Toronto 2026 Election Happening Tomorrow

For those who aren’t already aware, Toronto’s next municipal election is happening tomorrow with polls open from 10 AM to 8 PM. You can get the necessary information – including where to vote and which ID to bring – at Toronto’s election website. While I haven’t hidden my desire to re-elect Olivia Chow for Mayor and to stop Brad Bradford – especially with his calls to rip the Bloor bike lanes in Etobicoke – it’s time for a last-minute recap of which councillors to support.

DISCLAIMER: Vélo Canada Bikes – which I recently became a board member – is a non-partisan organization and does not endorse candidates. Therefore, the views expressed here are my own.

• Ward 1 Etobicoke North – Chloe Brown given her past two impressive mayoral runs in 2022 and 2023; including beating Bradford in 2023 with a far smaller budget and sound policy. Progress Toronto is endorsing Ala’a Adib, but we agree on the need to defeat Vincent Crisanti.
• Ward 2 Etobicoke Centre – Jennifer Alexander for her tireless community advocacy in Etobicoke – including on active transportation – and the fact Stephen Holyday is the worst member of council. However, there are some folks who believe Katie Andrachuk has a better chance while I was disappointed Jennifer didn’t get any high-profile endorsements.
• Ward 3 Etobicoke-Lakeshore – Amber Morley for her steadfast support of extending the Bloor bike lanes into Etobicoke despite hostility from The Kingsway and ongoing provincial interference.
• Ward 4 Parkdale-High Park – Diana Chan McNally for her tireless harm reduction work and housing advocacy, while she gets it with transportation issues. This race will be tight between her and Nadia Guerrera – who wants the return of unfettered car access in High Park – so those supporting Debbie King (who’s also good) and Vanessa Raponi may want to reconsider.
• Ward 5 York South-Weston – Chiara Padovani given she lost to Frances Nunziata by only 94 votes last time and her awesome advocacy on tenant rights and road safety. This time could be more challenging given former Ontario Liberal candidate Daniel Di Giorgio is also running.
• Ward 6 York Centre – No endorsement. Even though James Pasternak was one of the councillors least aligned with Chow and the most pro-Israel who called for protest bubble zones, I don’t know the challengers well enough and sense this one will probably be a lost cause.
• Ward 7 Humber River-Black Creek – Anthony Perruzza may not be the most reliable progressive around, but he deserves credit for proposing city-run grocery stores and is generally aligned regarding road safety.
• Ward 8 Eglinton-Lawrence – Mike Colle may not be the most reliable councillor and I was disappointed with his handling of the Beltline Gap Connections and eglintonTOday projects. However, his overall track record is still decent.
• Ward 9 Davenport – Alejandra Bravo has been very effective in City Council; including being Chow’s Economic and Community Development chair. She was also endorsed by the Toronto and Region Labour Council.
• Ward 10 Spadina-Fort York – Ausma Malik has been Chow’s statutory deputy mayor and has done a good job handling the FIFA and Waterfront files.
• Ward 11 University-Rosedale – Mike Layton got my vote as a University-Rosedale resident given he along with Joe Cressy helped champion the Bloor bike lane pilot from Shaw to Avenue in 2016. However, I also commend Diana Yoon for her housing advocacy.
• Ward 12 Toronto-St. Paul’s – Josh Matlow who has become Doug Ford’s biggest critic on council; including defending the Ontario Science Centre and calling for a public inquiry for the Eglinton Crosstown LRT.
• Ward 13 Toronto Centre – Many people living in the ward were not keen on incumbent Chris Moise while many NDP types have instead rallied behind Curran Stikuts. I support Curran Stikuts who helped me with the open streets campaign, but understand those who feel Chris Moise has a better chance at stopping IntegrityTO founder Daniel Tate for his hateful content.
• Ward 14 Toronto-Danforth – Sara Ehrhardt got Progress Toronto’s endorsement and is backed by the outgoing councillor Paula Fletcher. I’m not keen on my councillor Dianne Saxe switching wards to this race to avoid Mike Layton, while Mary Fragendakis used to run the Greektown BIA which strongly opposed the Danforth bike lanes.
• Ward 15 Don Valley West – Rachel Chernos Lin may not be the most progressive voice out there, but I volunteered for her by-election campaign with some other Community Bikeways volunteers in 2024 to defeat anti-bike Anthony Furey and she has been a lot more aligned with Chow than her late predecessor Jaye Robinson.
• Ward 16 Don Valley East – No endorsement. The incumbent Jon Burnside is one of the least aligned with Chow and proposed seizing e-bikes and e-scooters being ridden on sidewalks. As with Ward 6, this one is also likely a lost cause.
• Ward 17 Don Valley North – Shelley Carroll has been effective as Chow’s budget chief and generally votes the right way on road safety issues, though I unfortunately heard she wants to fast track construction on Sheppard from Bayview to Leslie without bike lanes due to changes in provincial legislation.
• Ward 18 Willowdale – To be honest, I wasn’t initially sold on Lily Cheng four years ago. However, she has come around during her term of council including endorsing Olivia Chow and organizing three community bike rides to downtown with the help of Peter Low. There is also the need to stop her rival Ardeshir Zarazede who would be far less progressive.
• Ward 19 Beaches-East York – Jennie Worden got the nod from me for her tenant rights and cycling advocacy. However, it’s very likely progressive voters there will coalesce around Nate Erskine-Smith (who Chow supports) to stop Natalie Johnson.
• Ward 20 Scarborough Southwest – Kevin Rupasinghe came in 2nd during the 2023 by-election and is now polling neck-and-neck with incumbent Parthi Kandavel; partly due to the latter being implicated in an OPP investigation. Regardless, I have known Kevin’s road safety advocacy for a long time, and he has come out against AI data centres in the ward.
• Ward 21 Scarborough Centre – Krissan Veerasingham would make a great addition to council through his work with Scarborough Environmental Association and TTCriders.
• Ward 22 Scarborough-Agincourt – Since Nick Mantas is arguably the most useless member of council – having spoken the least and introduced the fewest motions per Matt Elliott’s City Hall Watcher – that ward can do better. Dan Lovell would likely be in the best position to challenge him.
• Ward 23 Scarborough North – Jamaal Myers has been effective as the TTC chair and had the courage to make his ward the only one outside of downtown to allow for sixplexes. However, some polls suggest he could lose to former Liberal MP Shaun Chen partly because of the sixplex issue.
• Ward 24 Scarborough-Guildwood – Paul Ainslie has been fairly reliable on road safety and mostly progressive overall. However, I was disappointed with some of his recent remarks about the newly installed Scarborough Golf Club bike lanes.
• Ward 25 Scarborough-Rouge Park – Neethan Shan was only on council for the past year and it’s hard to judge his effectiveness, but he did get Progress Toronto’s endorsement at the time and there is a need to stop ABC Toronto endorsed Shawn Allen from becoming councillor.

For additional resources, I encourage you to check out candidate questionnaires from TTCriders, Cycle Toronto, Toronto Environmental Alliance, and ACORN; none of which Brad Bradford responded to which is shameful. Groups like ACORN, Progress Toronto, Toronto and York Region Labour Council, CUPE 79, and CUPE 416 issued their own endorsements, while the list from ABC Toronto could – in most cases – be used to find out who not to support given their right leaning bias. For those who are in Etobicoke, Cycle Toronto will be hosting bike buses tomorrow morning and afternoon to ensure the safety of those biking through the new gap in the bikeway network.

If you didn't vote at the advance polls or by mail, be sure to get out and vote tomorrow! If you can volunteer for a candidate on election day, even better!