Toronto Mayoral Candidates 2026

Biography: Olivia Chow has been mayor of Toronto since 2023.

Chow raised property taxes each year of her first term, and introduced a new land transfer tax on homes sold for more than $3 million.

The increased revenue to the City has been allocated to make city services more affordable, including a transit fare freeze and school meal programs, as well as funding for “emergency services”, according to the 2026 operating budget. Under Chow, Toronto’s police budget increased by $160 million over three years, and the City has hired more first responders. The Toronto Community Crisis Service project, piloted in 2022, which dispatches mental health crisis workers to relevant 911 or 211 calls, was also made permanent and expanded citywide.

The TTC’s budget has received increases totalling $451.2 million over three years. Chow froze fares on the TTC, introduced fare capping, and installed select priority bus and streetcar lanes.

Chow’s administration has also extended library hours and expanded a school food program to 764 schools, according to city staff.

In July 2025, Chow introduced a bylaw meant to protect against “renovictions”. Her administration also expanded a program that provides funding to non-profit housing organizations, like co-ops, to buy apartment buildings.

Over the course of her tenure, Chow has both negotiated with and opposed Ontario premier Doug Ford. In late 2023, Chow dropped the city’s previous opposition to Ford’s Ontario Place redevelopment, instead coming to an agreement that secured the city as much as $1.2 billion in new operating funding from the province over three years. More recently, Chow argued against Ford’s plans for Billy Bishop airport.

In 2025, Chow backed a “bubble zone” bylaw that prohibited protests near places of worship, schools, and child-care centres, which was seen by some as a crackdown on the frequent pro-Palestine demonstrations. Chow has also been criticized by pro-Israel groups.

Before taking the mayor’s office, Chow was a long-time politician and activist who served as a school trustee, Toronto city councillor, and NDP Member of Parliament. Chow previously ran for mayor in 2014, when she placed third behind Doug Ford and winner John Tory.

Platform: Chow is running on the promise to build upon the investments she’s made since 2023, highlighting the city’s school meal program, frozen TTC fares, the hiring of more first responders, and securing housing funding from the province and feds.

On her Substack, Chow wrote that her priorities are transit, affordable housing, hiring frontline workers like paramedics and police, speeding up construction on the Gardiner Expressway, and reducing the number of homeless encampments.

Biography: Brad Bradford has been councillor for Ward 19—Beaches-East York since 2018. He has a background in urban planning, and previously worked for the City of Toronto planner’s office.

In his first term, Bradford tended to vote with former mayor John Tory on most issues. He has generally been in favour of real estate development in Beaches-East York, and in his first term had a strong record of pushing for road safety measures in his ward.

Bradford has been described as Olivia Chow’s most vocal opponent on council. He’s one of only three councillors who voted with the mayor less than 60 percent of the time, according to the Toronto Star.

Between his early years on council and now, Bradford has been criticized for switching stances on major issues, including the police budget and the renaming of Yonge-Dundas Square to Sankofa Square. Bradford previously tended to vote in favour of cycling and pedestrian infrastructure, including creating bike lanes along Bloor Street West past Islington Ave. However, as part of his mayoral campaign, Bradford said he’ll remove the bike lanes from the area if elected.

As reported by CBC, Bradford was a key proponent of the “bubble zone” bylaw, prohibiting specific acts of protest near select places of worship, schools, and child care centres. The bylaw was introduced in response to frequent pro-Palestine protests in Toronto, and has been criticized as potentially infringing on Torontonians’ Charter right to protest.

In July 2024, following complaints that he used his ward constituent email addresses to distribute 2023 mayoral campaign materials, the City’s Integrity Commission released a report recommending Bradford be reprimanded. Bradford took “full responsibility for the mistake,” and accepted the recommended reprimand.

Bradford has been endorsed by Ward 6 – York Centre councillor, James Pasternak, and former councillor and current MP for Ajax, Jennifer McKelvie, among others. Some of his endorsements have been criticized, including Catherine Swift’s; she briefly endorsed Bradford before he disavowed her on X for the Islamophobic messages she posted on the platform this year.

