Toronto Votes 2026: Beaches-East York council candidate Jennie Worden answers our questions

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Beaches–East York voters will cast their ballots on Monday, Oct. 26, in Toronto’s municipal election. Along with voting for mayor and school trustee, local voters will be looking to elect a new councillor for Ward 19 Beaches-East York.
There are 13 candidates running for the council seat in Beaches-East York. The seat is open as incumbent councillor Brad Bradford is now running for mayor in this municipal election. For this Question and Answer feature below, Beach Metro Community News reached out to the candidates who we could find contact information for and asked them to send their answers in by a set deadline. We are only printing the answers of the 11 candidates who responded by the deadline. Please note the candidates’ answers to the first two questions in this feature are also appearing in the Sept. 22 print edition of Beach Metro Community News.)

QUESTION 1: Tell us a bit about yourself and why your are running for City Councillor in Ward 19 Beaches-East York?

I’m a community organizer, an arts leader, a cyclist, a parent and grandparent, and a longtime tenants’ rights activist, who has lived in both the Beach and East York and currently lives in Taylor-Massey with my partner and grownup kid. I’ve spent years working with neighbours to defeat slumlords, and to make our housing more affordable, our streets and communities safer, and our public services stronger. 

In 2022, I ran against our current councillor to offer residents in Beaches-East York a progressive vision for our communities – one that asked the question “How do we build the city we want?” Back then, more than 6,000 neighbours supported my vision, and I learned how deeply I believe in the power of community to build a better city together.  

Four years later, we’ve seen what can happen in Toronto when our government asks “How can we take care of each other better?” Toronto has resumed building affordable housing. We are making progress on our state of good repair backlogs. Libraries are open longer. People have moved into housing out of shelters. 

But here in Beaches-East York, residents have looked in vain for representatives who seemed to be busy in other places, talking about the high-powered jobs they want to do elsewhere. I’ve shown up and worked with residents who have looked in vain for support from their elected representatives. Now, I want to do that work from inside City Hall, rather than trying to do it from the outside. 

QUESTION 2: What changes, if any, would you advocate for at city hall to balance the need for more housing while preserving neighbourhood character? 

We shouldn’t have to choose between the housing we need and the things we love about our neighbourhoods. The question is how we get the city we want, and who gets to shape that growth. 

Toronto has already taken important steps towards allowing more homes in neighbourhoods, including allowing secondary suites and sixplexes as-of-right. I support these changes, along with increasing density along transit corridors. Density, though, cannot mean just stacking containers for humanity at every major intersection: we must use all available planning tools to ensure we’re building complete communities, with the parks, infrastructure, transit, schools, childcare, amenities, and support for businesses that allow us to thrive at every age and stage. 

We also need to change how and when we involve community in the planning and development process. Too often, communities are invited to comment only after a developer’s vision is pretty much established. I want to establish community planning tables for each major development, and bring residents, City staff, community organizations and developers together early in the process, to figure out together what the community needs, and how new developments can meet those needs – not to give residents any kind of veto, but to give them a voice in outlining what good development should look like, early in the process, when it’s easy to make changes.

We can model this process on City-led developments, making City lands sites for community led development, rather than treating them as parcels to tender out. 

QUESTION 3: As city councillor, what specific actions would you take during your term to make Beaches-East York more affordable for all residents?

The greatest expense facing residents across Beaches-East York is housing. Nearly four in ten renters in Ward 19 are living in housing that does not meet their needs, spending more than 30 per cent of their income on rent, while the cost to buy a new home is simply beyond their reach. Since 2022, the average monthly cost of groceries has increased by roughly 25 per cent, and food bank usage has skyrocketed. With close to 90 per cent of food bank users living in unaffordable housing, the connection between housing affordability and food insecurity is clear. 

So the first step in managing the affordability crisis is to manage the housing crisis: build or acquire through the Multi-Unit Residential Acquisitions (MURA) program deeply affordable housing, especially for families who have outgrown their one-bedroom boxes in the sky. 

I will continue to advocate for keeping TTC fares capped at the 2023 rates and I will advocate to reduce the threshold for the new fare capping so that Torontonians can ride for free after 8 presto taps a week. That means more money for groceries, rent, or a night out with a loved one. 

A midterm goal is to expand the citywide school lunch program to include breakfast so that every child in our city can learn with a full belly and a fuelled mind. 

Finally, I will support the city-run grocery store pilot project and will work to make it a permanent program. The existing motion asks staff to report back to council in early 2027, I would advocate for an expedited process to open a store in Beaches-East York before the end of the next council term, giving residents an alternative to profit-driven grocery stores. 

QUESTION 4: As city councillor for Beaches-East York, how would you ensure infrastructure near Main and Danforth/Dawes can support the area’s major residential growth while minimizing pressure on transit and community services?

The time to prepare for rapid intensification around Main and Danforth is long past – developments have been approved and are underway, and battles to align these developer-driven properties with either the City’s official plan, the Main Street Planning Study or the community’s needs have been lost at the Ontario Land Tribunal. 

That doesn’t mean we can throw up our hands and accept the chaos. It means we need to work hard, coordinate city departments, and make sure that we’re funding the infrastructure we need to support the growth, including funding TTC operations to move people quickly through Main Street subway station and onto their destinations; completing a feasibility study to rebuild Secord Community Centre at the same time that the TDSB rebuilds Secord School, ensuring that the promised childcare spaces are delivered; building safe pedestrian connections to the GO and TTC stations; and locating a site for a re-built Main Square Community Centre, north of the railway tracks, where it can serve our highest-density communities. 

Beaches-East York council candidates’ open house slated for Monday, Oct. 5

A public meet-and-greet with candidates running for council in the Ward 19 Beaches–East York municipal election will take place on Monday, Oct. 5, at Beach United Church.

The Beaches–East York Municipal Candidate Meet and Greet is being co-hosted by Beach Metro Community News and the Balmy Beach Resident’s Association. It will run from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at the church, 140 Wineva Ave., in the fully accessible Main Hall.

There are 13 candidates seeking the Ward 19 city council seat in the Oct. 26 municipal election. 

Twelve candidates have confirmed they will participate in the Oct. 5 event: Syeda Janna Ali, James Dann, Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Natalie Johnson, Kevin Morrison, Karsten Riedel, Mohammad Shabani, Adam Smith, Austin Vieira, Jeff Wahl, Devin Wilkins and Jennie Worden.

The event will be a meet-and-greet, with candidates at individual tables, allowing residents to circulate and speak with them directly.