Bradford's mayor steps down as 4 candidates battle for the top job

Four candidates seeking the mayor's chair in Bradford West Gwillimbury are busy making their final pitches to voters with just days to the election.

Among them is current Deputy Mayor James Leduc, who feels now is his time with the current mayor not seeking re-election.

"There was no use going after Mr. Keffer, but now that he's stepping down, it's just the natural role for me to move forward as mayor," Leduc said.

Current Mayor Rob Keffer chose not to seek a third term, leaving the door open for a new mayor in town, which local businessman Antonio Garcia hopes to become.

"Antonio Garcia works for the community, is from this community. I am for this community," Garcia said.

Former People's Party of Canada candidate Michael Lotter wants to see politicians held accountable at all levels.

• READ: Here are the mayoral candidates running in your municipality

Lotter and Garcia agreed with Leduc that bringing in more industry is a key issue to tackle.

"Yes, we have some great jobs up here and so on, but we're lacking for the amount of people we have," noted Garcia. "Everybody lives here but goes to work somewhere else, so my big thing is, let's bring in some more factories, some more buildings, stuff like that, commercial development here."

"We need to build more businesses that we can tax so we can reduce the burden on the residential area. That's something that is promised but doesn't get delivered on very often," Lotter said.

Opinions from the two candidates that sound familiar, Leduc said.

"It's interesting they bring that up because that was part of my actual speech at the meet-and-greet that we did, so they didn't mention it then, but they're mentioning it now, and it is absolutely a big one for us. The employment lands, anybody who knows me since 2006, I've been fighting for the employment lands," Leduc added.

The current deputy mayor's campaign also focuses on traffic congestion in the rapidly growing community.

Former RCMP officer Mauro Di Giovanni rounds out the list of mayoral candidates heading into the final weekend before Monday's municipal election.