In 2023, Bradford came in eighth place in the mayoral by-election, with 1.28 percent of the votes.

Platform: The pillars of Bradford’s campaign are crime, congestion, cost of living, cleanliness, and competition.

Alongside hiring 1,000 police officers in the city, he proposes building police sub-stations in Sankofa Square and Union Station (according to the Toronto Star, police presence at Union Station has already been in the works for some time), high-traffic areas where people might not feel safe. It’s worth noting that public perception of Toronto as an unsafe city is currently high; however, many crime indicators in the city have in fact decreased compared to pre-pandemic levels.

Bradford also wants more police in the city’s subway stations, and to introduce mandatory addiction treatment to address the overdose crisis—but says enforcement of the latter would fall to the provincial government.

He wants to freeze property taxes for homes and businesses in the city for a year, while conducting an audit of municipal finances.

On transit, Bradford says he will secure funding for a Scarborough East LRT and begin construction in his first term as mayor. He wants to introduce a money-back guarantee for delays of more than 15 minutes on public transit.

Biography: Chris Alexander is a former ambassador, federal cabinet minister, and Conservative MP for Ajax-Pickering. He was Canada’s first resident ambassador to Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005.

In 2011, Alexander was elected MP for Ajax-Pickering, serving until 2015. He was also the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration from 2013 to 2015. Alexander is widely known for introducing the Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act, also known as Bill S-7 (2014), which passed in 2015. The Conservative Party called the law a defender of “Canadian values,” and said it aimed to prevent practices such as polygamy, forced marriage, and marriages involving children under the age of 16.

Along with then-labour minister Kellie Leitch, Alexander also said that the Conservative Party would propose a tip line to report such practices.

The “barbaric cultural practices act” received heavy criticism, with lawyers and politicians arguing that the mentioned practices are already illegal in Canada. Furthermore, Bill S-7 received criticism for its language, arguing that its framework was xenophobic, stigmatized immigrant and racialized communities, and portrayed domestic violence as a foreign issue. Amid criticism of the Act and of Alexander’s handling of the Syrian refugee crisis, Alexander lost his seat in 2015 to Liberal Mark Holland. (While the Act remains in place, its name was repealed in 2018.)

In late July 2026, Alexander described the act as “a mistake,” and that he and the Conservative Party “played that issue wrongly.”

“It was a mistake in that election,” he said. “But I do not disassociate myself from my convictions, my values on this issue, which relate to the rights of women and girls everywhere, but especially in a place like Afghanistan.”

Alexander ran for leader of the federal Conservative Party in 2016-17, ultimately losing to Andrew Scheer.

Platform: On his website, Alexander says he will prioritize improving the management of the TTC via fare enforcement, and cleaner, safer stations. He also believes in having properly planned-out bike lanes, which he says should be elevated and curb-separated.

Alexander also says there should be a “broad-based consensus” regarding Billy Bishop Airport’s future.

When it comes to housing, Alexander is focused on supply, saying that more housing would mean more affordability and that approvals for zoning and development should be sped up. For people experiencing homelessness, Alexander advocates for more stable housing with attached mental health and addiction treatment resources.

He also proposes neighbourhood-led planning and development.

Biography: Imad Abdulkadir describes themselves as a multidisciplinary artist, creating musical mashups under the alias Mad.I.M. They are also involved with Campaign for Community (C4C), an organization founded at the University of Toronto that “seeks to bring together and build community,” which they say they’re interested in turning into a non-profit organization.

Platform: Abdulkadir’s campaign is focused on increasing affordability, making Toronto and the TTC safer, and making the city more accessible for those with physical access needs and mental illness.

Biography: Bahira Abdulsalam is a certified professional engineer in Ontario and, according to her LinkedIn profile, a faculty member at Canadore College. She is co-founder of engineering company CIISolutions. Her LinkedIn page says she volunteered for the Ontario Liberal Party beginning in 2020.

Abdulsalam previously ran for mayor during the 2023 by-election, and for both the provincial and federal Don Valley West seats as an independent candidate in 2025, placing last in the latter races.

