Toronto mayoral race underway despite contenders playing coy

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It had all the trappings of a campaign event. There was the location at a construction site, a podium, a flashy sign with a slogan and a campaign-style promise to fix traffic congestion.

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But asked time and again whether this was the kickoff for his campaign to be mayor, Brad Bradford said he hasn’t made that decision yet.

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“I’ve not made any decision on that, but I am focused on delivering practical solutions for Torontonians every day,” Bradford said.

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Given that he held an event Wednesday with more than 60 high-level politicos, taking in top Liberal and Conservative backers, that statement rings hollow. Despite his protests that he has not made a decision, Bradford is clearly running.

In fact, his statement was as believable as Mayor Olivia Chow saying she wasn’t concerned about campaigning just yet.

“I’m very busy building housing that people can afford and investing in public transit just right here, for example, and lots to do. Fixing city services and getting people moving, so that’s what I’m focusing on,” Chow said Tuesday when asked about the idea of former mayor John Tory running against her.

Bradford and Chow want us to believe they are not campaigning for the mayor’s job in 2026 when they both clearly are. Chow is currently the mayor, of course, and even some of her backers have said to me that every announcement from here on out will effectively be a campaign announcement, even if it is disguised as a city announcement.

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Bradford, meanwhile, has set himself up as the unofficial leader of the opposition at city hall and will use that perch to fuel his campaign.

But Tory remains the great unknown in this campaign.

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Several candidates from Ana Bailão to Anthony Furey or Marco Mendicino may not enter the race if Tory is a candidate. Whether Tory enters the race or not remains an open question with the former mayor not speaking publicly on the issue and his former staffers and backers sending mixed signals.

Right now, Tory looks like Toronto’s Hamlet asking whether to be or not to be mayor. Like Hamlet, it seems Tory doesn’t know his own mind or what he wants to do; he likes the attention, but isn’t ready to commit.

“Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles,” Hamlet asked in the famed work by William Shakespeare.

Seems Tory, like Hamlet, doesn’t have an answer.

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Meanwhile, candidates like Bailão and Furey, knowing that Tory entering would change the equation, sit on the sidelines. Mendicino, the former MP and current chief of staff to Prime Minister Mark Carney, remains too busy with his current job to begin campaigning.

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Make no mistake, though, the campaign to be the next mayor of Toronto is underway.

Right now, there are two candidates: The incumbent, Chow, who will receive the full backing of the NDP and Bradford, who is trying to convince Liberals and Conservatives that he is the one candidate to take on Chow.

There are several candidates interested in running to replace Chow, but too many of them are hesitant to jump into the race because Hamlet — sorry, I mean Tory — can’t or won’t make up his mind. I’ve made my case for why Tory should not run again for city hall, a case that has no doubt angered him, but as long as he remains an unknown factor, other possible candidates will stay on the sidelines.

By this time next year, those in the centre to centre-right should be rallying around one candidate. We can’t have that primary-type scenario play out while Tory continues to play coy about whether he is in or out of this very important mayoral race.

Hamlet couldn’t make up his mind, so hopefully Tory can.

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