Brad Bradford
Bradford in 2023
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 39) Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Spouse	Kathryn Randle
Children	2
Parent	Valerie Bradford (mother)
Alma mater	York University (BES, 2009) University of Waterloo (MA, 2012)
Occupation	Politician urban planner
Website	www.bradbradford.ca

Brad Macdonald 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 has declared his intention to run in the 2026 Toronto mayoral election, previously contesting the 2023 mayoral 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.^[1][2][3]

Bradford 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.^[4][5]

After leaving school, Bradford was planning consultant and worked in stakeholder engagement and special projects at the City of Toronto in chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat's office.^[6][7]

Bradford was elected to Toronto City Council in the 2018 municipal election, representing Ward 19 Beaches—East York. He was re-elected in the 2022 municipal election, and placed eighth in the 2023 by-election for mayor, which was won by Olivia Chow.

Following the 2022 election, Bradford was appointed as the chair of the planning and housing committee.^[8][9] Following the election of Mayor Chow, Bradford was named vice-chair.^[10] On December 16, 2024, the mayor shuffled her committee appointments, and Bradford was replaced as vice-chair by Frances Nunziata.^[11] Despite the shuffle, Chow stated that "Councillor Bradford is an important voice in housing at the City and will continue his work on the Planning and Housing Committee".^[12] Bradford described the move as "politics at its worst."^[12]

In June 2020, amid the Black Lives Matter movement, Bradford supported an unsuccessful motion calling for a 10 per cent budget cut, amounting to $122 million, from the Toronto Police Service.^[13][14] In an article on his website explaining his vote, Bradford wrote that while he is "not interested in the politics of alienating police", he is "equally uninterested in maintaining the status quo of policies and funding models perpetuating racism and leaving communities under-resourced."^[15]

During the 2023 budget debate, the proposed TPS budget included a $48.3 million increase. Councillor Alejandra Bravo moved a motion to transfer $900,000 from the proposed increase to operating more warming spaces. Bradford questioned if the motion was meant to "defund the police".^[16][17]

Bradford voted to rename Dundas Street, as well as related city properties including Yonge-Dundas Square, a public library branch and two subway stations when it was first proposed in July 2021.^[18] The proposal was also endorsed by Mayor John Tory and was estimated to cost the city $6 million to implement.^[19][20] In his remarks on the item, Bradford questioned if it "makes sense to name streets and plazas and transit stations after someone with a disputed, controversial and problematic past", stating that he viewed the answer as "pretty clearly no", adding that he did not feel a need to delay, and that the renaming would be a step towards confronting systemic racism.^[21]

As estimated costs for the original initiative grew to $13 million, the city adopted a new plan in December 2023 endorsed by Mayor Chow, to defer renaming the street and only move ahead with the square, two subway stations and a library branch at a cost of $2.7 million.^[22] In June 2024, Bradford indicated that he was concerned about the rising costs of the initiative and believed the project should be paused, stating in an interview with CBC News that "the city is broke and this is something the vast majority of Torontonians weren't asking for."^[23] He later introduced an unsuccessful motion aimed at blocking the renaming of the square by redirecting the funding towards accessibility and safety improvements.^[24]

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),^[25] and former Toronto chief planner and mayoral candidate Jennifer Keesmaat.^[26]

Bradford defeated candidate Matthew Kellway, who represented Beaches—East York federally from 2011 to 2015 as the New Democratic MP.^[27]

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.^[28][29][30]

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.^[31] 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.^[32]

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.^[33][34]

Bradford proposed redeploying 200 parking enforcement officers at 50 intersections during rush hour, and create a new office to coordinate construction and maintenance projects.^[35]

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.^[36]

He lost the election to Olivia Chow, coming in eighth place with 9,254 votes (1.28%).^[37]

Reports in early 2025 speculate that Bradford will attempt another run for mayor of Toronto in the 2026 election.^[38][39] In the lead-up to the election, Bradford has held "campaign-style" events outside of his ward to criticize incumbent Mayor Olivia Chow.^[40] On October 1, 2025, Bradford confirmed his intention to run for mayor the following year.^[41]

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.^[42][43][44]

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.^[42][43][44]

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.^[42]

Bradford's mother, Valerie Bradford,^[45] was elected as the member of Parliament (MP) for Kitchener South—Hespeler in the 2021 federal election.^[46] He has two daughters, Briar and Bronwyn, with his wife Kathryn.^[47][48][49]

• City of Toronto webpage