Abdulsalam is currently facing a disciplinary hearing before the Professional Engineers Ontario. She claims the proceedings stem from her social media posts about Palestine and sex education in public schools. On social media, she has been critical of LGBTQ+ identities, gender expression, and sex ed in schools.

Platform: On her campaign website, Abdulsalam says she will use 99-year-long community land trust leases to build homes that people can own, in addition to not giving away public land to developers.

When it comes to addressing homelessness, Abdulsalam says every shelter should be paired with a housing plan and a “worker.” She also says that shelter capacity should increase, as well as providing a 24-hour reprieve and “year-round planning” to prevent those experiencing homelessness to stay out in the cold.

Abdulsalam says she will make the TTC free as a way to alleviate traffic and to lessen the costs for people using transit. She also advocates for punctual and more frequent transit.

Biography: Jamie Atkinson’s LinkedIn profile says that he is the CEO of Atkinson Film-Arts Ltd., described as an “artist-led” film company for “AI-assisted storytelling.” A 2018 hearing with the Toronto Licensing Tribunal over the license renewals relating to Atkinson’s stormwater management company found that his company had previously violated multiple bylaws regarding staffing and licensing, and found other concerns around “allegations of misleading advertising.” In 2019, Atkinson withdrew his license renewal application.

Atkinson previously ran for mayor in Toronto during the 2023 mayoral by-election, where he came 23rd out of 102.

Platform: At the time of publication, Atkinson’s platform focuses on scaling up Toronto infrastructure, transit, and making the development process more efficient, among other things. If elected, Atkinson wants to grow the city’s capacity for housing development using technology, and advocate for high-speed rail projects at the federal level. He wants to make responsible AI tools accessible to the public in order to “Be the best city at using AI well.”

Biography: Darrell Brown is a lawyer who currently runs a legal consulting firm. Prior to this, he was the CEO of the Canadian National Exhibition from 2022 to 2025. Last year, the Toronto Star reported that he and his wife, Lyudmila Bezpala-Brown, were fired without cause by the Canadian National Exhibition Association, while being accused of workplace harassment. Both Brown and Bezpala-Brown denied the allegations.

In September of 2025, Brown ran for city councillor for Scarborough-Rouge Park, where he placed seventh out of 37 candidates.

Platform: Brown’s platform focuses on homelessness, transit, and the city budget. In a video on his website, he outlines his plans for solving homelessness in Toronto by prioritizing more housing, managing the Toronto Community Housing (TCHC) capital repair backlog, and stopping the sale of city-owned land “for short-term gain.”

He also proposes expanding mental health services and having new voices advise the city on its policies. He wants to explore new revenue tools for the city. When it comes to transit, Brown proposes building more train and bus lines within Scarborough, including funding the Eglinton East LRT which would connect Kennedy Station to Malvern Town Centre via the University of Toronto Scarborough (the existing Eglinton LRT was developed by Metrolinx and therefore falls under the mandate of the province).

Biography: Brian Buffey is a perennial candidate for mayor, and little information is available about him online. In 2023, Buffey ran in the mayoral by-election coming 79th out of 102 candidates. He also ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2018. On Facebook, Buffey has shared posts (some of which are AI-generated) against Islam, Pride events, Olivia Chow, and Mark Carney, and has called liberalism “a dangerous mental illness.”

Platform: On his GoFundMe page, Buffey says that he will change the last 2 weeks of June from Pride Month to “Straight Family Pride” and “end every ‘Woke’ program in the city.” He also says that he will close safe injection sites and allot city resources for rehabilitation centres instead. In a Facebook post, he vows to resolve the shortage of affordable housing and make the TTC safe and effective, among other things.

Biography: Braeden Chow is a musician and performs under the name “nora”.

Platform: Information about Chow’s platform was not available online at the time of publication.

Biography: Logan Choy describes himself as a self-defence instructor. He previously ran for mayor in 2018, placing ninth of 35 candidates. Choy also ran for mayor in the 2023 by-election, finishing 18th out of 102 candidates.

