Biography: Little information is available online about Maqsood Ahmad. An individual with the same name works as a real estate broker.

Platform: This candidate had not published a platform at the time of publication.

Biography: Susan Chapelle is a massage therapist, a published biomedical researcher, a cannabis and psychedelic medicine entrepreneur, and a former municipal councillor in Squamish, B.C., where she also ran for mayor. In Squamish, she says she worked on a transit overhaul that increased ridership by 24 per cent, developed a community health plan, increased access to specialized nursing services, and advocated for greater access to rape kits. She says she previously worked as an audio engineer in Toronto.

Platform: Chapelle advocates for a mix of new housing, including co-ops, supportive housing, seniors’ homes, laneway houses, and other forms of “gentle density,” supported with new infrastructure like sewers, transit, health care and waste collection. She wants to support local businesses and create employment opportunities. She argues the city should facilitate better access to health and mental-health clinics, child care, and crisis response programs through good planning. On public safety, Chapelle’s platform focuses on preventing crime with mental health care, crisis response, and harm reduction programs. She says the city does not need new revenue, but rather it should do better on execution.

[Updated Oct. 5, 2026]

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: 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.

Robb Dagenais announced on Sept. 7 that he is withdrawing from the race. His name will still appear on the ballot.

Biography: Little information is available online about Peter De Marco. An individual by the same name ran for the People’s Party of Canada in Don Valley East in the 2021 federal election, placing last out of four candidates in the riding. At the time, he listed his occupation as “concierge/security guard.”

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

Biography: Sara Ehrhardt served as the elected Toronto District School Board trustee for Toronto-Danforth before the Ford government eliminated all trustee roles as part of its takeover of the TDSB, among select other boards. Erhardt is currently on leave from a job as a policy advisor in the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, according to her LinkedIn. She’s also worked in the Ministry of Infrastructure and in the office of a former NDP premier of Nova Scotia.

Ehrhardt says she was mentored by Paula Fletcher, the outgoing Toronto-Danforth councillor who withdrew from her bid for re-election just two days after registering. As a trustee, Ehrhardt used her letters to parents to draw attention to Premier Doug Ford’s cuts to education. She advocated against the closure of school pools and helped deliver the Truck Safety Plan for Ontario Line construction after a pedestrian was struck by a Metrolinx-affiliated truck in February 2025. Ehrhardt also moved a motion that required the TDSB’s director to produce a report on ventilation in schools, and called on the Ontario government to better fund infrastructure mitigating the spread of respiratory illness like COVID-19 in schools.

Ehrhardt has the endorsement of Peter Tabuns, the NDP MPP for Toronto-Danforth, Progress Toronto, and the Toronto & York Region Labour Council.

Platform: Ehrhardt has four priorities: safe roads, affordability, protecting the waterfront, and “promoting vibrant neighbourhoods and businesses.” She says she’ll hire more crossing guards, install traffic calming measures near all schools, fight for affordable housing, protect tenants and invest in community spaces like pools. She is opposed to expanding the Billy Bishop airport and wants a green-energy alternative to the Portlands gas plant.

Biography: George Fawcett has a background in finance. He describes himself as an analyst at TD Bank and a small business owner.

Platform: Fawcett wants to restore trust and engagement at city hall by moving to impose term limits on mayors and councillors and requiring councillors to live in the ward they represent. He wants to advocate to the province for a return to Toronto’s larger, 47-seat city council, and an end to Strong Mayor powers, both decisions made by the Ford government. He also wants to encourage the province to end above-guideline rent increases.

He says Danforth’s main commercial streets need more accessible sidewalks, permanent patio and display spaces for restaurants and shops, and more green spaces and benches. To support local businesses, he says he’ll remove fees for signs and marketing displays, audit all “red tape” and fees, expand sidewalks, and lobby for commercial rent control. He also wants to install more speed bumps on roads, enforce speed limits in a way that “prioritizes safety over revenue”, and put benches at every bus and streetcar stop. He aims to overhaul the city’s snow-clearing program, which he describes as “disastrous”. Fawcett proposes an increase to the city’s RentSafeTO program, including inspections of rental housing.

