{"id":834378,"date":"2026-07-29T20:12:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T20:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/834378\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T20:12:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T20:12:17","slug":"toronto-mayor-race-chow-bradford-react-to-chris-alexander","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/834378\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto mayor race: Chow, Bradford react to Chris Alexander"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former federal Conservative cabinet minister Chris Alexander has officially entered Toronto\u2019s mayoral race, pitching himself as the \u201coutsider\u201d needed to get a city he says is \u201cslightly adrift\u201d back on track.<\/p>\n

Alexander registered his candidacy Wednesday at Toronto City Hall, joining a list of 32 other candidates that also includes incumbent Mayor Olivia Chow and Coun. Brad Bradford.. His entry immediately drew criticism from Bradford who told reporters at Toronto City Hall that he\u2019s \u201cnever heard of\u201d Alexander, while Chow declined to engage directly with his criticism of her leadership. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are slightly adrift,\u201d Alexander told reporters after filing his nomination papers for the Oct. 26 election. \u201cIt\u2019s going to take an outsider, to be honest, someone who hasn\u2019t been on council to get this city back on track.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 57-year-old father of three first confirmed his intentions to CTV News on Tuesday before officially entering the race Wednesday morning. <\/p>\n

\u2018Standing still\u2019<\/p>\n

Alexander served as Canada\u2019s ambassador to Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005 before becoming the Conservative MP for Ajax-Pickering. He was citizenship and immigration minister in Stephen Harper\u2019s government from 2013 until the Conservatives were defeated in 2015.<\/p>\n

In a post on his campaign website<\/a>, Alexander said he decided to run because \u201cToronto has been standing still for three years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Chris Alexander Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Chris Alexander answers a question during Question Period in the House of Commons in Ottawa on Monday, March 23, 2015. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Adrian Wyld <\/p>\n

\u201cA city with this much talent, strength and potential should not be under-performing. We need to work together to make Toronto better, the best it can be,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Alexander said his priorities include improving public transit, increasing housing supply and unlocking stronger economic growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was born in the city. I grew up in Toronto,\u201d he said Wednesday. \u201cI would like to be judged by my whole record, which is one that goes well beyond what any of the candidates in this race so far can point to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rivals respond<\/p>\n

Asked about Alexander\u2019s criticisms, Chow repeatedly avoided discussing the campaign, saying there would be \u201clots of time\u201d to debate the election later.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe election is three months from now,\u201d she said. \u201cToday, I\u2019m focusing on the last council. We have a lot of very important work ahead of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bradford, meanwhile, said that Alexander\u2019s political record is incompatible with Toronto\u2019s values.<\/p>\n

\"\"Toronto mayoral candidate Brad Bradford reacts to former Conservative MP Chris Alexander entering the race. Toronto mayoral candidate Brad Bradford reacts to former Conservative MP Chris Alexander entering the race. <\/p>\n

He called the former cabinet minister \u201cunfit for this office,\u201d accusing him of bringing \u201cTrump-style politics\u201d to Canada and dismissing the campaign as a \u201cvanity project\u201d or \u201can audition for his next job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, like a lot of Torontonians, I had never heard of him,\u201d Bradford said at Toronto City Hall. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen him in my life. I don\u2019t think he\u2019s ever stepped foot in this building before. I\u2019ve never talked to him. I literally didn\u2019t know who he was when I first heard the rumors circulating. I had to look him up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alexander rejected those criticisms, saying Toronto should be \u201ccelebrating each other and coming together,\u201d not \u201ctalking down the skills, talent and background of our own.\u201d<\/p>\n

What do the polls say? <\/p>\n

Alexander\u2019s entry into the race comes as a new liaison poll suggests Chow would lead Bradford in a head-to-head race.<\/p>\n

Released Wednesday, Liaison Strategies surveyed<\/a> a random sample of 1,000 Toronto residents from July 24 to July 26 and found that Chow holds 49 per cent support among decided voters to Bradford\u2019s 41 per cent. <\/p>\n

Among all respondents, Chow had the support of 39 per cent compared to 33 per cent for Bradford. Another eight per cent said they would vote for another candidate while 20 per cent said they remain undecided. <\/p>\n

\"\"BRADFORD, ALEXANDER, CHOW Mayor Olivia Chow (Left), Former MP Chris Alexander (Middle) and Coun. Brad Bradford speaking to reporters on Wednesday July 29, 2026 (CP24 photos). <\/p>\n

Alexander was not included among the options in the survey. <\/p>\n

David Valentin, principal at Liaison Strategies, said \u201cthis remains Olivia Chow\u2019s race\u201d but cautioned that it is \u201cnot a slam dunk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cChow\u2019s job approval remains positive, but it is no longer a towering number. Fifty-one per cent approve of the job she is doing as mayor, while 43 per cent disapprove and 6 per cent are not sure,\u201d he said, adding that those numbers are \u201calmost identical to the previous survey.\u201d<\/p>\n

Participants were reached through random digit dialing (RDD) across both landline and cellular phone networks. The resulting data was weighted to match targets based on the 2021 Census. For the total sample, the margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former federal Conservative cabinet minister Chris Alexander has officially entered Toronto\u2019s mayoral race, pitching himself as the \u201coutsider\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":834379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[712,49,48,44],"class_list":["post-834378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=834378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}