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

Biography: Kevin Clarke is a perennial candidate and the founder and former leader of the now defunct The Peoples Political Party, a minor party (not to be confused with the People’s Party of Canada). He ran in the 2020 Toronto Centre federal by-election and the 2022 and 2023 provincial by-elections in Scarborough-Guildwood. Clarke has run for mayor in 2003, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022 and 2023. In a 2023 Facebook post, he says that he experienced homelessness and has organised memorials for Toronto’s homeless community.

Clarke is critical of Olivia Chow on his social media, falsely claiming that she is “currently not the legal mayor of Toronto.”

Platform: On Instagram, Clarke says that he will prohibit the city from purchasing, reimbursing and subsidizing alcohol for those working for the city. He also says that his administration would responsibly use public funds, though there are no specifics on his platform. In another post, Clarke says he would make it illegal to use drugs around children, stop the city from distributing “supplies that support or encourage illegal drug use,” and would permit supervised drug consumption at city hall, police stations, and police headquarters.

Biography: Paul Collins describes himself as an author and freelance commercial director. He previously ran for mayor in 2023 and came 56th out of 102.

Platform: Collins wants to address housing affordability and the opioid crisis by restricting companies who own property or sell addictive pharmaceuticals from being listed on the stock market, a mandate which is not within the scope of the mayor’s powers. He is against the privatization of the TTC, and supports tax incentives for travelling Broadway shows, among other policies.

Biography: No information is available online about this candidate.

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

Biography: Roberto Curto’s LinkedIn page says that he has a background in environmental urban planning, and cites experience working as an intern for the office of councillor Anthony Perruzza, as well as youth program development and operations coordinator for a charity,  Conoser Scholarship Fund Group, which supports Spanish-speaking Canadian youth.

On social media, he has previously posted in support of city’s programs like CaféTO, saying that the program supports growing the city’s restaurant industry, and yongeTOmorrow, a city project currently at the design stage that proposed creating more spaces for pedestrians along Yonge Street between College/Carlton Street and Queen Street.

Platform: Curto supports the development of “missing middle” housing and mixed-use communities. He wants to extend transit hours and make maintenance and operations more efficient. Curto also wants to expand the city’s revenue pathways and push for more funding from other levels of government. His platform also includes suggestions for more vibrant city life and improved environment policies, among other proposals.

Biography: Laura Dean has a background as a municipal and land use planning lawyer. According to her LinkedIn profile, Dean also previously worked at the Ontario Public Service as a senior policy advisor and policy analyst, focusing on housing within the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and the Climate Change Secretariat, respectively.

Platform: On homelessness, Dean proposes partnering with hospitals to build more supportive housing; she wants to improve funding for emergency shelters and advocate for more money from the federal government for unhoused refugees. She wants to prioritize affordable housing development in the city.

Dean proposes focusing policing on violent crime, including partner violence and organized crime, rather than mental illness and substance use incidents. She also wants to develop more employment opportunities for youth.

Biography: On LinkedIn, Habiba Desai is the sole employee of B-Love Consulting. In previous election campaigns, she says she has volunteered at Michael Garron Hospital and Kids Help Phone, and advocated for a community benefits agreement between Metrolinx and Thorncliffe Park residents so that those in the neighbourhood would benefit from future development projects.

In 2022, Desai was linked to her mother’s campaign for school trustee in the secular French-language school board, Viamonde. The race was controversial as neither of the two running candidates spoke French. The election was voided after one candidate was found to be ineligible.

Desai previously ran in the 2021 federal election for Toronto-Danforth, 2022 municipal election for Scarborough-Guildwood, for mayor in 2023, and in the 2024 Don Valley West by-election.

Platform: On Instagram, Desai mentions free school meals, strengthening Toronto as trade city, and housing as a human right.

Biography: Cory Deville says he has a background in business. He has reserved names for multiple political parties in the past, including The Deville Party of Ontario and Fair Equity Ontario. Deville ran for mayor in 2022 and 2023, most recently placing 85th of 102 candidates.

Platform: Deville has criticized Mayor Olivia Chow as “prioritizing asylum seekers over the people of Toronto” following a 2.2 percent property tax increase in the city.

