Toronto Votes 2026: Sara Ehrhardt tops field of 18 candidates to be elected new councillor for Toronto-Danforth

Sara Ehrhardt celebrated her election as the new councillor for Ward 14 Toronto-Danforth at her campaign party Monday night at The Duke on Queen Street East in Leslieville.

Ehrhardt won the Oct. 26 election with 22,400 votes (48.78 per cent). Second place went to Mary Fragedakis with 10,425 votes (22.66 per cent); and Dianne Saxe was third with 3,857 votes (8.38 per cent).

There were 18 candidates running for the Toronto-Danforth council seat after longtime incumbent Paula Fletcher decided not to run again after serving for 23 years.

Ehrhardt greeted supporters and volunteers as they walked in to The Duke to wait for the Election Night results.

Once declared the winner, Ehrhardt stepped on stage to celebrate her victory and held hands with her campaign team in the air while the crowd cheered.

In her victory speech, she thanked the community for attending and also thanked Fletcher for her mentorship. Ehrhardt had been the Toronto District School Board trustee from 2022 to 2026, before deciding to run for council in this year’s municipal election.

Ehrhardt also expressed her excitement about working on Toronto Council alongside Mayor Olivia Chow following her mayoral re-election on Monday night.

“What this means for our public services, tenants’ rights, and for all of our well-being is just so huge, and I am so excited to get to serve a term with Mayor Olivia Chow,” said Ehrhardt.

After her speech, Ehrhardt said she believed she ran a campaign that was rooted in a lot of support from the community, and their speaking out on making more services affordable.

“We heard a lot about affordability, around improving transportation, getting from point A to point B very effectively, but also just for having a caring and affordable city,” she said.

“I hope that I won because of my record of service and the community being responsive as an elected school trustee. I know we are an active community, so people will hold me to account for that; they’ll want me to be responsive, and I hope this trust is something that I will earn over time.”

As the night settled and attendees slowly went home and said their goodbyes, Ehrhardt said the first thing she’ll be doing after this election “is going to be a good night’s sleep, but then I’m really looking to hear from our community and what they’d like to see.”

Fragedakis held her campaign party Monday night at The Castle on Queen at Queen Street East and Booth Avenue.

Fragedakis thanked all the attendees for their support. 

She said she was proud of the campaign she and her team ran in the race for the Toronto-Danforth council seat.

“I’m very proud of the campaign that we ran. We ran a great campaign in a very, very short period of time,” she said.

She also shared some of the concerns she heard from Toronto-Danforth residents during her campaign. 

“We spoke to people about the issues that they cared about, and we heard from them the issues that are important to them. You know, they want reliable transit. They want a safe community. 
They want, you know, affordability. They want less congestion. And so those are the topics that we discussed at the door. That’s what’s important to the Danforth community residents,” she said in an interview with Beach Metro Community News.

“The congestion, the unreliable transit, safety issues, the cleanliness, you know, clean parks, and just a safe community. Makes sense. The affordability issue was one we heard about a lot. The most,” added Fragedakis. 

Fragedakis ended her interview with her kind wishes to the 17 other candidates in the council race.

“Yeah, there’s lots of people in the race. I respect everyone who puts their name forward to run for public office. 
And I congratulate my opponent,” she said of Ehrhardt.

Saxe held her watch party Monday night at 521 Cafe and Bar on Danforth Avenue, where about 50 people filled the venue as the results came in.

Saxe appeared relaxed and in good spirits as she mingled with campaign volunteers and supporters.

Results began rolling in around 10 p.m. Before they were finalized, Saxe left the party with a relative and was not available for an interview.

During her speech, Saxe thanked her team. “I am so proud of the team we built and the people that came over with me as well as the new faces with us,” she said.

Saxe’s campaign manager of four years, Andrew Greene, said he supports her because she is the most informed and driven candidate he has worked with.

He said a campaign has many measures of success, but the biggest is election day. “If you look at it from that nature, we came short of our ultimate goal,” said Greene.

Still, he said the campaign has a lot to be proud of, including the relationships and friendships it built and its ability to advocate for a new path for Toronto-Danforth.

Saxe’s decision to run in Toronto-Danforth came just as the candidate registration deadline was approaching. She had first registered to seek re-election in University Rosedale where she was the incumbent city councillor. But on Aug. 21, the last day of nominations, she withdrew and registered in Toronto-Danforth.

The move came after Fletcher announced she would retire after 23 years as councillor for Toronto-Danforth, and days after Michael Layton entered the University-Rosedale race. Layton, was the ward’s councillor prior to Saxe’s election in 2022.

When asked which issue voters raised most often by Toronto-Danforth voters, Greene said people wanted to be included in the conversation of how the city is run. He said many felt left out and had real questions that need answers.

On how having 18 candidates in the Toronto-Danforth council race affected voters, Greene said it can look like there are only three top contenders. But he said it takes courage to put your name forward and advocate for your community. He said the 18 candidates speak well of the community and its desire to be engaged in the process.

RESULTS FOR TORONTO-DANFORTH COUNCIL ELECTION

Sara Ehrhardt with 22,440 votes (48.78 per cent); Mary Fragedakis with 10,425 votes (22.66 per cent); Dianne Saxe with 3,857 votes (8.38 per cent); Susan Chapelle with 1,675 votes (3.64 per cent); Maria Voutsinas with 1,658 votes (3.64 per cent); Caryma Sa’d with 986 votes (2.14 per cent); Maqsood Ahmad with 847 votes (1.84 per cent); Denise Walcott with 651 votes (1.42 per cent); Peter De Marco with 594 votes (1.29 per cent); Michael Connor with 591 votes (1.29 per cent); Christiane Tetreault with 520 votes (1.13 per cent); George Fawcett with 433 votes (0.94 per cent); Michael Mitchell with 328 votes (0.71 per cent); John Kladitis with 287 votes (0.62 per cent); Jason Stevens with 268 votes (0.58 per cent); Devyn Stackhouse with 169 votes (0.37 per cent); Dennis Corcoran with 149 votes (0.32 per cent); and Robb Dagenais with 128 votes (0.28 per cent).   

• With files from Zina Ayoub, Camilo Rosenau, and Amna Bakr.