Toronto election: Mark Saunders says the city needs ‘discipline’ in Global News interview

'Toronto needs discipline' new mayor hopeful Mark Saunders tells Global News' Alan Carter during an interview at a cafe in Regent Park.

Global News is holding one-on-one interviews with the top seven polling candidates vying to become Toronto’s next mayor on June 26. Candidates were asked to choose an interview location to talk about their policies and campaign promises. Links to each of the interviews can be found below as they are published. Here is more from Mark Saunders in discussion with Global News Anchor Alan Carter.

Although Mark Saunders is no longer a police officer, his decades-long career in law enforcement can make an interview with him seem a little like reading from a police press release.

He peppers his answers with phrases like “on the go-forward” when talking of restoring trust with the gay community following the Bruce McArthur investigation, or finding “the unknown unknowns” with a pilot project before approving drinking in city parks, or promising to save money with “sustainable solutions.”

But the overall message of Mark Saunders’s campaign is unmistakable: Toronto is less safe and it needs a firm leader to turn things around.

“Toronto needs discipline,” he says as we sit down for an interview at a cafe in Regent Park.

When asked what that means, Saunders continues, “We have to have prioritization of what needs to be done.”

Saunders would triple the number of public safety officers on public transit, install more security cameras and ban panhandling on the system.

At a recent campaign stop, Saunders opened his remarks with “Toronto has a serious crime issue and it’s getting out of control.”