If elected, Deville says that he wants to gradually lower property taxes by 10 percent, add security and mental health workers to TTC vehicles, designate subway cars that are only for women, seniors, and children, extend TTC service until 4 a.m., and reduce TTC fares to just $1 on weekends. He proposes hiring young people for snow removal and cleaning jobs.

After two men were killed in a shooting at a street festival on St. Clair Avenue in July, Deville blamed Chow, Bradford, and city council as a whole, connecting the city’s high cost of living to higher rates of violence.

Biography: According to her LinkedIn page, Wincess Dorville is a self-employed financial “educator/motivational speaker.”

Dorville regularly posts videos on her Instagram and Facebook page, often critiquing social issues like housing, cost of living, drug addiction in the city, province and country.

In a Facebook video, Dorville says she never planned to run for mayor but decided to as a way to help residents who she says she’s seen suffer first-hand.

Platform: Dorville says she will focus on building more permanent housing, rather than shelters, and connecting people who are homeless with mental health services and recovery programs to eradicate homelessness in the city.

Biography: Little is available about Laura Ellis online. She describes herself as a “chief decision officer” on LinkedIn.

Platform: In an Instagram post, Ellis said that Toronto does not have problems with housing, congestion, crime or unemployment, but rather a “decision quality problem.” She has shared videos from right-wing “anti-woke” group IntegrityTO showing a sinkhole in the street and criticizing the installation of a bike lane.

Biography: Alton Frederick describes himself as a “community leader” and “community minister” on social media. He has posted many videos of himself preaching on street corners and at churches. It’s unclear if he is employed by a specific church as a minister.

Platform: According to a post on his Facebook, Frederick wants to lower property taxes, fight crime, eliminate rent increases, provide safer and reliable transit, and establish youth mentorship programs.

Biography: Edward Gong is a businessman and perennial candidate for political office. He is the owner of the Markham-based Chinese-language television station Canada National Television and a number of hotels in Canada and the U.S. He first appeared in the media in 2016, when he and other members of the Chinese Canadian business community were photographed with Justin Trudeau at a controversial cash-for-access fundraiser. In 2017, Gong was charged with multiple offences, including fraud and laundering. The charges against Gong himself were withdrawn, but his company was fined about $1 million and ordered to forfeit $15 million to the Canada Revenue Agency. According to a later court decision, Gong’s company pled guilty to a pyramid scheme and forged document offences. In a 2021 settlement relating to the profits from this pyramid scheme, Gong forfeited more than $60 million to the New Zealand police. According to the New Zealand authorities, these funds were sent to the country to “conceal their source,” as reported by The Globe and Mail. Gong has run for local office many times. In 2023, he ran for mayor and came 11th out of 102 candidates. In 2024, Gong ran for mayor of Mississauga and tied ninth out of 19 candidates. Gong also ran for federal office independently in 2025 in Don Valley North, tying for last out of six candidates.

Platform: In an Instagram post, Gong says that he wants to build a “safer, stronger, and more prosperous Toronto for everyone” and he touts affordability and a strong economy. Gong also says that he is against raising taxes.

Biography: In an Instagram post, Haider says he has worked “at the intersection of luxury menswear, mentorship, and entrepreneurship” for 15 years.

Platform: In a video posted to Instagram, Haider argues that Toronto should be managed as an enterprise, rather than a bureaucracy, and says that his action plan, called “LUPE,” stands for love, unity, peace, and equality. The plan includes integrating the TTC with other transit systems in the GTA. Haider also promises to officially appoint rapper Drake as Toronto’s “chief victory officer,” a position for which he may not be available.

Biography: Little information is available about Thomas Hall. In 2023, Hall ran for city councillor in Scarborough Southwest, coming 14th out of 23 candidates. He ran for mayor the same year.

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

Biography: Peter Handjis is a perennial city council candidate. In 2023, he told Beach Metro Community News that he is a former Scarborough resident who owned and managed businesses like auto body repairs and limousine services, and worked film and television contracts for 20 years.

Handjis most recently ran in 2025’s Scarborough Southwest by-election, coming 20th of 23. He also ran for mayor in 2023; during his campaign, he shared doctored photos of Olivia Chow endorsing him for mayor. He also ran for mayor in 2022, when he placed last.

