The Ben Mulroney Show - Chris Alexander Discusses His Decision to Drop Out of Toronto's Mayoral Race

Episode Date: October 6, 2026

Chris Alexander, former Toronto mayoral candidate, sits down with Ben to discuss his decision to drop out of the mayoral race. If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://link.chtbl.com/bms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Also, on youtube -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BenMulroneyShow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Insta: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠   Executive Producer:  Mike Drolet Reach out to Mike with story ideas or tips at [e-mail] Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Standard messaging and data rates may apply. In Toronto, every arrival is a statement, and nothing says it better than this. Cadillac Optic was the number one selling luxury EV in Canada for 2025. Find your rhythm across a seamless 33-inch display and an immersive 19-speaker AKG surround audio system. This city demands agility and optic delivers with precision to make every drive extraordinary. Let's take the Cadillac. Find out more at Cadillac Canada.ca.cure sales claim based on S&P Global Mobility, Canadian New Vehicle Total Registrations for calendar year 2025 for the Cadillac definition of luxury. I'm so glad to have my next guest with me because I had him before he jumped into the race for the mayor's office here in the city of Toronto.

And I'm getting him as he is bowing out of that race. So please give him. a warm, respectful round of applause to Chris Alexander. Chris, thanks so much for being here. Thanks, Ben. And thanks for having me once along the way. Yes, that's right. I'm very glad that we've had at every point. I said before the last conversation, which is something I'll say to level set. Again, you know, I've really admired

anybody who jumps into the arena. And one of the reasons is even in the face of, you know, the odds stacked against you, you can put your stamp on the race. You can add your voice. You can influence the debate. So now that you've put it in your rearview mirror, what sort of influence do you think you've had on the debate? Well, we'll see because these things take time to play out. But the response today has surprised me.

A lot of people say, we understand your decision, including our supporters. We support the decision you made. But even more, say, thanks for being in the race because you put forward some good ideas. And you put them forward in a way, a substantive way that wasn't coming from other candidates. candidates. We didn't expect this from you. Your experiences at federal level. We didn't know that you are from Toronto, care about Toronto, are following these issues. But I think it goes back to the point you started with. Politics is about participation. Yeah. It's about, you know, your family knows it well. It is a team effort at every level. But it's the participation of candidates and the people

behind them. Above all, it's the participation of voters. And so we have to do, everything in our power, especially this time of cynicism and polarization, extremism, and apathy, because a lot of people are turned off by politics, to try and get people involved. And if I've done one thing in this race, it was to attract a certain number of people, most of the people who at one point or another said they were going to back us, who would not otherwise have said they're interested. And we've had, not, I hope not this time, but in the past, we've had some Toronto elections where turnout was really low. Well, the previous one, the previous one was exceptionally low and and and while Olivia Chow won, I think the turnout was 30% and she got of that,

she got 30%. Well, I think 22 was the lowest. Yeah. 23 was a bit higher, but still pretty low and they're consistently lower than provincial and federal. As, as partisan as I can sometimes be, I'm actually quite, I'm more, I'm more of a pro-democracy guy than I am for any political party. In other words, if we had 90% turnout and, and the, Those people all knew why they were voting. Like educated voters, I would celebrate the result whoever won because it would tell me the city got their act together.

They learned what was important to everyone and the chips fell where they fell. And sadly, that doesn't necessarily happen in municipal politics. My hope is that the dynamic that you brought to the race, it was going to be a predictable race. It became less so. My hope is that garnered curiosity and interest in people. And so how do you see this shaken out now? Sorry, let me rephrase. I'll ask that after.

What change, because your numbers were fairly flat, right? Like you came out of the gate with 10%. I think a lot of people were quite surprised by that on day one. But they stayed around there, 11, maybe down to 9. The highest we got was 12. So when did you decide to pull the shoot? This weekend, we knew that we'd made a lot of noise. that last week when we announced a lot of policies for affordable housing for a new way home for the unhoused in Toronto,

on, you know, we're still putting out policies as we close the campaign. And we garnered a lot of attention in media, above all, in television. That was about the most we could do to grab the attention away from the two more established campaigns. So we had to see how that played out. And so there were some polls that came out on the weekend and including today. And we wanted to read those to see if we'd move the needle and decide before the advance polls opened. Because I did feel strongly. I mean, you could argue it either way. But I did feel quite strongly if we were going to do this, discontinue the campaign.

