Provincial Byelection 2026: Scarborough Southwest Green Party candidate Mark Bekkering answers our questions

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Beach Metro Community News sent these questions to the seven candidates in this month’s Scarborough Southwest provincial byelection. We gave them a deadline to respond and are publishing the answers from the five candidates who sent them in by the deadline The seven candidates running in the Sept. 3 provincial byelection in Scarborough Southwest are Mark Bekkering of the Green Party; Gord Elliott of the Ontario Party; Ahsanul Hafiz of the Liberal Party; Independent candidate Michael Perdelwitz; Chris Rees of the New Blue Party; Fatima Shaban of the New Democratic Party; and Noor Tarun of the Progressive Conservative Party. Please visit our website at www.beachmetro.com for more information on the candidates.)

QUESTION 1: Please tell our readers a little bit about yourself and why you are running in this byelection?

Scarborough Southwest needs principled representation that is ready to deliver. I am running as the Ontario Green’s candidate because Ontario cannot afford more recycled promises and short-term fixes.
Every election we debate the same issues and life becomes less affordable for people, quality of life is declining, and the climate crisis only gets worse.

Ontario Greens offer a different approach: connecting affordability, climate responsibility, economic opportunity, and community well-being instead of treating them as separate problems. Greens offer practical, evidence-based leadership focused on outcomes that make life easier and affordable. I know this approach works because I have helped deliver it.

With 30 years of public service, I established initiatives such as TransformTO, the Home Energy Loan Program, and PollinateTO. Programs adopted unanimously by Toronto Council because they linked fiscal responsibility with lower household costs, local economic opportunity, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

As your representative, I will bring that same results-driven approach to Queen’s Park. I will fight for long-term, fiscally responsible solutions that create economic opportunity, make life more affordable, strengthen communities and protect the environment. This byelection I ask you to choose real action over slogans and choose leadership that puts people and communities first. If you want a fairer, more resilient, and sustainable Ontario, I ask for your vote and your support.

Scarborough Southwest has been my home for over 26 years, and it is where many memories have been and continue to be made for me and my family. Over 50 per cent of people in Ontario did not to vote in the last election. People have lost faith in government to solve the problems we face, and I want to restore trust in public life. Ontario Greens approach politics differently and are ready to shake up the status quo.

QUESTION 2: What do you see as the top local issues that will be on the minds of Scarborough Southwest voters into this provincial byelection?

1. Make life affordable and protect services. Housing remains unaffordable, everyday costs are rising and vital services—public education, primary health care, childcare, and other community supports—are being cut or stretched. The question is not whether Ontario can afford these services; it is how the government chooses to spend your tax dollars. The Ontario Greens have a fiscally responsible plan to shift investments into real action that makes life easier and affordable for people.
2. Climate action while strengthening communities. Climate change is an issue of concern for almost everyone. Flooding, wildfire smoke, and extreme weather are affecting daily life. Ontario Greens’ plan connects climate action with affordability, jobs, public health, and stronger communities—showing that investing in liveable future will make life better and more affordable for everyone.
3. Development that the community can support. Scarborough Southwest is experiencing significant change and development. Ontario Greens are fighting to put people before profits. We need affordable homes but in way that fits with our community, not development that puts profits ahead of people and paves over the places we love. Ontario Greens will reverse provincial policies that have eliminated local oversight and will ensure meaningful local community input.
4. Restore trust in public life. In the 2025 provincial election, 55 per cent of eligible voters did not cast a ballot. That is not apathy. Voters are tired of politicians who treat public office as temporary, personal, or partisan. In Scarborough Southwest we have had two unnecessary byelections due to the decisions of a Liberal MP and a NDP MPP. These actions along with a Conservative government focused on entitlement (e.g. booking hotel rooms when their home is a reasonable commute away) have deepened cynicism. Ontario Greens offer a different standard: transparent, accountable leadership and realistic, costed solutions.

QUESTION 3: With this byelection taking place just a few days before school starts up again, what measures will you and your party take to address concerns regarding public education funding not only across the province but also for the specific and unique needs of schools and students in Toronto?

Despite community opposition the Toronto public and Catholic school boards have been placed under Provincial Supervision. The Provincial Supervisors, after cutting teaching and central staff positions and programs such as outdoor education, still produced multi-million-dollar deficits for 2026–27.

The financial issues facing our local school boards are the result of a funding model created by the Conservative government in 1998 and left largely unchanged by the Liberal government that followed. By centralizing education funding at Queen’s Park, the province stripped local school boards of much of their ability to respond to local needs.

A top-down, one-size-fits-all formula cannot account for the realities facing different communities: fluctuating enrolment, aging buildings, special education needs, transportation pressures, language supports, and poverty-related challenges. School boards must absorb these pressures while having limited authority to raise revenue or set priorities. School boards are held responsible for problems they no longer have the tools to solve.

The government claims it has found $150 million in savings from boards under supervision. But that claim must be weighed against its own spending choices, such as spending $111.9 million on advertising in 2024–25. Ontario’s Auditor General noted in its annual report that much of this advertising was designed to improve public impressions of the province in ways that benefited the governing party.

The issue, then, is not whether Ontario can afford strong public education. It is whether the government is willing to prioritize it. Ontario Greens are calling for a fairer funding approach that hires more teachers, makes classrooms safer, addresses severe gaps in special education, recognizes local realities, and restores meaningful authority to elected school boards.

Ontario needs a better balance: provincial accountability where it is needed, and local decision-making where communities know best.

QUESTION 4: Please let our readers know how you and your party can increase the amount of truly affordable housing in Scarborough Southwest and how it can be built more quickly?

We are in a housing crisis created by 30+ years of inaction and only made worse by the Ford government. House prices since 1984 have increased by 1,000 per cent while income has only increased by 200 per cent. Over 90 per cent of deeply affordable homes in Ontario were built before 1995, which is when the province stopped funding non-profit, co-op and social housing.

Successive Conservative and Liberal governments have relied on the same market-driven formula: cut red tape, reduce fees and taxes, and hope private developers will build enough housing to lower prices. That approach has failed. If it worked, housing would not remain one of the most urgent issues facing Ontarians. Worse, it has helped turn housing into an investment vehicle, fueling speculation while leaving too many people priced out. The Ontario Green’s Housing Now Plan offers an alternative by combining supply, affordability, anti-speculation measures, and renter protections. It would:

• Use targeted regulation to accelerate the construction of new homes;
• Support first-time buyers without inflating prices;
• Invest in deeply affordable non-profit, co-op and supportive housing;
• Regulate speculation that drives up costs; and
• Strengthen security and support for renters.
  

We know that we can build the housing we need within existing urban boundaries without paving over farmland and the places we love. Ontario Greens will also take action to reduce utility costs by improving energy efficiency and environmental performance in new construction and helping people retrofit existing buildings. Ontario’s homelessness crisis is a policy failure by the Ford government. Ontario Greens will take a Housing First approach to address homelessness, an approach rooted in compassion and evidence. We will invest in stable, affordable housing, with wrap-around supports and mental health services. This successful model exists in Toronto, but without adequate provincial funding it cannot reach the scale needed to address homelessness.