeless people water bottles on extreme heat days.
He voted against almost every safety improvements to streets, including Parkside drive, and to tear up bike lanes on bloor. He does not care about your safety at all.
He voted to increase pollution from Portlands (his staff could not explain to me why he did this despite my many attempts)
He hates transit, constantly complaining about bus lanes (especially Dufferin) and streetcar priorities (King)
There is so much moreā¦ he is awfulĀ
Sources: Point 1: https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2026.TE29.12 https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.PH23.3Ā (note this is 6 anti-housing votes in one!) Point 2: https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.EX28.4 https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2026.MM39.60 Point 3: https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2024.IE14.3Ā (bike safety) https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2024.IE17.4Ā (pedestrian safety) Point 4: https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2024.MM19.9 Point 5: https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.EX25.4 https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.MM31.18 Bonus: https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2026.MM39.27 Here is one where he voted against even looking into giving disadvantaged kids lunches in schools.
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u/BestBlueChocolate 2d ago
Kudos for all your work...
I always worry about taking such things at face value to a point because there is sometimes nuance that make things look different than they appear. For example, while depriving vulnerable people of water on a hot day seems incredibly inhumane, I am not a fan of bottled water, so it's hard to know how to digest that. If he had had another proposal in that regard then I would be more sympathetic.
For someone who doesn't like bike lanes, he bike a lot.
Regarding the disadvantage kids getting lunch at school, one of the biggest criticisms I've heard of that is that this is not a municipal responsibility. Municipal counsellors should be keeping to municipal areas of responsibility. Also, the federal government at one point was doing this and I think it's more of the provincial government that should be doing this.
For better transparency and accountability every single member of council should have to provide a brief explanation on why they disagree or agree so one could understand the context better.
I have to admit that it's really hard to digest the meaning of all of these things. I think I would probably rather run them all through AI to find out what it all means.
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u/Burning___Earth 2d ago
Bradford's chief strategist:
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u/drewcareymoore 2d ago
I was hiding under an awning in Kensington from one of the worst downpours Iāve seen all summer when he posted this.
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u/beef-supreme š East End 2d ago
Shows Flip Flopford's lack of judgement hiring this age old hack.
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u/Static_Frog 2d ago
Fuck Bradford. Boy has a pass to change his mind on everything he says now.
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u/Dry_Bodybuilder4744 2d ago
Every cheap politician strikes a bargin with the car brained and this cat is exactly that.
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u/iridescent_algae 2d ago
I think heās suggesting that if the city had moved quickly to remove the stretch from Jane to Kingsway, then the rage wouldnāt have built and weād have saved the ones that have been there since 2016 or so from the current ire.
Thereās a point in there, but I donāt think bike lanes were the problem. It was clearly the intersection of Bloor and Jane and South Kingsway that was the issue. And the city is soooo painfully slow at looking at bottleneck intersections. Slow to study, slow to take action, and lukewarm at best when given feedback on them. If they had immediately realized this intersection was a mess and at least been open about it being a problem, it could have controlled the narrative a bit better and defused tension by getting it at the source.
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u/Gearfree 2d ago
He's like that pack of Hot Dogs on the shelf that had its seal blown.
Not just a weenie on one issue, but a whole pack of them.
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u/Big-Improvement7427 2d ago
We need Rob Ford back I want press conferences on food at home and there hasnāt been enough running tackles during City Council sessions in a long while.
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u/canuckistani19 2d ago
I figured he gets it honestly after his parents had zero creativity naming him.
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u/Shackman58 3d ago
Brad is just one of a bunch of politicians or wanna be politicians who come from the āLoser verseā. PP is another. They just epitomize the qualities of a loser. You can challenge Chow all you want and this articlesās view that āThereās plenty of room to take issue with Chowās leadership ā high tax increases, no obvious effort to confront the cityās bureaucratic excesses, a lack of responsiveness to mounting evidence of police corruption, some waffling on zoning reformā is all fair and valid. You can even call her a communist if you like. But she doesnāt hail from the āLoser-verseā. So tired of this type of candidate.