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 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]
Planning and housing committee
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] On December 16, 2024, she dismissed Bradford from his role as vice-chair of the committee and replaced him with Frances Nunziata.[21]
2023 mayoral by-election
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.[22]
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.[23]
He lost the election, only having received 9,254 votes. [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.[26][27]
Bradford proposed redeploying 200 parking enforcement officers at 50 intersections during rush hour, and create a new office to coordinate construction and maintenance projects.[28]
Integrity commissioner investigation
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.[29][30][31]
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.[29][30][31]
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.[29]
_(cropped2).jpg)
