Stampede of candidates register to run for open Toronto-Danforth council seat as deadline has now passed
By ALAN SHACKLETON
And then there were 18.
When this week started, four people had registered to run to be councillor in Toronto-Danforth in this fall’s municipal election and one of them was the incumbent Paula Fletcher.
However, Fletcher’s decision on Wednesday, Aug. 19, that she had changed her mind and would be stepping down after 23 years as a councillor in Toronto-Danforth and not seeking re-election set off a stampede of candidates registering to run for what was the now open seat.
At just after 10:30 a.m. today there were eight candidates registered, and by the deadline of 2 p.m. today another 10 had added their names to the list.
When the dust settled after today’s (Friday, Aug. 21) deadline for municipal candidates to register, there were 18 candidates declared for Toronto-Danforth.
Among them was the area’s public school trustee Sara Ehrhardt; current Toronto councillor for University-Rosedale Dianne Saxe who is now running in a ward east of the Don River; and Mary Fragedakis who was a councillor for what had been Ward 29 Toronto-Danforth (covering the area north of Danforth Avenue) from 2010 to 2018.
The other 15 councillor candidates in Toronto-Danforth are Maqsood Ahmad, Susan Chapelle, Michael Connor, Dennis Corcoran, Rob Dagenais, Peter De Marco, Sara Ehrhardt, George Fawcett, John Kladitis, Michael Mitchell, Caryma S’ad, Devyn Stackhouse, Jason Stevens, Christine Tetreault, Maria Voutsinas and Denise Walcott.
This week also saw some drama in the race to become the new councillor for Beaches-East York. The ward’s incumbent councillor Brad Bradford (who was first elected to the position in 2018) has registered to run in the mayoral race months ago and will not be seeking to return to the council seat.
On Wednesday of this week, former Beaches-East York MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith entered the race to replace Bradford as councillor.
With today’s registration deadline now passed, a total of 13 candidates will be seeking the Beaches-East York council seat. That number is actually one less than it was just after 10:30 a.m. today when 14 candidates were registered. However, Tycen Legg withdrew earlier today.
The 13 candidates running for councillor in Beaches-East York are Jaana Syeda Ali, James Dann, Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Fatima Ibrahimi, Natalie Johnson, Kevin Morrison, Karsten Riedel, Mohammad Shabani, Adam Smith, Austin Vieira, Jeff Wahl, Devin Wilkins, and Jennie Worden.
In Scarborough Southwest, incumbent councillor Parthi Kandavel is seeking re-election. He will face a field of seven other contenders for the seat.
Registered to run for council in Scarborough Southwest are Malik Ahmad, Laikul Choudhury, Parthi Kandavel, Ariel-Rachel Karokis, Luigi Lisciandro, Sharmina Nasrin, Mohammad Ali Reza, and Kevin Rupasinghe. It should be noted that two other candidates, Beau Duquesnay and Phillip Mills, had earlier registered to run for councillor in Scarborough Southwest but have since withdrawn.
This afternoon was also the deadline for mayoral and school trustee candidates to run in Toronto’s municipal election which will take place on Oct. 26.
A total of 53 candidates have registered to run for mayor.
This year’s election may prove a bit confusing for voters who elect Toronto District School Board (public board) trustees. The Ontario government cut the number of trustees almost in half earlier this year and instead of 22 TDSB trustees to be voted in this year, there will only be 12.
That has led to the merging of wards and some notable absences among those registered to run for TDSB trustee seats.
For East Toronto voters this means the TDSB wards that used to separately cover Beaches-East York and Scarborough Southwest have been merged into one that will be called Ward 10. For those who had a public school trustee representing their ward of Toronto-Danforth, that has now been merged with two downtown wards to become Ward 5.
Neither of the incumbent TDSB trustees for Beaches-East York or Toronto-Danforth are seeking re-election.
As mentioned, Toronto-Danforth trustee Eberhardt is now running for councillor in the ward. Beaches-East York trustee Michelle Aarts had originally registered to run for re-election in the TDSB’s new Ward 10 but she withdrew her name on Thursday, Aug. 20.
There are nine candidates registered to run for the TDSB trustee position in Ward 10. They are Malik Ahmad, Azim Dewan, Karen Emerson, Ahnaaf Hassan, Md Sazibul Islam, Glenn Kremp, Shawn Li, Jocelyne Poirier, and Marisa Sterling.
There are nine candidates registered to run for the TDSB trustee position in Ward 5. They are Eina Feyginberg, Andrene Gregory, David Guylas, Jared Kolb, Maureen Larkin, Andrew Massey, Gus Stefanis, Janine Viret, and Jennifer Volk.
For East Toronto voters selecting Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) trustees, the two wards that are included in the Beach Metro Community News coverage area are Ward 11 (which takes in part of Beaches-East York and Toronto-Danforth) and Ward 12 (which includes Scarborough Southwest).
Registered to run in the TCDSB’s Ward 5 is incumbent trustee Angela Kennedy, and Anton Perera.
The only candidate registered to run in the TCDB’s Ward 12 is incumbent Nancy Crawford, so that position can expect to acclaimed.
For more information on this year’s Toronto municipal elections, including candidates for the province-wide French public and French Catholic school boards, please go to https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/elections/candidate-list/
