Is free transit something that could be a reality in Toronto one day?
"If tomorrow we said transit was free, we'd be in big, big trouble," mayoral candidate Sarah Climenhaga said at Wednesday evening's transit-focused mayoral debate at the University of Toronto Scarborough campus. "But if we said that that's a goal for our city, now that is something to work towards."
Of course, she was referencing fellow candidate Saron Gebresellassi's push for no-fare transit, or in her words, "no fare is fair."
Wednesday evening's debate, hosted by transit advocacy organization TTCriders, the Scarborough Civic Action Network and U of T Scarborough's student union, was attended by Climenhaga, Gebresellassi and one of the frontrunners, former city planner Jennifer Keesmat. It was the third mayoral debate of the week.
But one noticeable face was missing: Mayor John Tory, who had made a long-ago commitment the World Angel Summit for the same night.
Without Tory, Keesmat took the reins, disagreeing with Gebresellassi but agreeing that riding the rails does need to be more affordable.
"As mayor, I will ensure that we fight - we fight with senior levels of government - to lower our transit fares," she told the crowd. "They are too high in this city and that is a constraint to access."
"We can work together, and I invite you to work with me, to ensure that we are delivering a strong and public system that has access from everywhere to everywhere in this city."
Gebresellassi, who works as a lawyer and activist, says transit should be free because it she believes it's a human right.
"I think that it's about grassroots community members mobilizing and saying 'we believe in fair transit'," she said. "We have to start with what our core values are."
"If we believe transit is a core fundamental human right, then we will be able to fund it."
Climenhaga said she was just thrilled to be able to discuss the idea - her comments evoking a huge round of applause.
"I'm so excited that Toronto is having a debate on free transit," she said. "That is amazing!"
Keesmat also spoke of her plans to push out more light rail transit.
"We know that many trips involve a transfer," she said. "That transfer simply doesn't work if the next line you have to transfer on isn't there, or if the bus isn't showing up."
That's why, she says, LRT is "so beautiful and so wonderful," due to the fact it's reliable and is higher frequency than buses.
Other topics of debate included the creation of jobs in neighbourhoods outside of the core, which Gebresellassi said will mean shorter travel times for people living in Scarborough, northwest Etobicoke and North York.