Ontario Premier Doug Ford says voters in Toronto's upcoming mayoral byelection should not support anyone who wants to defund the police.
Ford has previously said he is staying out of the race to replace former mayor John Tory, but addressed it today when asked about violence in Toronto's transit system, which includes the recent random and fatal stabbing of a 16-year-old boy in a subway station.
Ford says there should be full-time police officers in the Toronto Transit Commission.
Toronto police put more than 80 officers working overtime on patrol in the Toronto Transit Commission in late January in response to a spate of violence in the system, but ended those shifts two weeks ago.
He says the city should also hire more police officers, but he did not respond to a question about whether the province would give Toronto funding to do that.
Ford says it seems like ``everyone and their cousin'' is running in the mayoral race, and he warns Torontonians not to vote for any candidate who wants to defund the police.