Chloe Brown, policy analyst and Toronto's next Mayor
Brown wants those towing the political line to realize that they’ve been given more than enough time and resources yet, people are still dying and it’s time for them to respectfully step aside.
Toronto is in the midst of a mayoral by-election. With 102 candidates vying for the city’s top job, those hosting debates decided to focus on what some are calling the six front runners.
One voice that needs to be heard loud and clear – and should be included in the debates – is that of Chloe Brown.
The 33-year-old Policy Analyst is anything but new to politics. Her involvement with the Occupy Toronto Movement (2012) helped Brown realize just how much city politics and policy impacts lives.
While overseeing the overhaul of Union Station and Regent Park, Ward 28 City Councillor, Pam McConnell mentored Brown who was a volunteer and an intern with the city at the time. This is when Brown got involved in community development and policy. It’s also when Brown first saw the divide between the public service and politicians.
Brown, who grew up in Rexdale – a northern neighbourhood in Etobicoke – told Small Change, that Doug and Rob Ford really showed the people who they were when they were part of Toronto City Councill.
The Ford brothers came from the wealthy part of Etobicoke and had business and political connections through their father who served a 4-year term as a Conservative backbencher under Premier Mike Harris.
Because of his family history, Rob’s substance use disorder was overlooked by councillors and Brown believes that complicity led to the decay of leadership at city hall.
She equates it to a hierarchy – a different form of monarchy. It’s giving people power based on their birthright and their hereditary privilege.
“It’s frustrating because as a democracy no one is above the law and there’s no room for monarchies in a democratic society, but we play into these stereotypes and we’re watching how it impacts the peasants. Because even if you make $100,000, they think you’re peasants,” stated Brown.
Brown watched that family dynasty play out when she ran for Ward 2 Councillor in the Etobicoke North riding she had grown up in. Despite over a dozen candidates vying for the late Rob Ford’s seat, Michael Ford was crowned his uncle’s successor.
Six years later, Brown ran for mayor. With a budget of $2,000 Brown came third out of 30 candidates with 6.31 per cent of votes. The average cost of running for mayor is about $2 million.
This time around, Brown not only has a bit more money, she has lawn signs, volunteers and social media getting her message out.
Brown is focusing her campaign on policy and political governance.
“I’m just as good as any man or woman that I’m competing against. You need to listen to me and hear that,” stated Brown.
She wants voters to realize, “You are being robbed because you’re focused on a suit. That is how con-men operate – they pick on your most base instincts which are your visual and sensory relationship to the environment and that’s how they distract you and then you’re robbed.”
Brown brings unique experiences as well as lived experiences to city hall. “When you’re working class, you don’t have the option to take a vacation or have the summer off like politicians. Those politicians don’t know what that means because the work they do leverages volunteers to get them votes,” Brown maintains.
There in lies Browns advantage, because instead of chasing popularity she uses her experience as someone who had been in poverty and learned the system to raise herself out. Now, she works with people to get them out of poverty too.
“I’m not using the mayor’s platform as a pedestal, I’m using it as a cliff to throw a rope over because people are trapped in the chasm and the only way to get them out is with a ladder as opposed to sitting on a pedestal and shouting instructions down there,” said Brown.
She went on to add, “Not every handout is charity, sometimes it’s an actual life buoy and sometimes people just need to be buoyed up.”
The Parkdale-High Park resident wants voters to realize that there are churches, charities and corporations enjoying 99-year leases. She would like to expand the affordable housing conversation to include residents’ groups being given that same opportunity on the apartment buildings they live in through community land trusts.
These land trusts also need to include business space because as Brown sees it, if the city can’t anchor businesses then what’s the point of living there?
A political agnostic and Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) member, Brown wants to modernize the institutions that have consistently failed workers. That includes unions playing a bigger role in the land trust plan.
“We are really struggling because the unions are doing these piecemeal deals by sectors. That’s not getting us housing. That’s not getting us better roads. It’s just securing better wages for groups of workers. And, those getting the better wages are male,” noted Brown.
She would love to see OPSEU build housing so that workers are attached to the city they work in and won’t be treated as transients by the system and politicians.
Brown knows non-profit land development must be prioritized to ensure there is land whose sole focus isn’t profit. That development includes free commercial space for health care providers and early childhood education centres.
“The City has that power. There is so much public land that the City could be using to raise living wages by bringing down the cost of rent. This starts with the unions actually advocating for workers,” stated Brown.
“Right now, they’re just advocating for people protections under capitalism. That’s not working.”
As a kid that used to identify as a member of the left, Brown gets frustrated with everyone saving their best ideas until their run for mayor, because in the meanwhile people have been dying.
Brown believes, “They’re all complicit in the status quo regardless of what side of the spectrum they come from. And, That’s capitalism.”
Brown is not saying that she’s anti-capitalist, but she wants those towing the line to realize that they’ve been given more than enough time and resources, yet people are still dying and it’s time for them to respectfully, step aside.
“People are dying because of starvation in Canada. Dying in the elements because there’s no shelter. And, they want to boast about all the cranes in the sky and all the billions of dollars coming in,” stated Brown.
“I feel embarrassed at this point because how can I live in a prosperous country that treats the disabled the way that we do. Treats seniors the way that we do. I don’t want that to be my legacy as a Canadian.”
Brown wants voters to remember that Toronto cannot afford to stay the same.
Learn more about Brown’s platform here.
Election Day is Monday, June 26th.