The media in the Greater Toronto Area is focused almost exclusively on the Toronto race for Mayor and that is leaving some big municipalities fighting for coverage.

Mississauga for example is Canada’s sixth largest municipality but the city is without a dedicated major TV station and the local newspaper, The Mississauga News, is a bi-weekly publication. The paper is active on a daily basis online but at the end of the day, the local electorate is hard-pressed to find extensive coverage on the race.

And that is unfortunate because this year, for the first time since 1978, there is a real contest for the Mayor’s chair. After 36 years, Canada’s longest serving Mayor, Hazel McCallion, is retiring. It is still somewhat early in the campaign but there are two clear front runners; two long time Liberals, Bonnie Crombie and Steve Mahoney. Crombie is a former Liberal MP from Mississauga. She lost the seat in 2011 and ran for city council in the fall of 2011 winning a close by-election against Carolyn Parrish by just 241 votes.  In 1987 Steve Mahoney was elected to the Ontario Legislature. In the 90s he moved to federal politics representing the riding of Mississauga West. Mahoney came out of retirement to run for mayor. Crombie will release her platform on Tuesday.  There are currently 11 candidates registered to run for Mayor.  One of the other candidates to watch is Mashood Khan. Khan ran for Mayor in 2003 and says this time he is reaching out to South Asian voters. Khan admits that South Asians have not voted in large numbers in past elections but he hopes that will change this year. According to Lorne Bozinoff at Forum Research this is a close race right now and he expects a close two person race but Khan immediately dismissed that notion saying, “No matter what the polls say, it is a close race and I can win.”

Brampton is another big GTA municipality – 9th biggest in the country. Grant Gibson a councillor in Brampton, says without the big Toronto media covering the city, people rely on the Brampton Guardian and the occasional report in the Toronto Star for hyper local affairs. He says the only way to get a message out is “to go door knocking” and print brochures outlining his policy.

There are three prominent candidates. The incumbent, Susan Fennell, is running for her fifth term as mayor. However this year Fennell is running while facing a series of spending allegations. Last week Brampton’s Integrity Commissioner, Robert Swayze, found that Fennell “has violated the Council Code of Conduct by approving the purchase of Latitude flight passes for her travel and that of staff, which are freely upgradeable to business class contrary to policy.”

Her main opponents this year are John Sanderson and Linda Jeffrey. Sanderson was first elected councillor in Brampton in 2006. Sanderson is setting himself apart from the criticism of Fennell by opening his web page with a vow to “be accountable” and committing to serving only two terms as mayor if elected. Linda Jeffrey resigned as a Liberal MPP to run against Fennell. Jeffrey spent 12 years in Brampton City Hall as a councillor before turning to Ontario politics. The Jeffrey campaign needs to check its campaign voice mail. A series of calls have not been returned and as of today, her campaign office voicemail box is full.

Here at CP24 we will be covering the mayoral races in Mississauga and Brampton. Our plan includes extending invitations to the leading candidates to take part in interviews and discussions on the issues in their cities and in the GTA. And on election night, October 27, we will have reporters in both cities.

Other notes

  • Rob Ford skipped this morning’s session question and answer forum with seniors at city hall. Instead he rode the subway from Sheppard and Yonge to Don Mills. After the ride he told the media that the subway needs to stay underground and connect up out in Scarborough. Nothing new in any of this although I heard Ford say the above ground LRT will be a “train.” Last week he called it a “fancy streetcar.”
  • Ford also denied allegations in today’s Globe and Mail that he sought to get land expropriated for a company that is a client of the Ford Deco company. He repeated that Deco has never benefitted “one dime” from his time as mayor.
  • John Tory did go to the Seniors’ candidate session at City Hall and promised more housing using public lands owned by Toronto.
  • Sarah Thomson has put out a release promising a brief statement when she goes to the city clerk’s office at city hall tomorrow morning. If she leaves the mayor’s race, will she sign up to run for councillor? She has asked the public if she should and tomorrow, we will find out for sure.
  • Olivia Chow’s campaign sent out its new radio ads. NOW – that’s the key word shouted out, five times in each ad. The message is simple: Olivia Chow can get Toronto working first and the job needs to get done…um…now.