Toronto mayoral candidates clash over tariff response as trade war deepens

Mayor Olivia Chow and Coun. Brad Bradford laid out competing strategies Thursday to help Toronto businesses survive the U.S. tariff war, with Chow emphasizing the city's operating budget of $18 billion and capital budget of $60 billion, and Bradford pushing for a permanent business tax cut.

Chow said the city's approach of using its budget to buy locally is working. Some 98 per cent of the city's spending in 2026 went to Canadian companies, she said. Chow and council first barred U.S. businesses from any city contracts as part of her economic action plan in 2025, during the first wave of American tariffs.

"We are using our mighty operating budget of $18 billion in the capital budget of $60 billion, so that we are buying local and procuring locally," she said. The city also launched its Industrial Property Tax Deferral Program in response to U.S. tariffs, allowing industrial property owners to defer 2025 tax payments from June 1 to November 30 without late fees or interest charges.

Bradford criticized the deferral as insufficient and promised to establish a 25 per cent tax cut for businesses — a proposal he unsuccessfully introduced to council last year. He did not specify how the revenue loss would be offset, but said the city's tax stabilization reserve account is meant for measures like this.

Bradford also pledged to create a permanent tariff response table at city hall to make support more accessible. "I've been on the phone with manufacturers and employers over the past week," he said. "They're scrambling right now trying to navigate these support programs and complicated tariff codes, and to understand what they are eligible for."

Bradford proposed a "concierge service to make sure that every Toronto employer gets access to every provincial and federal dollar of relief that they're eligible for." He argued Chow's economic action team, established last year, hasn't consistently engaged with businesses.

Both candidates found common ground in continuing campaigns to encourage Torontonians to buy local. Chow highlighted the city's "love local" campaign launched last year, citing examples like Brio and National Dry soda. Bradford said his campaign would also push local purchasing. The trade war has intensified since the Trump administration's tariffs against $28 billion worth of Canadian goods took effect this week.