We should do it before people start voting. So their votes aren't wasted. And so it was down to the wire. But we did this an hour and a half before, or half an hour before advanced polls open. I think most people certainly our supporters knew we were doing. it. And it was just a question of whether we could turn this into a three-way race. Because we've seen that happen before. People come from behind, even late in the game. Anna Bailow in the last election came from behind very late in the game.

We're not going to have that chance 10 days before voting day. But it was, you know, can we make this move? And you're right, it stayed stable. Both the other candidates stayed more or less stable over our two months in the race. I think the question for the race now is, does it become a change election? Or is it one of those elections where the incumbent wins, which unfortunately is the default too often in Ontario, municipal politics and elsewhere? The power of incumbency is a hell of a thing, right? And it's something that needs to be overcome.

And in a city like Toronto that leans more left, if the incumbent is of that persuasion, than whoever is looking to make that change or be that change has a Herculean effort ahead of them. But, you know, you bring up a number of points and, you know, we've got two segments together. So we'll let this breathe. But we're talking about influencing the debate. And when you recognize that you're not going to win at this time, there's still ways to influence it. Were there conversations with the other campaigns about how, you know, if you dropped out, how you could be of service to one or the other.

Yeah, no, they didn't approach us as campaigns. Their supporters did, both of them. And sometimes they said, we like what you're doing on this issue or that issue, but you should still drop out. So there wasn't really strategizing among the campaigns. I honestly think the two campaigns were very set in their ways, long before we came on. They had a plan.

We were disrupting their plan. I mean, both of them. And at one point, during the, Daily Bread Food Bank. We actually heard from some people in the mayor's campaign that some of the ideas were putting forward, were more likely to attract her supporters than his. So we were running quite a centrist campaign, also trying to get people involved who were not interested in the two leading candidates.

But the... So no one from Brad's campaign, no one from Olivia's campaign reached out to your campaign and ever said, hey, listen. We like some of your ideas. There's some overlap on certain things. And if you were to bow out, we would bring you on to be a key contributor on those files. They did not. A hundred percent, nothing.

Though many people who are connected to those campaigns and who are friends of mine reached out to me and said, you've got to be out of this and so forth. That's neither here nor there. I think they understood what we were doing. The one campaign is saying your natural home is with us. You know, some of my supporters will think that's the case. the mayor paid me a compliment saying some of your ideas are ones that we admire. I smirked when I heard that one.

I was like, of course she's going to say that. There's 10% of the vote up for graphs. No, I know, but this is the issue, right? Incumbents have power. But when they haven't delivered, they're vulnerable. And this is why I went into the race. I sat with Olivia Chow in parliament for three years. I like her.

I respect her as a person. She shows up. She smiles. She's kind. she's thoughtful in what she says, but I don't think she's delivered for the city. And so even on the progressive agenda, that is important to many of her supporters.

And I can get behind a lot of these ideas. I think it is an affront to all of us as Torontonians that homelessness has been allowed to fester as a problem that so many people have been left in this undignified position for so long. When part of that worldview is there is nobility and also a charter right to live that way, it's hard to dislodge. I mean, when those numbers go up, you can insulate yourself from it because, oh, they have agency and they have dignity. It's like, no, yeah, but we can also help them. Exactly.

And there's also a cause and effect, right? Like, the more I dug into it, and I've always followed this issue, but I dug into it the latest thinking and analysis. on people who are unhoused in the world. And the main cause of it is housing prices. Like it's as simple as that. When you have a spike in housing prices, and it's come down now, as we had in Toronto, and as we had across Canada,

you will have a homelessness crisis and you have to prepare for it immediately. A lot of the people who are in the streets, with whom I spoke, really just need affordable housing. They don't need much in the way of mental health treatment or addiction treatment. They just need a way home that is affordable.

We're going to take a break. We've got much more with the former candidate, Chris Alexander. We've got lots to talk about, including, is this the end of his elected official dreams? Don't go anywhere. This is the Ben Mulanishire. So glad to be still in conversation with Chris Alexander, as we said, talk to him over the course of his campaign. The day before he checked into the race, midway through his journey and the day that he has bowed out, We still have a few weeks left in this election campaign.

