In the distance, she points out three apartment buildings on Kipling Avenue that have been on rent strike for wrongful evictions, poor maintenance, and above-guideline rent increases. While nearly half of the ward are renters, she says it’s easy for the homeowners in the area to feel removed from the problems that their neighbours are facing. She thinks of them as voters who “wouldn’t change anything”—those who are happy with the status quo. It’s not difficult to see why—the streets she is canvassing are littered with lawn signs for incumbent councillor Vincent Crisanti.

Elected in 2022, the 73-year-old Crisanti has long been a fixture in Etobicoke North. Back when the ward was split into two, he’d represented the community as city councillor from 2010 to -2018 alongside three members of the Ford family: former mayor Rob Ford, his older brother Doug, and their nephew Michael.

Bordered by Steeles Avenue to the north, Highway 427 to the west, Eglinton and Dixon to the south, and the Humber River to the east, Etobicoke North has been a Ford family stronghold for decades. Doug Ford Sr. represented the riding provincially from 1995 to 1999, and it’s where Rob Ford ran his successful campaigns for city council throughout the early 2000s, before his infamous tenure as mayor.

Crisanti, for his part, has long been an ally of the Ford family. When Doug Ford ran for mayor in 2017 before his leap to provincial politics, Crisanti appeared onstage at that year’s Ford Fest to support his run against incumbent mayor John Tory.

“If anybody out there doubts the power of Ford Nation, just come here tonight,” he announced. “I first got elected in 2010 with the support of Rob Ford, and I’m here today because of the Fords, and I want to thank them.”

There was only one problem: Crisanti was serving as John Tory’s deputy mayor at the time he endorsed his rival. In response to the slight, Tory removed him from the post. The following year—after Doug became premier and cut the number of seats on Toronto city council from 47 to 25, including those in Etobicoke North—Crisanti was left to run against 24-year-old Michael Ford. With his uncle’s endorsement, Michael beat Crisanti handily, only relinquishing the position back to him in 2022 when he decided to run for MPP of York South-Weston.

Cristanti did not respond to requests from The Local to be interviewed for this story.

Now, four years later, Crisanti is running again. This time, he may not be facing down a junior Ford, but he is up against 10 other candidates. This includes local business owner Norman Hamilton, community organizer Ala’a Adib, and Chloe Brown. While Crisanti has continued to appeal to voters by assuring them of his experience and ties to the Fords, the candidates competing against him represent a different side of politics in Etobicoke North—one that is young, racialized, working-class, and progressive.

Since then, she says, the neighbourhood has been neglected, leading to a degradation of the social infrastructure she benefitted from.

“It’s a lack of political will from the leadership that’s keeping this area stagnant,” Brown says. “I feel pissed off for my community.”

In Brown’s view, Ward 1 has the potential to become a place where 30-somethings like her want to live and work instead of fleeing downtown. Redevelopment projects like Woodbine Lands, encompassing the Woodbine casino and racetrack, promise a way to revitalize the neighbourhood with both job opportunities and cultural programming. Across the street, Woodbine Mall, where Brown says her parents took her as a reward, could see a new life as a community hub.

“It’s like everything that is worth being seen is downtown by the banks, as opposed to where working-class people live,” Brown says. “It makes me so frustrated. When I think about young people up here, of course they’re going to be bored, detached, and isolated if you force all the jobs downtown, all the arts and culture downtown.”

Brown worked on a community benefit agreement for the Woodbine casino redevelopment with the Toronto Youth Cabinet, ensuring 50 percent of 2,500 jobs created would go to local residents or equity-deserving people and that community groups have access to event and meeting spaces. She wants to reinvigorate Woodbine Mall with initiatives like creating an artist residency pop-up space so that it can function as both a community hub and a commercial space.

Despite her plans, she is all too aware of the Ford legacy she is working against, and the association that Crisanti has with it. She describes his tenure over the past few years as “doing the basics of the job description” and is quick to mention his track record of missing 332 votes at city council since 2022—the second highest rate of recorded absences. Still, she is no stranger to facing down the odds with an ambitious political campaign. In 2022, she ran for mayor, landing in third place. In the mayoral by-election the following year (after John Tory’s resignation in the fallout of an infidelity scandal), she out-performed sitting councilor Brad Bradford.

Like Brown, another candidate, Norman Hamilton, sees the need for increased investment in the neighbourhood. An immigrant from Jamaica who first settled in Etobicoke North to study accounting at Humber College, Hamilton is the owner of a mobile mechanic business, Truck Repair Hotline Inc., which operates out of the ward.

“I came here with a purpose to better myself, to contribute to society, and contribute to where I live,” he says.

Hamilton believes Ward 1 deserves more attention at city council, especially compared to the wards to the south—Etobicoke Centre and Etobicoke-Lakeshore, which both have better transit access, more development, higher-income households, and better access to services like libraries and community centres. Though there have been some improvements in Ward 1, such as the Finch West LRT which has six stations servicing Etobicoke North, getting downtown is still a slog requiring multiple transfers.

Core to Hamilton’s vision for improving things in the ward is youth engagement. He notes that young people often come to Ward 1 to study at Humber College, like himself. But they typically leave for better job prospects and housing. Hamilton says he has used his business as a way to keep them engaged and employed in Etobicoke North by offering a co-op style work program for graduates from Humber.

“I think local businesses need to look more into developing the community by helping youth so they know someone is looking out for them,” he says. “Someone that’s reliable, so they can stop looking in other directions.”