Olivia Chow has a strong pro-police record — why isn’t she running on it?

The opportunity comes via a now-standard attack line from Brad Bradford, wherein he accuses Chow of abdicating responsibility by not taking a seat on the police board.

In a debate hosted by the CBC last week, Bradford put it like this: “When it comes to leadership, there are some things that are just so important, you don’t delegate them away. Mayor Chow chose not to see take her seat on the police board. Which is contrary to previous mayors. John Tory, Mel Lasman, even David Miller sat on the police board — Mayor Chow chose not to.”

Chow’s response should be easy, because, well, first, it’s an opportunity for a good clean fact check. It turns out that, according to police board records, it’s not entirely out of the ordinary for mayors to delegate their seat on the police board to another councillor they trust with the file. It’s actually pretty darn common.

In fact, every mayor of Toronto since amalgamation has, at one time or another, delegated their seat.

Mel Lastman delegated his seat at first, only joining the board himself later. Rob Ford — the former mayor Bradford seems to studiously avoid mentioning whenever he brings up the police board — never sat on the police board at all. David Miller only served on the police board for about half of his two terms in office, delegating it otherwise.

And John Tory, at the start of his abbreviated third term, delegated his seat to Coun. Vince Crisanti.

The other opportunity for Chow when served this meatball of an attack line is to respond by pointing that she didn’t need to sit on the police board to run a very pro-police administration. Like, incredibly, relentlessly pro-police. After an initial dust-up over a police funding request during her first budget, the mayor has subsequently given the cops nearly everything they’ve asked for.

The police budget has grown from $1.17 billion in 2023 to $1.43 billion this year, and shows no sign of slowing down. About 30 per cent of every new dollar of property tax revenue Chow has brought in has gone straight to the cops. Chow’s committed to a hiring plan that’ll ensure the police college is cranking out new police officers as fast as they can. She’s kept the money coming even as the police have blown their budget for premium pay and generated negative headlines about bad behaviour.

The city had a budget for 5,126 deployed officers when Chow took office. They’re budgeted to have 5,714 this year.

The money has been noted by the Toronto Police Association, who praised Chow in a social media post last month for supporting a multi-year hiring plan. It’s also earned praise from Coun. Jon Burnside, a former police officer who is generally not one of Chow’s supporters on council. “I can say clearly that in the last 20 years, nobody — no mayor — has been more financially supportive of our Toronto police than Mayor Chow,” he said earlier this year.

Chow, though, seems reluctant to take credit for her work to fund the police. I suspect I know why. Her left-wing base is still pretty skeptical of policing as an institution. And a lot of her progressive voters might wonder if some of the big pile of money the police have received over the last few months could have had more utility had it been spent elsewhere. Chow might just feel uncomfortable presenting herself as a pro-police candidate.

But it’s no use second guessing herself now. After spending a ton of political capital creating and approving a hiring plan for the police, it’s perplexing that Chow is letting Bradford define himself as the more pro-police candidate over something as trivial (and common) as choosing not to sit on the police board. For better or for worse, Chow backed the blue — she might as well run on it.