And Chris, thanks so much for sticking around. You mentioned Anna bylaw in the last segment. And Anna had momentum and she was getting close. She was the stalking horse getting closer to Olivia Chow. Ended up winning and didn't quite get it there. And a lot of people said that had an endorsement from John Torrey, who had a lot of sway, had that come in a little bit earlier, that may have done. done some more, been a benefit to her.

So, so there is influence and there, and endorsements do matter. And you've said you do not want to endorse anyone. And I've got to drill down into that because feels to me and just follow my logic here for a second. You don't get into a race because you don't like the proposed division of another candidate. You get into the race because you don't like what has happened to the city under unincumbent. Is that fair to say? Well, we, we, I was very explicit about why we were in the race.

But you said on the, on the, on the, on the first day, you said that the city is, is not living up to its potential. And, and, and another, but my point is, it is, it is a post-more, it's a judgment call on the incumbent. Not necessarily on anyone in the race. Yeah, but, but I also said before, during and after being in the race that, if there had been a candidate that I thought could beat the incumbent. Yeah. Uh, who was at a reasonable platform. I would have backed that person and stayed out myself. But, okay, fair.

But don't we have that? Don't you have that in Brad Bradford? I've said we need a new mayor. I've said I would encourage my supporters to vote for, to vote their conscience, to look at the options, to drill down. There's still time for the candidates out there to reach those voters, to reach new voters. But I'm not endorsing someone. And, and just tell me, just tell me what I think it would be.

But hold on. Be disingenuous for me to do it. And that's fair. I'll take you to your word on all of it. But just follow the bouncing ball with me. Like there are two candidates. One is getting closer to the other. But as we said before,

Herculean effort for anyone to beat an incumbent. And in Toronto for a center-right candidate to beat a someone center left. Very difficult. So he already has, and you've said it needs to be a change election. It seems to me that Brad Bradford is checking, generally speaking, The box is required for someone with influence like you to endorse him

and to say to his, to the people supporting you, give a good hard look at this guy because I've given him a good hard look. And I'm, I don't endorse everything, but he's the change that we have as an option. And it's better than the alternative. How come that doesn't get you to, I'm going to endorse the man? Change is better than no change. But to get there, you have to reach enough voters to put you over the top,

not just have my endorsement. I'm, you know, we've discussed this before. I'm a believer in bottom-up grassroots democracy. You put ideas out there. You get people on board. I don't believe, I don't think, I mean, John Torrey was the mayor. His endorsement counted for a lot for Anabail, whether it came early enough, I'm not going to debate.

Also, the Toronto Star endorsement, you know, unlocked something for her. I'm not going to comment on that. She came very, very close. I was a candidate. Yeah. I had a platform which, if you go on, vote compass, was ranked more progressive than Olivia Chow's. Not because I'm an idealist.

I'm very pragmatic about an issue like... Best available options. But I'm... Best practices. I was in the center of the two leading candidates. And I think that's where you need to go to get the votes to be mayor. And I think whoever gets those votes, and there's still three weeks to do it, will be mayor. And I take your point, because I subscribe to it as well.

I don't think anybody's entitled to anyone's vote, right? They have to earn it. However, we are living in a time where people are busy and they can be confused. So we did the work for you. You said go to the vote compass. We did the next best thing. We went to multiple AI agents, and we decided to see who your vote most aligns with, given the two options. On Brad Bradford, you align almost entirely on four major issues, which we've got.

can drill down into. You've got on four other major issues, it's a difference of degrees. There's two bold disagreements and one where we couldn't find a position. With Olivia Chow, you're lined on three, difference of degrees on four, and bold disagreements on four. In other words, if taking you at your word to go go to vote compass and figure out who you should vote for, you should vote for Bradford. So if you're not going to endorse anyone, maybe you can tell me, are you going to vote for Brad? I've said this morning that I have made up my mind and I'm not going to share that view. I'm trying to get from where you are in your mind to a place that would make sense to somebody

listening. Because like I said, if you acknowledge that the city is on a bad path today and the only other person who can grab the wheel is your former competitor in the race, he's the only option. And you align with him on four things. On another four, you have a different, it's a difference of degrees. You got two bold disagreements. And on one point, we can't find.