Platform: “Delivery of city services should match your expectations,” Handjis said in an Instagram video announcing his 2026 mayoral candidacy.

Biography: According to his Instagram, Jack Hartley is running to be “Toronto’s youngest mayor.” Hartley is currently completing an internship at Canadian Natural Resources Limited, according to his LinkedIn.

Platform: On his website, Hartley describes himself as a “far-centrist extremist.” His platform includes expanding the 401 to 100 lanes, in what he calls a “More Lane, Less Pain revolution”; making homelessness a “top-degree felony,” giving the mayor the power to impeach councillors, and eliminating school trustees (a provincially-mandated position).

Biography: Heather He is a real estate broker in Markham. She previously ran for mayor in 2023, coming 28th out of 102 candidates. He says she is a founder of Huafeng Yun Art Group, an arts and culture organization for seniors in Richmond Hill and Markham.

Platform: On her LinkedIn profile, He has written about priorities including safety and clean air. She describes herself as “optimistic about AI” and has shared many apparently AI-generated songs about Toronto.

Biography: There is limited information about Mohamad Kaaki online. On Facebook, Kaaki describes himself as an “architect intern, urban thinker, community builder, problem solver.”

Platform: Kaaki says in a Facebook post that “Toronto needs a new vision” that addresses the housing crisis, the rising cost of living, responsible use of taxpayers’ money, and opportunities for skilled professionals. In another post, he says he wants to use “innovative urban design” to build a greener city and better support newcomers by recognizing their skills.

Biography: Georgios (George) Kalkounis is a real estate sales representative at Blue Door Realty Group.

Platform: Kalkounis outlines a fiscally conservative, tough-on-crime agenda on his website. His plans include freezing the residential property tax and TTC fares, and cutting city spending by 15 percent.

Kalkounis is critical of Toronto’s current model of social housing, claiming it creates “dependency.” He also says he’ll convert safe consumption sites, of which there are only three left in Toronto, into “youth hubs” for job training, activities, and “motivational programming.”

Biography: There is little information available about Isidoros Kyrlangitses online.

Platform: In a series of Instagram videos, Kyrlangitses proposed policy ideas such as labelling exits at Union Station to make for easier navigation, purchasing unsold condos to convert into affordable housing, and hosting “more festivals” and “more concerts.”

Kyrlangitses is critical of Toronto’s land transfer tax, which is charged on condo and home purchases, calling it “a disincentive for empty nesters to sell.”

Biography: Michael Lamoureux is a certified accountant. He says on his website that he has a business degree and 20 years of experience in finance and accounting. He ran for mayor in 2023, placing 74th out of 102 candidates.

Platform: Lamoureux says on his website that he will implement a “customer service lens” across city services and give add concrete metrics for success to all programs

“I am open to using referendums so City residents can have a more direct say in deciding contentious issues,” Lamoureux says.

Lamoureux says he’ll make the subway free by increasing fees for parking and charging all households a $500 to $1,000 “TTC service fee.” He wants to remove parking and some bike lanes on arterial roads to make room for at least two lanes of car traffic.

He wants to address the housing crisis by selling Toronto’s public housing and surplus land and using the money to provide vouchers for privately owned market units. He also says he’d replace tent encampments with trailer parks for people who are homeless and convert empty office buildings into rooming houses.

Biography: According to his Instagram and LinkedIn, Rick Lee is a senior program manager working at Corus Entertainment. In 2023, Lee ran for mayor and came 42nd out of 102.

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

Biography: No information is available online about this candidate.

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

Biography: Little information is available online about Eddie Mayanja. According to his LinkedIn, Mayanja previously worked as a social worker for the government of Uganda.

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

Biography: Sarah McVie is an actress and playwright best known for her role in the CBC comedy Workin’ Moms. McVie is also an organizer with Black Creek Flood Coalition, a group of Black Creek residents demanding urgent and effective flood protection and action from the city, including upgrading infrastructure to improve flood risk and helping residents recover costs when damage occurs.

