Nearby the main shopping mall in Brampton's Bramalea area is a hollowed-out TD Bank, where a plan has been coming together for a seismic shift at city hall.

The emptied-out bank in the Brampton suburb has been repurposed as home to Nikki Kaur's mayoral campaign, where she's rallied an A-Team of political strategists with a shared goal: to unseat Mayor Patrick Brown.

Kaur — a fired, then rehired, Brampton city planner who alleged wrongdoing by senior municipality staff under Brown — says she's running because "the change was needed — and it was felt."

Backing her is a campaign team of advisers including juggernaut Conservative pollster and strategist Nick Kouvalis, Aurora Strategy's Marcel Wieder and Noah Zatzman, who both have Liberal backgrounds, as well as Toronto-based business and political advisers Suma George and Ronald Goerge as her campaign managers.

Former aides ex-mayor Linda Jeffrey, who Brown supplanted in 2018 by about four per cent of votes, are also advising Kaur.

Early polls have suggested Brown is the race's heavy favourite, meaning Kaur is playing catch up. Speaking to QP Briefing last week, about five-and-a-half weeks before voting day on Oct. 24, Kaur said she's focused on introducing herself to Bramptonians.

Her message? She "stands for people and she stands by her words and she fights for it until we can make a difference," she said.

Kaur grew up in the city, and calls herself a "proud Bramptonian."

She went to Cherrytree Public School near where Brampton meets Mississauga. Then she went to the nearby Brampton Centennial High School; then York University; then law school at City University in London, U.K.

She's worked as a lawyer and ran federally for the Conservative Party of Canada in the 2019 federal election in Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, which she said was by-assignment by the party after initially hoping to be a candidate in one of her hometown ridings.

Brown criticized Kaur for this to the Toronto Star, saying "Kouvalis is just taking his grudge out on me by using a former defeated Hamilton Conservative candidate to run against me."

Kaur chuckled at this, saying, "he's from Barrie... (and) the first chance (Brown) gets, he runs away."

"Every chance he gets, he takes the job that he thinks he should," Kaur added, referencing Brown's stint leading the provincial Progressive Conservative party and his campaign for the federal Conservative party leadership — both of which came to unceremonious ends.

"That’s not focusing on Brampton in any regard, or being from Brampton, or caring about Brampton," she said.

Kaur's topline pitch to voters — as it's seen on her website — is: "It's time to bring transparency and integrity back to the Mayor's Office."

Aside from positioning herself as the No. 1 anyone-but-Brown option, Kaur hasn't strongly saddled herself to many major policies. This is by design, she told QP Briefing. She said she's been talking to hundreds of voters a day, trying to understand what matters to them. Hearing their stories will shape her campaign, Kaur said.

She wants to fight back against crime, which rose drastically early in Brown's mandate, but has since declined.

On health care, which provincial parties zeroed in on in Brampton ridings during the election, Kaur said Brampton requires greater capacity. She said she'd be a better advocate than Brown for greater provincial and federal funding because she isn't "someone who was kicked out" of politics at both levels.

"The gates are open for me to walk right in. And I will," Kaur said.

Tax increases have been too high in Brampton, she also said. Property taxes were increased 2.7 per cent last year. "When people can’t afford what’s happening right now, it’s supposed to be a 0 per cent tax increase,” she said.

In terms of new "strong mayor" powers, Kaur says they're a "great idea," but that they shouldn't be given to Brown, if he's re-elected.

"(I would) use (strong mayor) powers for the benefit of the residents," Kaur said, adding that she'd use them to advance the province's agenda. Premier Doug Ford's government created them for use first in Ottawa and Toronto with the stated goal of building more housing.

As a staffer in Brampton's city manager's office, Kaur alleged that a series of improprieties took place in the planning of a new university in Brampton. City policies and operating procedures were ignored, public funds were misused, and staff acted inappropriately, she alleged. Deloitte was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to investigate her claims, dismissing some. Kaur, via a lawyer, has said previously in The Pointer that the investigation was incomplete.

"I had a really interesting decision to make, and I think I did good (by) it," Kaur said last week. "I spoke truth to power (and) brought to light a lot of things that... weren't out in the open and it took a lot of courage and I needed to do that. As a lawyer, I'm trying to advocate and trained to fight and stand for people, and that’s what I did.”

Kaur lost her job after speaking out about conduct in the city manager's office. Quite bizarrely, she was rehired by the city's Planning Department, which she's on leave from to run to challenge Brown's mayorship.

Her campaign will celebrate its official launch at its repurposed bank headquarters this Saturday.

"This place is going to be filled with people," she said. " It'll be an opportunity to engage with everyone one-on-one and show them what we bring to the table and (that’s) why it’s so important that we use Oct. 24 to vote for all the right reasons and allow the change to happen.”

Campaign signs will be allowed to start popping up at the end of the month. Brampton's mayoral debates haven't been finalized yet, but Kaur promised she'll be there once they are. Advanced voting in the city begins on Oct. 7, three weeks before election day.

Between now and Oct. 24, Kaur says she's focused on introducing herself to Bramptonians. Her team is handling the offensive toward Brown. Together, they're simply going to give it their "'A' Game" in trying to convince voters that she's a better option than one of the country's most controversial politicians.

CORRECTION: This article was updated at 11:00 p.m. to reflect that Suma George and Ronald George are based in Toronto, instead of Brampton, as previously stated.

Nikki Kaur’s A-Team wants to save Brampton from Patrick Brown

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