the position. This is as close as you're going to get. And you have the power, you have enough influence to, to possibly sway a few people, convince a few people to give them a look. I'm trying to figure out why that's not enough. And let me put this hypothetical out there. You go to bed on election night. And it's too close to call because the Brad's people have pulled out all the stops. Too close to call. You wake up the next day and Olivia Chow wins by a hair. And because your name is still on the ballot and it's top of the ballot given the alphabetical ranking, you pulled 3% of the vote. Listen, you are a hell of a diplomat. I don't know how you can then walk around and explain

to people that you didn't have the power to affect the change that you said we needed in the city. I've left the race. I'm leaving it to the people who are still in the arena to shape the outcome, they have the power to reach larger numbers of voters, to attract them. They have the creative power in this debate tonight to put forward something new that will be attractive to people who didn't previously consider them. And in the last three weeks, we know a lot of people make up their minds. By some measures, there's still 22% who are undecided. That's going to decide the race.

Not what I say. And it's not appropriate for me now that I'm outside the race to be the one who's trying to be the Kingmaker. Oh, that happens all the time. Chris, it happens all the time. Eric Lombardi just left the Liberal Party race and he endorsed somebody. Some of us don't play politics that way. I believe in voters deciding. And the candidates, my main contribution is to say, you should do every show between now and the election on issues that relate to this. You should be getting everyone in the city excited about this. I've invited Olivia Chow on this show, by the way. still won't show up. But if they won't come, bring people who have a vision for the city.

I was at TechTO last night. The biggest sector in this city, which will determine its future, is our technology sector. It's by some measures when you include Waterloo, bigger than New York, bigger than the Bay Area. And we don't have a mayor who speaks to those issues as part of Team Canada. And we need... That's what I keep going back to. Today we're living with a binary choice. When we say we don't have a mayor who does that, then you've got to look at the other guy and say, is he a better option? But Ben, TechTO invited all three of us to pitch their visions of the city to a big meeting of 400 people. I'm the only one that showed up.

So how can I endorse either of the other two? Because you could have conversations with his team to say, I'm willing to help you. Given that I have, I'm over-indexing right now in terms of people are listening. I got the media attention. You could be going to his campaign and saying, listen, I don't like this policy or this. If you would allow me to, I could work with you on those things. There may be, there may. Okay.

They know exactly what policies. I disagree with because we've said so politely throughout the debate. I think on his side, the one big mistake is to suddenly be physically, fiscally, more reckless than he needed to be. The city must balance its budget. And I know there are a lot of centrists in Toronto, sensible, home-owning, long-term Torontonians who really worry about the city budget.

And that water proposal and so forth made them slightly uncomfortable. That's the kind of issue where I think he could make an adjustment that might open the door to much more support. And there are lots of other areas as well. So last time I'll bring it up because I just want to make sure I've buttoned it up properly. The door is closed to an endorsement or the door is closed to an endorsement today. I said I wouldn't endorse. I tend to stick to what I've said. That's what I told my supporters throughout.

That's what I've said today. You know, if one of the candidates, and it would be one of the challenges, it would have to be one of the challenges, made a really big change in their offering that looked appealing. I believe people are capable of change. Including you.

Absolutely. I mean, my campaign here as a centrist, a nonpartisan centrist, is very different from any previous campaign. So people have that in them, I think, to focus on the needs of the moment and to move beyond themselves. That's what politics should be. That's what progress looks like. So I wouldn't close the door completely, but it's basically closed. Last question.

Stranger things have happened than a city councilor not being able to fulfill their mandate. if a seat popped up an award somewhere in this city, would you feel the itch? Would you present yourself to be a city counselor? My interest in the city is now very much alive, yeah. And there's some issues that I've gotten more interested in through this campaign that I will stay involved with in an advocacy role or with some of the groups

that we're now connected with, some of the individuals. So never say never. And same goes for politics in all of its forms. I'm always followed Queens Park, closely. I'm still interested in federal politics, municipal politics. If there's a contribution to be made and I have the ability to make it, I'll consider that. But in the meantime, I'm happy to be a private citizen following along, commenting occasionally, but most of all, trying to get Torontonians to see that their city has been underperforming could be doing so much better if we

pulled ourselves together, solved some of the real crises that we're facing, and unlocked the potential that we all know the city has. Chris Alexander, again, you've come in, you've answered some tough questions, and I really respect you for that, and for so many other reasons. So thank you very much. And hopefully you'll come join us for some election coverage. That would be fantastic. Thank you.

I really appreciate this. This has been Chris Alexander, joining me here on the Ben Mulroney Show.