This semester’s podcast focuses on municipal politics in the GTA because our next election is coming up on October 26th, 2026.
Today’s big question is: Cities vote on big thematic issues like transit, traffic, housing and the police services – what should voters know heading into the fall election in terms of these big-ticket issues?
This episode OTR dives into the 18.9 billion dollar pot of gold that runs Toronto. We strip back the municipal campaign posters to look at why the TTC is frozen, why the traffic is stagnant, and where that record-breaking police budget is actually going. This is the reality check every voter needs before hitting the polls this October.
We interviewed Rakesh Mehta, a housing expert and real estate agent in Toronto.
This episode was hosted by Anish Dhupar & Julia Petrucci and produced by Yoons Park and Manroop Aulakh. The theme for this podcast is by Almost Barely and is called “Letting Go.”
Credits
Hosts: Anish Dhupar & Julia Petrucci
Episode producers: Yoons Park and Manroop Aulakh
Theme music by Almost Barely.
Illustration of a podcast host from https://www.freepik.com/icon/podcaster_9358715
This podcast is produced by students in the undergraduate and graduate programs at the School of Journalism at TMU.
Anish Dhupar is a fourth-year journalism student and a storyteller for On The Record, winter 2026.
In producing this episode we used Otter.ai for transcription.
