What to watch for in the 905 in this year’s municipal election

Here’s a guide to notable faces and places across the GTA in the Oct. 24 municipal election.

Thestar.com
Aug. 22, 2022
Noor Javed

Election season is upon us once again this year.

And the stakes for communities in the 905 are high. Over the past term, the 24 municipalities in the Greater Toronto Area (outside of Toronto) have been dealing with how to govern in a pandemic, but also with longer-term issues such as managing growth, advocating for transportation needs, as well as staying fiscally sound.

GTA municipalities, which will have to accommodate much of the expected population growth coming to Ontario, are now at a crossroads: keep creating car-dependent communities, or push for more walkable transit-focused communities and protect valuable farmland?

The province is expected to approve regional growth plans this fall, but cities have already struggled with key infrastructure gaps, in particular sewage capacity, lack of funding for affordable housing, and few long-term solutions to relieve congestion on the roads.

Cities will also be looking for provincial guidance on how to rein in misbehaving politicians. And with the Ford government promising to expand the “strong-mayor” authority to cities beyond Toronto and Ottawa, councils are waiting to see what this means for them.

Roughly 4 million people live in the four regions of Halton, Peel, York and Durham. Each region’s city has its own mayor and council, and each region has its own regional chair. The chairs of Durham and Halton are elected, while Peel and York are appointed by fellow regional councillors.

The official deadline to register for the Oct. 24 election was Friday afternoon, so here’s an up-to-date guide to some of the key races in the 905.

Out with the old....

Municipal politics is often a haven for political lifers, so it’s a rare occurrence when a local politician -- especially a mayor -- steps down. But this year, several are moving on. The most notable: Vaughan’s Maurizio Bevilacqua, who became mayor of the city north of Toronto in 2010. Also leaving his role is Caledon’s Allan Thompson, who is stepping down after 19 years in office and eight years as mayor.

Durham Region also has two mayors stepping down: Whitby’s Don Mitchell, who was in politics for nearly 30 years, and Pickering’s Dan Ryan, who served as mayor for 19 years.

...In with the new

It may be a long shot, but a Milton councillor is one of three candidates hoping to give Gord Krantz, the longest-sitting politician in a major Canadian municipality, a run for his money. Krantz is running for a historic 14th term as mayor.

Regional councillor Zeeshan Hamid is also competing for the city’s top job, which has been held by Krantz since 1980. Hamid appears to have an uphill battle ahead of him: in 2018, Krantz took more than 80 per cent of the vote.

In Pickering, among those vying for the mayor’s seat are regional councillor Kevin Ashe. His father served as the first mayor of the town in 1973.

One of Ashe’s opponents is Brad Nazar, who recently published a website tracking development money and local politicians. He found that 90 per cent of donations to councillors in the 2018 election came from the development industry. Nazar, who works at Metrolinx, says he is not accepting money from developers in his mayoral bid.

If you fail once -- try, try again...

If only we all had the confidence of Steven Del Duca and Patrick Brown, who despite their inability to secure leadership positions at the provincial or federal level, have come out swinging in this municipal election.

Del Duca announced this week, after losing the June 2 election as the head of the provincial Liberals, that he would run for mayor of Vaughan where he has lived for 35 years.

Del Duca face off against a number of candidates, including Sandra Yeung Racco, a long-time Vaughan councillor. Former federal Liberal minister and ex-city councillor Deb​ Schulte pulled out of the race Friday afternoon for health reasons.

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown announced last month he was running for re-election following his disqualification from the Conservative Party of Canada leadership race. Despite the infighting and troubles that have plagued city hall, Brown’s main competition appears to be former city staffer Nikki Kaur, who has the support of well-known lobbyist Nick Kouvalis, but it’s unclear if she has the name recognition needed to oust Brown.

Slightly outside the GTA, former provincial NDP leader Andrea Horwath is running in Hamilton, with current mayor Fred Eisenberger stepping down. She faces eight other competitors, including former Hamilton mayor and Liberal MP Bob Bratina

Familiar faces, different places

It used to be that municipal politics was a stepping stone to the provincial and federal races, but it appears it’s the other way around in a few GTA communities.