Platform: In an Instagram video, McVie says that she intends to focus on “dignity for all” and working closely with underserved neighbourhoods. The focus of McVie’s campaign is the idea that Toronto needs a “new social contract” that serves all Torontonians.

Biography: No information is available online about this candidate.

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

Biography: Little information is available online about this candidate.

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

Biography: Odessa Paloma Parker is a fashion and culture journalist and has worked as the art editor for Globe Style Magazine, a magazine published by The Globe and Mail, where she profiles Canadian artists and covers international events like London Fashion Week. Paloma Parker has contributed to luxury fashion brand Louis Vuitton’s guide to Toronto, and received an honourable mention at the National Magazine Awards for her contributions to FASHION magazine.

She developed a program at Centennial College and sits on its advisory committee, and taught journalism at Toronto Metropolitan University. Paloma Parker also headed up content departments for cannabis brands ahead of legalization. She co-founded Vintage Crawl Toronto, a biannual shopping event.

Platform: According to her campaign website, Paloma Parker says that she will put a moratorium on AI data centres, create a tick task force to address the presence of ticks in parks, create incentives for shopping local, and advocate for a pilot program of “micro” homeless shelters. She has also said that she would prevent Toronto’s waste from being sent overseas (most of the city’s garbage and organics are disposed of locally, while about 14 per cent of its recycling ends up outside of Canada and the U.S).

Biography: There is little information about this candidate online. In 2025, Prokos ran in the provincial general election in Scarborough Centre as a member of the New Blue Party, a political party described as being further right than the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. He came fifth out of six candidates.

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

Biography: No information could be found online about this candidate at the time of publishing.

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

Biography: Amy Rosen is the founder of a cinnamon bun brand and the author of books, including the cookbook Toronto Cooks. She’s been featured in cooking videos on CBC Life and she is a casting producer on Top Chef Canada.

On Instagram, Rosen spoke out about vandalism and shootings at Jewish-owned bakeries that occurred in July, writing that “many of our city’s leaders seem unwilling to acknowledge that repeated intimidation, vandalism, antisemitic rhetoric, and the normalization of targeting Jewish institutions contribute to an increasingly hostile environment.”

Platform: Rosen says on her website that her priorities are helping to make rent more affordable for small businesses, keeping high-speed motorized pedal-less vehicles out of bike lanes, creating a central office to coordinate road and transit closures, and planting trees. She says she will take a “practical and compassionate” approach to homelessness by using zoning reforms and incentives to create more affordable housing while also providing support for unhoused people struggling with mental illness, addiction, or trauma.

Biography: Lyall Sanders is described as the founder and director of immigration consulting firm one-EKA on the company’s website, but his license to provide immigration consultancy services was revoked by the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants in June of this year. Sanders is also the vice president of the Centrist Party of Canada, a party that promises to cut income taxes by 50 percent while creating universal basic income, free university education, and achieving 100 percent youth employment.

Sanders ran for mayor in 2023, coming 12th out of 102 candidates.

Platform: Sanders says he would “launch a full-scale investigation” into the city’s spending on homeless shelters and support services. He also says as mayor he’d let the “people decide” whether Sankofa Square should revert to its previous name Yonge-Dundas Square, which was changed because it was named for a Scottish politician who tried to delay the abolition of slavery.

Sanders’s priorities include making housing more affordable, creating tiny-home communities to address homelessness, and making the TTC free.

Biography: Naomi Sayers is a lawyer from Garden River First Nation. On her website, Sayers says she “uses her past experiences in the sex industry as an international escort to high-powered executives, public figures, and powerful clients in the military and legal field to guide her practice.”

In 2019, she wrote an article in The Globe and Mail in support of a bid that would give Indigenous communities a majority stake in the Trans Mountain pipeline. She has also written about the troubles of the Law Society of Ontario’s process for determining “good character,” which requires disclosure of certain legal matters including past interactions with police.

In 2022, Sayers tried to run in the provincial election as a Liberal in Sault Ste. Marie, but was rejected by the party and ran as an independent.

