Leading Toronto mayoral candidates Brad Bradford and Olivia Chow squared off in the final debate of the 2026 municipal election Thursday night. It was the last opportunity for both leaders to debate each other before voters head to the polls on Oct. 26. Here are five standout moments from the debate: Bradford says Chow will take 115 years to reach her housing goal Speaking about housing during one of the first exchanges, Bradford took aim at the pace of Chow’s progress on her promise to deliver 65,000 purpose-built rental units by 2030. “Today, only 1,500 have been delivered. That is a mere two per cent of her target of her commitment to Torontonians. And if we were to continue at that pace, it would take 115 years for the mayor to deliver on her commitment,” Bradford said. “Unfortunately, housing starts have cratered. We have the lowest amount of housing starts in the past 30 years, we know what works. City Hall’s job is to create the conditions to build.” Chow shot back that no affordable housing was built when Bradford was chair of the Housing and Planning Committee and said approvals have been sped up by 80 per cent on her watch and development charges have been lowered. Chow says Bradford not clear on strong mayor powers When it came to a citizen question as to whether each candidate would use strong mayor powers if council wasn’t with them on an item they felt strongly about, Bradford did not answer directly. Instead, he said he would be focused on crime, congestion and costs and said he is looking for a “mandate from the people of Toronto” to move forward on that agenda. “I’m going to work with everybody to make sure that we can get that done,” he said. Chow shot back, “I didn’t hear an answer there,” and said she would work with councillors who disagree with her and would not override council if the majority was not in favour of her plan. Bradford says city has been wasteful under Chow When it came to a question about how to make sure that City Hall was spending money wisely, both candidates took shots. Bradford insisted that an outside perspective is needed for a line-by-line review in order to make sure that the same people creating the budget are not the ones reviewing their own work. He pointed out that Toronto’s budget is now larger than that of four provinces. “The idea that in a $19-billion budget there is no savings available is the same can’t-do attitude that we hear time and time again from this mayor, the status quo thinking,” Bradford said. “Look, our own auditor general found that the city spent $11 million on Microsoft Office licenses for people who had retired. It spent $5 million to put stickers on recycling bins to tell you we don’t pick up the recycling. You handed a contract, half a million dollars, to your friends at Progress Toronto. So there’s lots of things that we can save.” Chow retorted that Bradford’s plan would really entail a tax increase of 1.5 per cent instead of a freeze and said he is not being honest about that. Bradford shot back that the city has already seen a tax increase of nearly 20 per cent (over three years) under her administration. Clash over Bradford’s water plan One of the strongest exchanges of the evening was over Bradford’s plan to turn Toronto Water into an independent, publicly owned utility corporation such as Toronto Hydro. Chow said Bradford’s plan would hand the city’s water over to Premier Doug Ford and open the door to its privatization. Bradford shot back that Chow was resorting to “wild accusations, misinformation, frankly dishonesty” in her description of his plans, pointing out provincial law would not allow the city’s water to be privatized. “I think that is below you because I think you’re a good person. I think it’s below the office of mayor, and I don’t think that’s a productive conversation to have here in our debate or this election,” Bradford added. Promising his plan would keep water public, he said he would resign his seat if it were privatized. Chow attacks Bradford’s record as councillor In another exchange, the two candidates clashed over Bradford’s record as a councillor. “You are now applying for the biggest job in the city. You don’t get a promotion if you can’t even get your own job done well, and that is what is your record has been,” Chow shot at Bradford. She accused him of not making time to meet with residents who were concerned over conditions at an apartment building in his ward. “It’s simply not true,” Bradford shot back and again took aim at Chow for “attacks on character that are unfounded.” He said he’s been meeting with concerned tenants since 2010, pursuing dozens of prosecutions of negligent landlords. “This landlord, which is one of the worst landlords in the entire city, now faces a fine of over a million dollars. Charges laid before you ever even visited Dawes Road under my leadership,” Bradford said. “So I understand that it’s part of your campaign. I understand that it’s another photo op and another announcement for you. But what you’re saying doesn’t coincide with the facts.” You can watch more clips and find a full rundown of all the debate highlights here.
