The man working to oust Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow

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Safety is job No. 1 of any government. It’s the most important thing is keep all of our residents safe.

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And number two, the police budget is the largest line item in the city budget. So from a fiscal discipline and financial sustainability perspective, you want to be there. Mayor Chow has abdicated that responsibility. She’s delegated it away. In my view, that’s mayoral malpractice.

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Congestion, number two. The most important thing we can do is get people back on transit. Transit ridership is 20 per cent less today than it was in 2019.

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It’s a staggering number. You think about any other line of business, if you had 20 per cent fewer customers than you did seven years ago, you’d be out of business. Now you ask the question: Why are people not riding transit? Because it’s not safe, and not reliable.

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So I introduced a three point plan for safety and reliability on the transit system. It starts with police officers in all of our stations. There is a deterrent factor that comes with a uniformed officer.

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For congestion, we’re going to invest in technology.

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A Canadian-based company has the best traffic AI software in the world. They install cameras at intersections and they monitor traffic flow in real time and can make light timing signal adjustments down to the second. Intersections are responsible for 30 per cent of the delay in your driving.

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On the cost, the third C; the biggest bills you get every year is your property tax. Mayor Chow has increased that 25 per cent, over this course of council.

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On the housing side, we are going to reduce the cost to build housing in Toronto by expediting the timelines, cutting the taxes and the fees associated with development, which are always passed through to the end user, the renter, the first time homebuyer, the new Canadian. We tax housing more than cigarettes and alcohol. Thirty to 35 per cent of the cost of a unit of housing in Toronto is taxes, fees, and delays.

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Antisemitic violence has increased year over year — how do you intend to face that?

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We have become a global centre for this type of abhorrent behaviour, and it’s putting Toronto on the map, for all the wrong reasons.

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That’s why I led the charge to create bubble zones, actually called safe access zones. It’s delineating a perimeter around places of worship or faith-based community centres, because we’ve seen those come under attack.

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Mayor Chow fought me every step of the way. It took three different attempts to get that through council.

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I was able to put together a coalition of the willing at council … and it has been helpful. Because if you are a first-year constable, trying to determine in that moment what is free speech versus hate speech, is a very difficult task. But if you have a clearly demarcated perimeter around a place of worship … you can do your protesting here, but you can’t do it there; when you cross the line, that makes it clear for everybody.

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The other thing was, I led the charge for the injunction on Al-Quds Day lately. The premier followed the next day. It’s regrettable that it wasn’t done sooner. In light of the fact that we’ve had three synagogues shot at that past week, and the U.S. consulate.

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This is an event that historically has been quite controversial. A lot of antisemitic messaging, genocidal messaging.

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I will never stand at a podium (as Chow did) and offer a declaration of a (“Palestinian”) genocide, that I am unqualified to opine over. Because my job is in Toronto. My job is taking care of this city. She’s actually driving division and pulling the city apart.

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Progress Toronto accuses you of voting to cut police funding, but then says you switched gears. Could you explain your current position?