At the final debate of the Toronto mayoral campaign on Thursday night, a familiar pattern emerged.
Chow, the incumbent mayor, would accuse Bradford of a misdeed, either in his promises in the campaign or his actions as a city councillor. Bradford would respond with some version of “that’s not true.” Sometimes he would offer a sigh or a shake of the head as, he said, he had to correct the record. Sometimes he said Chow was spreading misinformation on issues like his proposal to create a public water utility, which she said opens the door to privatization of the city’s water supply. Sometimes he said, a little theatrically, that she was better than this. “It’s below you and it’s below the office,” he would say, lamenting what he called the incumbent mayor’s scare tactics.
