Top Toronto mayoral candidates to debate vision for Scarborough

The race for mayor of Toronto will ramp up on Wednesday with three debates scheduled that will tackle issues including the arts, housing, and the future of Scarborough.

The six leading Toronto mayoral candidates are squaring off in an evening debate where they’ll get a chance to outline their vision for Scarborough. CityNews political affairs specialist Cynthia Mulligan will moderate the 90-minute debate, which is being broadcast on Citytv and CityNews 24/7.

The debate organized by a number of local community groups and is being held at the University of Toronto Scarborough campus. The east-end region of the city is shaping up to be a key battleground in the upcoming byelection.

The debate will feature former NDP parliamentarian Olivia Chow, city councillor Josh Matlow, ex-police chief Mark Saunders, former deputy mayor Ana Bailão, councillor Brad Bradford and former Liberal MPP for Scarborough-Guildwood Mitzie Hunter, who resigned her seat at Queen’s Park to run in the byelection.

Some of the top candidates will also take part in the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts 2023 Mayoral Arts Debate at Young People’s Theatre in downtown Toronto at 10 a.m. At 12:30 p.m., the RESCON 2023 Toronto Mayoralty Housing Debate will be held at the George Brown College Waterfront Campus.

Five of the main candidates, with exception of Saunders, answered questions last week about how they would address the soaring cost of living and food insecurity in the first major debate of Toronto’s mayoral campaign at the Daily Bread Food Bank in Etobicoke.

Olivia Chow, widely considered the frontrunner according to most polls, was grilled by the other candidates about where the funding for her proposed plans will come from.

As of May 15, 102 candidates had registered for the June 26 byelection, which was called after Mayor John Tory stepped down back in February after admitting to an extramarital affair with a former staffer.

With files from The Canadian Press