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 Mark Saunders in discussion with Global News Anchor Alan Carter.
Although Mark Saunders is no longer a police officer, his decades-long career in law enforcement can make an interview with him seem a little like reading from a police press release.
He peppers his answers with phrases like “on the go-forward” when talking of restoring trust with the gay community following the Bruce McArthur investigation, or finding “the unknown unknowns” with a pilot project before approving drinking in city parks, or promising to save money with “sustainable solutions.”
But the overall message of Mark Saunders’s campaign is unmistakable: Toronto is less safe and it needs a firm leader to turn things around.
“Toronto needs discipline,” he says as we sit down for an interview at a cafe in Regent Park.
When asked what that means, Saunders continues, “We have to have prioritization of what needs to be done.”
Saunders would triple the number of public safety officers on public transit, install more security cameras and ban panhandling on the system.
At a recent campaign stop, Saunders opened his remarks with “Toronto has a serious crime issue and it’s getting out of control.”
Saunders, who stepped down as Toronto police chief in 2020, rejects the idea that he bears some responsibility if the city is less safe.
“People say they don’t feel safer now than when I was chief,” he says, “but this isn’t about pointing fingers, it’s about dealing with the issue right now.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who pledged to remain neutral in the race, has spoken warmly of Saunders, and talked of how the next mayor needs to have experience dealing with crime.
Has the perception of being Doug Ford’s choice in the race helped or hurt Saunders? He dodges the question twice, eventually landing on “I don’t know. When I’m knocking on doors people like what I have to say.”
Not everyone likes what Saunders has to say, though, about bike lanes, claiming they add to congestion and make no sense on major roads. He would remove existing lanes on University Avenue and freeze the extension of the network. His proposals have drawn the ire of cycling advocates.
While other candidates have vowed to fight the relocation of the Ontario Science Centre to Ontario Place, Saunders says the province has the power to do it. So, the question is what to build there next, while wrestling concession for Toronto residents to the new Ontario Place, like lower ticket prices to the planned private spa.
His central pitch though remains law and order and a promise to “keep Toronto safe.”
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