‘I just find it weird’: Why do half the council candidates in this Toronto ward share the same last name?

Nick Mantas, the incumbent facing re-election in Scarborough-Agincourt, is vying for the seat against Antonios Mantas (no relation).

Thestar.com
Aug. 17, 2022
David Rider

Some Scarborough voters choosing a city councillor in this fall’s election will get ballots that include two candidates with the same rare surname.

Nick Mantas, elected the Toronto councillor for Ward 22 Scarborough-Agincourt in a January 2021 byelection, registered his candidacy May 13 and is campaigning for re-election in the Oct. 24 civic election.

On Aug. 5, Antonios (Tony) Mantas, joined what is now a four-member race. If nobody else jumps in before the Friday candidate registration deadline, half the ballot will be people named Mantas.

Antonios’s name will appear first on that ballot because his given name starts with “A.”

Nick Mantas’s campaign team, concerned that Mantas vs. Mantas will confuse voters and cost the incumbent votes, has been trying to discover details on Antonios Mantas, who does not appear to live or work in the ward.

Their efforts included checking with Mantas relatives in Greece who said they don’t know Antonios or his family.

“I don’t know anything about him, and neither do any of the associations in my ward,” Coun. Nick Mantas told the Star. “Not related, never met him and I have no idea why he’s running in Scarborough-Agincourt.

“It’s a democratic race, anyone can put in their name. I’ve been involved in the ward for over 20 years, people know my name, so I just have to keep doing the work I’m doing. I just find it weird.”

Nick Mantas is a former aide to Jim Karygiannis who lost the council seat in 2020 due to campaign overspending in the 2018 civic election. Karygiannis is helping with his re-election campaign.

Antonios Mantas, reached last week at Mayfair Heating & Air Conditioning in East York, via a contact number he gave the city, said he has “absolutely no connection” to Nick Mantas.

He declined to answer further questions. “I am presently running a full-time campaign and allocation (of) my business responsibilities,” he said, adding he is open to an interview “at a later date.”

Flyers appearing in the ward feature his photo, a campaign email address and phone number, and a statement that he’s running because “I love Agincourt!” He says he’s concerned about increases in crime and “floating anxiety” in the area.

On the candidacy form, he registered his home address as an apartment in the Yonge-Eglinton area.

The Star tried to reach residents who signed Antonios Mantas’s nomination papers to ask about his candidacy. Those listed include some with the same surname and some who live in Scarborough.

A woman in a house on Woodycrest Avenue in East York, listed as the address for one signatory, told the Star the man hasn’t lived there for more than two years and she has no contact with him.

Two other candidates for the Scarborough-Agincourt council seat, Serge Khatchadourian and Anthony Internicola, told the Star they don’t know anything about Antonios Mantas.

In council races, where there are no party affiliations, name recognition can give sitting councillors a strong advantage -- too strong, according to some political observers who advocate measures to reduce the advantage of incumbents.

Voters have in the past been presented with candidates with identical or similar names, including rare ones.

Peter Tabuns, now an NDP MPP, lost a 1997 city council race that included Larry Tabin, whose name preceded Tabuns’s name on the ballot.

A rash of same-name candidates in New York state spawned a law aimed at minimizing voter confusion. It includes candidates’ right to ask that the ballot include biographical information such as any elected office they hold.

In 2021, well-known Russian opposition politician Boris Vishnevsky lost to challengers including two with the exact same name who, he said, even tried to mimic his appearance on their campaign posters.