Toronto Votes 2026: Toronto-Danforth councillor candidate Devyn Stackhouse profile

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Local 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 also be electing a new councillor for Ward 14 Toronto-Danforth.
There are 18 candidates running for the council seat in Toronto-Danforth. The seat is open as incumbent councillor Paula Fletcher announcd in August that she was stepping down after representing the area for the last 23 years. For this Candidate Profile feature, Beach Metro Community News reached out to the candidates who we could find contact information for and asked them to send their profile and a photo in by a set deadline. We are only printing the profiles of those who responded by the deadline. The 18 candidates registered to run for councillor in Toronto-Danforth in this month’s municipal election are Maqsood Ahmad, Susan Chapelle, Michael Connor, Dennis Corcoran, Robb Dagenais, Peter De Marco, Sara Ehrhardt, George Fawcett, Mary Fragedakis, John Kladitis, Michael Mitchell, Caryma Sa’d, Dianne Saxe, Devyn Stackhouse, Jason Stevens, Christiane Tetreault, Maria Voutsinas and Denise Walcott.)

I’m Dev – a TTC rider, renter, and library denizen in the Gerrard India Bazaar. The story I’m trying to write is “The one where the starving artist makes it to City Hall”. I’m mounting an unexpected campaign for councillor, but unexpected doesn’t mean unqualified!

I was born and raised in rural New Brunswick and educated in Ottawa (BA, MA), but illness and economics scrapped the possibility of a traditional career trajectory. Instead, I have a millennial menagerie of job experience and an impressive unpublished manuscript. The thing no one tells you about being self-motivated enough to write a book is that when you’re done, what used to be your purpose is now just an undervalued asset.

I was itching for a new raison d’être, so the timing of this election is fortuitous! Most candidates decided to run when Paula Fletcher withdrew. I decided the day before. Two days before the close of nomination the CRA recalculated 10 years of tax returns applying the Canada Disability Tax Credit. There was a few grand just sitting in my account. Two thousand are financing my campaign. If elected, I will be the first Torontonian to jump from social assistance to City Hall. I’m passionate about ending poverty, my own included.

I believe in efficiency, equitability, and Universal Design. My platform is a set of promises I can deliver in a term. The Stackhouse Policy Corollary is a compendium of conversations I want to have in the halls of power.

I know how to set priorities. My campaign is different. I’m an artist, a populist, and I’m inconveniently, neurodivergently honest. I’m not trying to change your mind about anything. I’m trying to inspire you. I’ve got a great story without mentioning qualifications: I’ve negotiated for two collective agreements, hosted scores of community events, and spent two decades bouncing between Green and NDP campaigns.

No one will work harder for you than the guy you helped reach the top from rock bottom.