Toronto’s next batch of candidates is being encouraged to get back to basics.

Political advocacy group ABC Toronto is urging those seeking office in next month’s election to commit to core issues — things like congestion, crime and, of course, potholes — after a council term that involved picking fights with people far from city hall, like Doug Ford and Elon Musk.

Kelly Aizicowitz of ABC Toronto said the pledge went out to candidates this week and they expect to publish an initial list of signees around Sept. 21 – more than a month before election day on Oct. 26.

“The Torontonians who I really speak to wanna know what’s going to be done to make the city safer,” Aizicowitz told the Toronto Sun . “How can we make it more affordable? How can we get across the city easily?

“Getting back to basics is focusing in on what municipal government is supposed to be doing.”

ABC said there’s no partisan element to the pledge and no policies are being proposed. It’s just a commitment to five priorities: Economic development, mobility, safety, affordability and accountability.

“I think there’s just been a lot of attention paid to other things,” Aizicowitz said, “whether that’s international or things that are within the province’s purview or the federal government’s purview and just not focusing in on how do we keep this city moving and deliver the services that need to be delivered in a timely fashion and also in a really high-quality way.”

Think globally, represent locally

While city council’s recent commitment to ABC’s five basics might be debated, it’s undeniable that part of this term was consumed with issues well beyond municipal jurisdiction.

For example, city hall not only intends to run its own grocery stores , it also announced it will fight surveillance pricing of groceries – despite there being no evidence of that happening in Toronto and despite the fact that the municipality likely has no way to stop it.

Meanwhile, city council routinely clashed with Premier Ford and his provincial government during Olivia Chow’s term as mayor, notably over bike lanes and the future of Billy Bishop airport.

More unusual were council’s spats with officials in the United States, such as when immigration authorities were told they weren’t welcome in Toronto – even though Washington insisted it never intended to put agents in the city.

Chow also in February 2025 led a baffling charge to exclude Teslas from a city program, arguing that would “send a message to the White House.” The automaker’s leader, the industrialist Musk, was the direct subject of comments at that month’s council meeting with Councillor Mike Colle standing to say he’d do “everything I can” to remove a Tesla dealership from his ward.

Core services were also a focus of city council – but sometimes only after disaster struck. Perhaps most obvious was Chow’s new “ all-hands-on-deck ” approach to winter storms, brought in after Toronto was snowed in for days last February.

Representatives for the mayoral campaigns of Chow and her primary challenger, Brad Bradford, were asked if they would sign ABC’s pledge, but did not respond to requests for a comment.

Traffic ‘a thief’ that needs attention

Perhaps the most important of ABC’s five basics is mobility. A poll released by Liaison Strategies in May found most Torontonians think traffic congestion is worse this year than last and 88% called it a serious problem in their part of town.

Meanwhile, the Toronto Region Board of Trade recently rolled out its first in a series of “ issue guides ” for voters and it made congestion and transit the initial subjects.

Aizicowitz said she’s not surprised so many are stuck on congestion. She called it a “thief” that takes away the best parts of our lives.

“I’d rather spend that time with my family rather than sitting behind a sea of red lights on the Lake Shore or the Gardiner,” she said.

Aizicowitz suggested change is needed if voters want city hall to do its “core jobs” better.

“I think they haven’t been kept in focus,” she said.

“When I look at the response from Mayor Chow and the Progress Toronto-backed councillors, it’s just sort of, ‘Oh, that’s not really a problem, don’t worry about it. We’ve got it under control’ – but then, you know, two days later, a pothole turns into a sinkhole.”

jholmes@postmedia.com

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