Global News is holding one-on-one interviews with the top seven polling candidates vying to become Toronto’s next mayor on June 26. Candidates were asked to choose an interview location to talk about their policies and campaign promises. Links to each of the interviews can be found below as they are published. Here is more from Ana Bailão in discussion with Global News Anchor Alan Carter.
“I’m sure you’ve had a Portuguese tart. No one can enter this place without having at least one,” says Toronto mayoral candidate Ana Bailão as we sit down in Nova Era bakery in Toronto’s west end.
Bailão is greeted warmly by patrons who immediately recognize her, pledging their support in the upcoming byelection. This is her home turf. She emigrated to this neighbourhood from Portugal with her family in 1991 when she was 15, and went on to represent the area as city councillor.
“I want to make life easier and more affordable for people,” Bailão says when asked why she wants to be mayor. She says she wants newcomers to the city to have the same opportunities she had when she arrived.
Bailão is closely politically aligned with former mayor John Tory, serving as deputy mayor in his administration. Her campaign has reportedly been getting behind-the-scenes advice from Tory and when asked about an endorsement from him, she says: “He’s somebody I worked with and someone I respect, so yes I would welcome his endorsement.”
Like Tory did while in power, Bailão has pledged to keep property taxes at or below the rate of inflation, rejecting the notion that decades of low tax policy have led to Toronto’s crumbling infrastructure.
“We had a seven per cent tax increase this last budget. Inflation is extremely high. I’m recognizing what residents are going through,” she says.
Taking a walk outside the bakery, we pass people sitting on blankets in the shade of a large tree in a nearby park. Asked if they should be allowed to legally have a drink, Bailão initially responds that the city is conducting a pilot project on the issue. When pressed on why Toronto seems to endlessly study but never act on the issue she says she’s in support of it “as long as people do it in a responsible way.”
Bailão says she would fix the TTC by “hiring more staff, restoring services and adding more cameras.”
That will cost money, and with Toronto facing a massive budgetary hole, all candidates running for mayor say they are best suited to negotiate a better funding deal from the province and federal government.
Bailão says she has an edge because “I’m not a puppet of Doug Ford and I haven’t spent a career in opposition like Olivia Chow.”
Not surprisingly, Chow is the only opponent Bailão mentions during our conversation, likely because despite Bailão’s electoral experience and claim of being a better negotiator, she and others remain well back of Chow in opinion polls.
Asked to sum up her central campaign promise, Bailão begins by talking about affordability and housing, but ends with what is central to her and who she is, namely her immigrant experience.
“I want to make sure people see and feel this city as a city of opportunity.”
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