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 Anthony Furey in discussion with Global News Anchor Alan Carter.
“I’m Anthony Furey and I’m running for mayor!” Dressed sharply in a navy suit, Anthony Furey extends his hand to a city of Toronto worker in a large riding mower, shouting his greeting over the sound of the engine.
We’re in a baseball field behind Ted Reeve Arena in Toronto’s east end., the location chosen by Furey for an interview.
“I live a few blocks away from here,” he tells the city worker. “It’s a great neighbourhood.”
What worries Furey is what he says is happening in his neighbourhood and others.
He walks to a set of rusty bleachers near the diamond and talks of how a recent post on a community Facebook page showed used needles under the benches. Furey posted the picture to his social media channels, with the story picked up in the Toronto Sun, where Furey used to work as a columnist.
“These are concerns that used to only be happening downtown,” he says of the needles.
“We can’t let our standards erode and slip further.”
Has having friends at the conservative-leaning Sun newspaper helped his campaign?
Furey stops for a moment and says: “I understand that brand and the readership. I think it’s more about the readers of Sun being interested in what I have to say.”
What Furey has to say is that Toronto is in decline. This sense of slipping is key to his outsider campaign to be mayor.
He talks of dirty needles, unsafe streets and smelly transit cars. He insists he loves Toronto, but says it is no longer “the city of my youth when I was carefree and galavanting around.”
Furey wears his lack of political experience like a badge, insisting it makes him a person with a fresh perspective.
When pressed on his lack of leadership experience, the long-time writer and broadcaster insists that is not true, saying: “I don’t claim to be the smartest person in the room but what I’ve done throughout my media career is I know how to identify the smartest man or woman in the room.”
Furey has made public safety a keystone of his campaign, promising boots on the ground with 200 more police officers.
When asked why a former police chief would not be better qualified for the job, Furey expresses admiration for Mark Saunders, but says he has contributed to the “decline” of Toronto.
There is no question Furey’s campaign has impacted the race to be mayor.
He began as an also-ran, excluded from the major debates until his polling numbers forced organizers to add him to the roster.
He’s promising “common sense” solutions to what ails the city.
He may not have red campaign hats, but Anthony Furey’s pledge to restore Toronto to its former greatness, would not seem out of place on one.