Platform: On Instagram, Sayers says that as mayor, she would balance the competing interests of landlords and tenants, establish an “Office of Community Voice” to give residents a voice at City Hall, and support victims of gun violence and crime.

Biography: Robert Shusterman is a realtor and security guard. He ran for mayor in 2023, placing 78th of 102 candidates.

Platform: Shusterman says that his campaign priorities are better roads, affordable housing, accessible transit, and more attention for the elderly and those with mental illness. As a guest on a local podcast that features interviews with political candidates and business owners, he said that if he was elected, he would ask the provincial and federal governments to increase disability payments for people with mental illness.

Biography: There is little information online about Sandeep Srivastava. Previously, he ran for mayor during the 2023 by-election and came in 57th out of 102. He also ran for mayor in 2022, and 2018, for councillor in Ward 23 — Scarborough North.

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

Biography: Weizhen Tang is a convicted fraudster who continues to promote himself as a “financial prodigy” even after serving jail time for running a Ponzi scheme that lost $24 million of investors’ money. Tang was convicted of fraud over $5,000 in 2012.

He rose to prominence in the 2000s, calling himself the “Chinese Warren Buffet,” a name Chinese media adopted. He wrote an investor manual, published articles, and spoke to audiences of university students and businesspeople across China. In 2012, Tang was convicted of fraud in Ontario. He served about two years in jail and was released in 2015, according to the Toronto Star. Shortly after, the Ontario Securities Commission permanently banned Tang from trading. When he stated his intent to continue soliciting funds from investors outside of Ontario, multiple provincial regulators warned the public not to trust him with their money. Tang’s arrest earned him a new nickname from Toronto Life magazine: Toronto’s Bernie Madoff. Most recently, in 2024, Tang faced charges for violating his lifetime ban on trading securities by accepting funds from two investors and making trades on their behalf, the Ontario Securities Commission said, resulting in losses over $150,000.

Tang has argued that he did nothing wrong in the scheme that led to his 2012 criminal conviction. He says he was targeted for being Chinese, comparing his conviction to a nuclear attack and the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

The candidate has run for mayor twice before, placing 72nd out of 102 candidates in 2023 and 20th out of 40 candidates in 2010.

Platform: Tang says that the City has an “execution crisis” in its management of issues like housing and homelessness, and fiscal policy. He wants to revitalize unused or neglected properties to grow the city’s housing supply. He argues for “restoring balance between landlords and tenants,” and proposes the City introduce elements of supportive housing into private residential agreements where necessary. He says he wants to become “the AI mayor,” using artificial intelligence to “ensure fiscal transparency and optimize residential infrastructure.”

Biography: Josh Thompson says he is a comedian, and posts videos online describing himself as a racist and misogynist.

Platform: Thompson says his top priority is addressing crime, cutting taxes, improving financial transparency, and building homes. He wants to change Sankofa Square back to Yonge and Dundas Square.

Biography: No information is available online about this candidate.

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

Biography: Jeffery Tunney’s website says that he’s a community advocate and that he has done “years of civic engagement and investigative work.” His website also says that he wrote a book critiquing Christianity and religion.

Tunney ran in the 2023 mayoral by-election in Toronto, receiving 83 votes.

Platform: Tunney’s platform focuses on housing, youth employment, safety, local economy, healthcare, and emergency preparedness.

Some of his platform highlights include creating skills programs for youth, building more housing and reducing red tape, and having disaster response systems in place in case of emergencies. He also proposes alleviating taxes for “workers and small businesses.”

Biography: Little information is available online about Jack Keenen. He told The Globe and Mail in 2014 (at age 19) that he planned to run for mayor every four years until he was successful. He ran in 2018 and 2023, most recently placing 100th out of 102 candidates.

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

Biography: No information could be found online about this candidate at the time of publishing.

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

Biography: According to her LinkedIn, Leila Yohannes is a law student and has an interest in business and innovation.

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

Biography: Mostafa Zandkarimi’s LinkedIn profile says he’s an incoming student at the University of Toronto. According to his website, he is also the publisher and founder of an online publication, and has completed a high school co-op program at a law firm. Zandkarimi was also a member of the Canada Youth Changemakers Summit.

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