Mayor John Tory blames his broken TTC fare promise on following "the herd."

In an exclusive interview with the Toronto Sun on the one-year anniversary of his election, Tory was asked whether he regrets breaking his campaign pledge not to hike TTC fares in 2015.

Weeks after taking office, Tory announced in January that he was backtracking on that promise and would be supporting a 10¢ fare increase. A new initiative to offer free transit for kids 12 and under was rolled out by Tory on the same day.

"To be really honest about this, I regret following the herd because I think I was the last one to agree to the promise," Tory said on Monday. "You sort of end up feeling like you have to do this because everybody else did."

The mayor called the broken promise a political lesson.

"That was an instance in which I made that commitment without knowing all the facts and that's not a good thing to do," he said.

He repeated his rationale for breaking the promise was based on learning that cuts to TTC service by former mayor Rob Ford's administration were hurting residents and, despite those cuts, the finances at the TTC were "not good."

"I was just straight about it at least and I had a press conference and said I'm not going to do what I said what I was going to do," Tory said.