Claim“Families deserve to know they won't be counting the minutes after calling 911. Seniors deserve to feel safe taking transit.
That's why I'm committing to hiring 1,000 new front-line police officers to strengthen neighbourhood policing, support officers who are being asked to do more, and help Toronto catch up with other major cities.
The status quo isn't enough. Let's build a city we can be proud of: https://bradford26.ca/sign-up”
The 911 delays Bradford invokes were real in 2023 and have since been halved, from 26.7 minutes to 12.6, under the approach he calls the status quo. The chart he published to prove Toronto is understaffed starts its axis at 150, drawing a 22% gap as a 70% one. His underlying staffing numbers check out; the case he builds on them points the other way.
Claim“Every chance Mayor Chow has had to take action on public safety, she's decided not to.
She's made her peace with the status quo. I haven't.”
The letter runs four pages across four headed sections — affordable homes, transit, a fair fiscal deal for Toronto, and rising costs. It contains no reference to bail reform, bail compliance, auto theft, organized crime, policing, or community safety. Bradford's description of the document is accurate.
Claim“Every chance Mayor Chow has had to take action on public safety, she's decided not to.
She's made her peace with the status quo. I haven't.”
"Every chance" is a universal claim, and the record refutes it: a transit safety plan, a police hiring plan Bradford cites approvingly elsewhere, two budgets that funded it, a citywide crisis-response service, and 911 response times cut by more than half. On 28 May he attacked one of those plans for neglecting Scarborough — an argument about how Chow acted, which is only available if she acted.
Claim“I've been clear that Torontonians need to have a say on major decisions that affect our waterfront. That's why I voted in favour of a referendum on the proposed island airport expansion.
While Toronto's seat at the table should never have been taken away, I am grateful the federal government has listened to residents.”
The vote happened exactly as described. On 21 May, Bradford was one of nine councillors who voted for a referendum on the island airport, and he voted to let the motion be debated at all. But the clarity he claims consists of that vote and, as far as the public record shows, nothing else — and he first mentioned it 64 minutes after the federal government killed the expansion.
Claim“A safe city isn't built by asking people to do more with less.
My plan will hire 1,000 more police officers to serve our communities and back up existing officers.”
TPS attributes its rising separations to a demographic bulge: officers hired in the mid-1990s, after the hiring freezes of the late 1980s, reaching retirement age now. Neither the 2025 nor the 2026 budget notes mention other police services at all, and 2025 separations came in below forecast. Officers may well leave for other forces — but nothing published shows it happening at a rate worth building a policy on.