Ben Mulroney says that he’d love to run to become the mayor of Toronto, just not yet. Mulroney, whose name has been floated many times for political office made the comments while appearing on the Can’t Be Censored podcast with Travis Dhanraj and Karman Wong.
Mulroney, who currently hosts his own radio show on Toronto’s Global News Radio, AM640, has political views on everything, but says that municipal politics is closest to his heart.
“I’ve always said the only thing I would ever run for would be mayor of Toronto,” Mulroney said .
Does that mean he’s about to jump into the race and take on Olivia Chow this fall? Not so fast.
“I would absolutely run for mayor one day,” he said.
“Why not now?” asked Dhanraj.
“Because I just started my show and I like it,” he said. “I’m part of a conversation that I’m glad to be part of.
Mulroney backs Bradford over Chow in upcoming mayoral race
Rather than jump in the race now, Mulroney says he will be supporting and voting for Councillor Brad Bradford who announced his intention to run for mayor last October.
“There’s a good person running, I like Brad. John Tory’s had a lot of accomplishments as well, but personally, I think it’s probably time for a change, to turn the page and try something new in a new generation,” Mulroney said.
He’s clearly not a fan of Mayor Olivia Chow’s performance at city hall, which is clear to listeners of his show. While Chow won the by-election to replace John Tory in 2023 with low voter turnout, Mulroney believes there will be more interest in the mayor and council race this fall after Chow’s cumulative tax hikes of more than 20%.
“I think there’s a group of people in the city that have probably been activated, who’ve been sitting on the couch at every municipal election saying, ‘Oh, it doesn’t matter,’” he said. “I see what happens when you don’t pay attention. You get the Chris Moises of the world and the Ausma Malik’s of the world,” he said referring to two of the more radical left-wing members of city council.
Chow has not stated whether she will run again in October, teasing that she hasn’t made up her mind. It’s widely believed though that Chow will declare after the city budget passes next month.
As for Tory, the former mayor who resigned in early 2023 amid a scandal, he hasn’t decided whether to run again to be mayor. Tory continues to sit on various business and community boards and serve as a commentator on Newstalk 1010, the competing station to Mulroney’s 640.
Property taxes and development charges surge under Chow and Tory
Under Chow and Tory, property taxes have increased by 42% since 2020. Development charges for a building a new single-family home increased from $24,298 in 2014 when Tory was first elected to $143,409 this year.
That’s an unaffordable increase of nearly 500% in just over a decade. Toronto has become an unaffordable city with taxes, development charges and other fees going up and services not improving.
“It’s certainly not doing well,” Mulroney told Dhanraj and Wong when asked if the city was broken.
While he says he isn’t interested in running for federal political office, Mulroney did offer up thoughts on that front saying the last 10 years of Liberal policies have been a disaster for this country.
“If you’re not a little bit angry with where we are as a country, there’s something wrong with you,” he said.
Mulroney calls for policies that actually work
Mulroney said he’s tired of voters giving credit for speeches or announcements and wants to see policies that actually work. That’s something that applies to city hall as much as to Parliament Hill.
Let’s hope we get the change Mulroney is talking about in this fall’s municipal election.
