Toronto mayoral candidate Ana Bailão lays out her vision on Metro Morning

Mayoral candidate Ana Bailão outlined her vision for Toronto Tuesday in an interview with CBC Radio's Metro Morning, saying she would focus on securing a "new deal" for the city and building affordable housing.

Bailão, the former three-term Davenport councillor, said her ultimate aim is to "make life easier and more affordable" for residents.

She said her priorities would include:

• Securing "predictable and sustainable funding" from the provincial and federal governments so the city can start to fill its $1.5-billion budget hole. Bailão says she is the best candidate to handle that negotiation given her experience at city hall.

• Convincing the province to take over maintenance costs of the Don Valley Parkway and Gardiner Expressway, something Premier Doug Ford has repeatedly rejected. Bailão said she will not take no for an answer.

• Keeping property taxes at or below the rate of inflation. Bailão says "people are struggling" and the city cannot tax or cut its way out of its budget deficit.

• Getting shovels in the ground on affordable homes and possibly re-tendering contracts if construction is too slow.

• Allowing eight and 10-storey building on major bus routes as of right and increasing the footprint of rental zoning to encourage new purpose-built rental housing.

LISTEN | Bailão makes her pitch to Toronto voters:

Metro Morning is conducting one-on-one interviews with the six leading candidates for the city's top job over the next two weeks. CBC Toronto is also set to host a debate between those candidates on June 6.

Who is Bailão? 

Here's a backgrounder from the CBC's Shawn Jeffords.

The longtime councillor rose to become John Tory's deputy mayor and his point person on housing before resigning in 2022 to work for the development company, Dream Unlimited Corp., as its head of affordable housing and public affairs.

Bailão has a powerful team behind her and scored some key council and union endorsements early.

Torontonians may look at her as picking up where Tory left off. For some, that's a good thing. Others, however, may see her policies as not going far enough to deal with the challenges the city's facing, or being too reliant on other governments (like her demand that Ontario upload the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway, which the province has rejected.)

You can find the full list of candidates on the city's page here.