Mississauga Ward 9

Biography: Ramsha Haq is the founder of Synergy Consulting, an IT consulting firm. According to her website, she says she has a background in public policy and has worked with federal and provincial agencies.

Platform: Haq’s platform includes responsible spending, community safety measures such as strengthening coordination with Peel Regional Police, and balancing growth with concerns over neighbourhood character. She says she “loves” ChatGPT and AI but supports greater community consultation on the subject of local data centre development; her website features a data centre decision tracker.

Biography: Anwar Knight was a weather and news anchor for CTV news nearly two decades before joining the Weather Network as a national anchor. He has taught journalism at Seneca and Humber colleges, and is the founder of the Hold Schools Accountable Parent Network–a parent-led organization advocating for increased transparency in Ontario’s school boards regarding violent incidents and bullying. He is an Honorary Governor at Lymphoma Canada and was awarded a Friends of the Credit Conservation Award for environmental awareness in 2022.

Platform: Knight’s platform includes creating a Ward 9 community action hub, a “transparency dashboard” where residents can track local developments, and protecting the environment by addressing issues such as illegal dumping. He wants better proactive enforcement of city bylaws, and supports visible community policing and the use of technology to prevent crime, though he does not elaborate on which technologies he means. He wants to balance environmental and community impacts with economic ones when assessing projects like data centres.

Biography: Martin Reid is the incumbent councillor for Ward 9. First elected in 2022 after being endorsed by outgoing councillor Pat Saito, who represented the ward for 31 years, Reid sits on a number of city committees, including the Planning and Development Committee, and the Combatting Racism, Discrimination, and Hatred Advisory Committee. He is known for moving a successful motion to make transit free for children and limit the fare for seniors to $1, as well as spearheading an anti-renoviction bylaw. He came under fire earlier this year for supporting plans to build a large-scale data centre in his ward, which he now opposes after witnessing backlash from the community during a town hall he organized to consult them on the proposal.

Platform: Reid’s platform includes advocating for a more balanced tax and budget system for the Peel region, inclusionary zoning, and investing in wraparound services as a means of preventing crime. He wants to expand green spaces and access to the arts for youth in school. He is a cyclist and supports both better infrastructure for bike riders and improved regulation of e-scooters.

Biography: No information could be found online about this candidate at the time of publishing. He previously ran in the same ward in the 2022 municipal election.

Platform: This candidate does not have a platform available online at the time of publication.