Brad Bradford

Brad Bradford
Bradford in 2018
Toronto City Councillor for Ward 19 Beaches—East York
Incumbent
Assumed office December 1, 2018
Preceded by	Ward established
Personal details
Born	(1986-08-01) August 1, 1986 (age 38) Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Spouse	Kathryn Randle
Children	2
Parent	Valerie Bradford (mother)
Residence(s)	East York, Toronto
Alma mater	York University (BES, 2009) University of Waterloo (MA, 2012)
Occupation	Politician urban planner
Website	Campaign website Constituency website

Brad Bradford (born August 1, 1986) is a Canadian politician and urban planner who has represented Ward 19 Beaches—East York on Toronto City Council since 2018. Bradford ran for mayor of Toronto in the 2023 by-election, placing eighth.

Bradford was born to Valerie Bradford, who gave her son the first name Bradford, to continue her family name (as her father and uncle had five daughters combined and no sons), along with her spouse's last name. When he was seven, his mother left her spouse and raised her three children as a single mother and reverted to using her original surname. Deciding he wanted to use his mother's surname, Bradford adopted his present surname, shortening his first name to Brad.^[1][2][3]

Prior to his election, Bradford worked as an urban planner for the City of Toronto.^[4] He holds a Bachelor of Environmental Studies (BES), in urban and regional environments from York University, and a Master of Arts (MA) in urban planning from the University of Waterloo.^[5][6]

Bradford's mother, Valerie Bradford,^[7] was elected as the member of Parliament (MP) for Kitchener South—Hespeler in the 2021 federal election.^[8] He has two daughters, Briar and Bronwyn, with his wife Kathryn.^[9][10][11]

During the 2018 municipal election campaign, Bradford received endorsements from Mayor John Tory, Deputy Mayor Ana Bailão, former Liberal member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) Arthur Potts, Councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon (the previous incumbent of ward 32, which made up a part of the current ward boundaries),^[12] and former Toronto chief planner and mayoral candidate Jennifer Keesmaat.^[13]

Bradford defeated candidate Matthew Kellway, who represented Beaches—East York federally from 2011 to 2015 as the New Democratic MP.^[14]

Bradford campaigned on the need for affordable housing, to improve parks, improving transportation, and reducing crime in the 2022 election. He ran against five other candidates and was endorsed by Mayor John Tory.^[15][16][17]

Following the 2022 election, Bradford was appointed as the chair of the planning and housing committee.^[18][19] Following the election on Mayor Olivia Chow, Bradford was named vice-chair.^[20]

Following the resignation of Mayor Tory in February 2023, Bradford formed an advisory committee to explore a run for mayor of Toronto. He was advised by Liberals Khokon Abbas, a consultant, former candidate Andrea Barrack and campaign strategist Bob Lopinski, as well as Progressive Conservatives Dennis Matthews and Kory Teneycke, who worked on Premier Doug Ford's campaign team.^[21]

Shortly after he indicated he was considering a run for mayor, a postering campaign describing him as "two-faced Brad" began to circulate in his ward.^[22]

He lost the election, only having received 9,254 votes. ^[23]

Bradford hired Matt Hiraishi, who previously worked as chief of staff and former campaign manager to Ontario education minister Stephen Lecce, as his campaign manager.^[24]

One of the first platform items he released was a plan to increase public safety on the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). He proposed establishing a new agency to respond to mental health crises, expanding cell phone service throughout the subway system, hire an additional 40 special constables and 50 police officers to patrol the TTC and, and retrofit subway stations to include platform doors.^[25][26]

Bradford proposed redeploying 200 parking enforcement officers at 50 intersections during rush hour, and create a new office to coordinate construction and maintenance projects.^[27]

In July 2024, Integrity Commissioner Jonathan Batty found that Bradford improperly used constituents' personal information obtained from his city hall office for campaign purposes during the 2023 by-election for mayor, violating city council's code of conduct.^[28][29][30]

In April and May of 2023, Bradford's campaign sent out mass emails announcing the opening of a campaign office and criticizing Olivia Chow. Four constituents subsequently submitted complaints to the integrity commissioner; while they had previously contacted Bradford in his capacity as councillor, they did not sign up to receive campaign communications.^[28][29][30]

In a letter to Batty, Bradford described the incidents as a "mistake", caused when a campaign volunteer who was a former employee at his city hall office uploaded an email database believed to be from a previous campaign, but was actually from his council office's database. Bradford took responsibility for the error and offered an apology.^[28]

• City of Toronto webpage