In Halton Region, former Burlington MPP Jane McKenna did not seek re-election, shifting gears to run for Halton regional chair, an elected position currently held by Gary Carr.

In Mississauga, former MPP Bob Delaney is one of nine candidates running to fill an empty seat in Ward 9 following the resignation of long-time councillor Pat Saito. Among his competition are outspoken Peel District School Board trustee Nokha Dakroub, and Peter McCallion, son of the long-time Mississauga mayor Hazel.

Also running to fill an empty ward 11 seat in Mississauga is former MP Brad Butt.

Former cabinet minister and MPP Michael Chan is also in the running for a regional councillor seat in Markham, facing off against seven other candidates, including the incumbent and former councillors and school board trustees.

In Vaughan, former MPP Gila Martow is running for the Ward 5 councillor position and will be facing off against long-time councillor Alan Shefman.

Too close to call?

In Caledon, well-known regional councillor Jennifer Innis, who was chair of the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, is running against regional councillor Annette Groves for the mayor’s seat.

Groves has been a staunch opponent of the GTA West highway project, while Innis has supported the 59-km road, which will run from Vaughan to Milton via Caledon. Their faceoff symbolizes the divide in Caledon between those residents who want to preserve farmland and introduce controlled development in the area, and those who say the highway will help the city to prosper and meet the province’s ambitious growth targets.

In Mississauga, two races are worth keeping an eye on.

The first is between long-time Ward 6 Coun. Ron Starr, who was recently reprimanded by the city’s integrity commissioner for allegedly harassing a former colleague. Starr denies the allegations. He’s facing off once again against Joe Horneck, who he beat in the 2018 election by less that 350 votes.

The second race is to fill Ward 2, left vacant by Karen Ras, who was the complainant in the case against Starr. Among the seven candidates running in the open ward are Patrick Brown’s mother-in-law Silvia Gualtieri, whose website lists a long history in community service and volunteer work in the city. She will be facing off against a number of people with deep ties to the ward, including public relations professional Alvin Tedjo and local ratepayer’s president Sue Shanly, who lost to Ras in 2014 by less than 500 votes.

In litigation-filled Richmond Hill, Mayor David West, who took on the mayoral role after a byelection in January, will fight for his seat against two others, including regional councillor Carmine Perrelli. Perrelli is running for mayor even though he has ongoing lawsuits against many of his fellow councillors and the city.

In Brampton, Coun. Gurpreet Dhillon is facing off against five other candidates for the regional councillor seat in ward 9,10. In 2020 Dhillon was found by the city’s integrity commissioner to have allegedly sexually harassed a fellow resident on a trade mission to Turkey. The commissioner’s report is not a finding of criminal wrongdoing or guilt, and the complainant’s allegations have never been tested in court. Dhillon has denied the allegations. He recently settled a civil lawsuit with the plaintiff outside of court.

How can we miss them when they won’t say goodbye?

Ever heard of term limits? Sometimes doesn’t seem like it in municipal politics.

Milton’s Gord Krantz, 85, is going for his historic 14th term as mayor in the upcoming election -- having beaten out Hazel McCallion’s 36-year mayoral tenure a few years back. He became town councillor in 1965 when the town had a population of around 5,000. It’s now home to more than 130,000 people.

In Markham, Frank Scarpitti, who became mayor in 2006, has put in his re-election bid for his fifth term in the top job. He will be facing off against popular deputy mayor Don Hamilton, who filed his nomination right before deadline.

Rob Burton, who became mayor of Oakville in 2006, squeaked in to register for his fifth bid for mayor on Friday afternoon.

In Vaughan, two regional councillors, Mario Ferri and Gino Rosati, are both running again. Rosati joined council in 1988, having served on council for 34 years. Ferri was first elected to ward councillor in 1997. Both are running this term for regional councillor.