Earlier today I dropped my Toronto election ballot in the local mailbox.

I voted for Olivia Chow to return as Mayor of Toronto because I think that she is, by far, the better of the two remaining serious candidates.

Am I head-over-heels impressed with her transit policies? Not entirely, but she believes in transit, more and better transit.

So far, the programs coming down the road, so to speak, are Chow’s proposed fare reduction through a weekly cap at 10, on top of the already planned monthly cap of 40 likely going into effect in September 2027. But, as I wrote recently, there is much more to making transit attractive than twiddling with the fare structure.

We hear a lot about capital investment for the future with the help of federal and provincial subsidies: the Waterfront East and Eglinton East lines, new subway cars for Line 2 Bloor-Danforth. But the needs are even greater with no sense of how we will pay for everything both for state of good repair and on the wish list of additions and enhancements.

Operating costs and subsidies see no discussion, and indeed fare cuts will trim revenue. It’s good politics and good policy to make transit easier to use by everyone, but “easy” includes not just the fare but also the service.

A dispiriting part of any transit mega-project is the “benefits case” where a major offset to capital spending is the alleged travel time saving of new lines. The hours saved are translated to notional dollars, but what really happens is that public investment turns into time that riders can use for other things. It also translates to massive stimulus for the engineering and construction industry.

Oddly enough, the same equation is not applied to day-to-day service in the hands of fiscal hawks who see transit as a drain, not as an investment. This is an argument the Mayor must champion: transit provides a public benefit to the city’s economy.

I have no illusion that Mayor Chow will shower the TTC with new money, in part because she (or any other Mayor) faces the imminent expiry of the Ontario “New Deal” funding that pays for operation of Lines 5 Eglinton and 6 Finch. There is talk of a “New Deal 2.0”, but nothing definite yet.

But transit service – quantity and quality – must improve, and that is a challenge for the Mayor and Council. The next TTC Board must demand that management provide clear information on system performance and real improvement riders can see in their daily travel.

Chow will not find this easy, and her priorities for housing and social services may well trump new transit spending. However, Bradford’s priority for transit does not lie in service, but in massive spending on security. Yes, there is an issue with unsocial behaviour on the TTC, but it must be addressed by more than a large police presence. It is also, I believe, over-hyped for political reasons, a common problem not just in Toronto’s transit debates.

There is no point in having a heavy police presence if people still cannot get on the Dufferin bus.

The choice of TTC Board members is key, and we need aggressively pro-transit Commissioners who will hold management to account for system performance and advocate for real improvements, even if this cannot be achieved in one year. I believe that Chow will drive for such a Board, while Bradford would focus on penny-pinchers whose relationship to transit lies mainly in complaining about being stuck behind a bus or streetcar.

Toronto’s election and its future turn on two contrasting views of our city. One assumes that tax cuts will solve everything and public services should be farmed out to private ownership and management. The other believe in public service and the good local government can provide to a wide range of its citizens.

My vote’s with Olivia Chow.