Mark Saunders gets backing of city councillor Stephen Holyday, vows to cancel Bloor bike lanes

Thestar.ca
April 28, 2023

Mark Saunders’s mayoral bid has won the blessing of a popular Etobicoke councillor.

Coun. Stephen Holyday (Ward 2, Etobicoke Centre) announced Thursday he is endorsing the former police chief’s run for Toronto mayor.

At a press conference at an Etobicoke bar, Holyday said he believes Saunders would restore “practicality” to municipal government by taking a pragmatic approach to the cash-strapped city’s finances and stopping what the councillor described as the ideologically driven expansion of bike lanes.

Holyday, a conservative who has opposed tax increases and supported increasing the police budget, was elected to a third term last fall with 72.3 per cent of the vote. He had told reporters he was considering running for mayor himself, but his decision to stay out of the race and instead get behind Saunders helps solidify the ex-top cop as the leading right-wing candidate in a crowded field.

Holyday entering the byelection would have risked splitting the conservative vote in Etobicoke, which would have hurt Saunders. His campaign sees capturing the suburban vote as his clearest path to victory.

“Mark has a life career in public service,” said Holyday on Thursday. “He’s been a police officer all over the city, he’s a family man, he’s a Torontonian. He understands the people, he understands the pressures that they face every day with things like congestion, which is created when you remove two travel lanes on a street like Bloor Street.”

Saunders has made opposition to cycling infrastructure a theme of his campaign, and vowed to cancel the planned extension of bike lanes on Bloor Street West from Prince Edward Drive to Six Points Plaza if he wins the June 26 byelection.

“Downtown politicians are ramming these bike lanes onto streets that don’t make sense to the communities, they refuse to listen to communities about what’s best for the communities and their neighbourhoods,” said Saunders.

“I think it needs to be said that adding bike lanes to our busiest streets is not the solution. It won’t help.”

Proponents of bike lanes say they are an important safety measure that protect riders, encourage sustainable transportation, and have minimal impacts on car travel times. Last year in Toronto, three cyclists were killed and 34 were seriously injured, according to police data.