Fawcett is opposed to Ford’s decision to remove bike lanes from Toronto streets, saying he supports bike lanes with stronger bollards for Ward 14.

Biography: Mary Fragedakis served as city councillor for the old Ward 29 Toronto—Danforth from 2010-2018. A newcomer to politics in 2010, she ran on an environmental platform and defeated former city councillor Jane Pitfield in a surprise victory. She was decisively re-elected in 2014 and sat on the Economic Development Committee, the Toronto Public Library board, and the board of the TTC, where she argued for time-based transfers.

At Council, she passed motions to look into creating an urban farm in the Lower Don Lands and to support a private member’s bill at Queen’s Park that would have established rent control for buildings built after 1991.

Formerly affiliated with the NDP, Fragedakis ran for the provincial Liberals in 2022. More recently she headed the Greektown BIA, overseeing the troubled return of the Taste of the Danforth festival. She is currently suing the BIA, which suddenly fired her as Executive Director in 2025.

Platform: On her campaign website, Fragedakis says her years away from Council have given her “a different perspective on how decisions at City Hall actually affect people on the ground.” Her priorities include safer neighbourhoods, including more investment in and maintenance of public space, “responsive policing”, and infrastructure for more than just cars. She is in favour of increasing affordable housing; she believes in “development near transit that fits the neighbourhood.” She also wants to support local businesses, cultural organizations, and industries via economic development.

Biography: Little information is available online about John Kladitis. He ran for federal office in 2019, when he said his goal was “to sue the government to save the planet” from climate change. Kladitis also ran for council in 2017 in Ward 42, a former ward in Scarborough, when he placed 18th out of 29 candidates.

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

Biography: Michael Mitchell says he has a background in law and a passion for the environment.

Platform: Mitchell wants to support small businesses through reducing permit and licensing costs and retaining talent in the city. He prioritizes support for people experiencing addiction and homelessness.

Biography: Caryma Sa’d is a lawyer and social media influencer who rose to prominence by covering demonstrations against COVID-19 health measures, and now largely makes videos at pro-Palestine demonstrations for her website, “Protest Mania.” Critics of Sa’d have described her actions at these protests as provoking or baiting people into emotional confrontations for her videos, which she denies.

In 2024, Sa’d was found by the Law Society of Ontario to have “failed to act with honour and integrity” and to have engaged in harassing or discriminatory conduct for sharing a video in which she confronted a founding member of an anti-hate organization outside his home. The organization, Canadian Anti-Hate Network, later said Sa’d had “doctored” a letter from their lawyer and posted it online in order to remove evidence of her bad behaviour. In their opinion, her “years-long conduct is unprofessional to the standards that lawyers are supposed to uphold.” The organization also said it believes Sa’d “is not a journalist and is not acting in any journalistic public interest.’

She was also arrested outside a Hamilton rally for Premier Doug Ford in 2022 when police said she’d blocked access to the venue, a charge she denied.

Sa’d is critical of Mayor Olivia Chow’s ties to progressive advocacy organizations Progress Toronto and the Broadbent Institute.

Platform: Sa’d says her candidacy is focused on creating a ward where “nobody openly defecates on public transit”, “addicts aren’t folded over on the sidewalk” and garbage bins aren’t overflowing. She also says affordability, accessibility and accountability are central pillars.

Biography: Dianne Saxe is the current councillor for Ward 11 — University-Rosedale. She withdrew from a re-election bid in that ward to run in Ward 14 — Toronto-Danforth after former city councillor Mike Layton announced he would run again in University-Rosedale. Saxe, a lawyer specializing in environmental issues, served as Environmental Commissioner of Ontario from 2015 until the office was eliminated by Doug Ford’s provincial government in 2019. She was appointed Deputy Leader of the Green Party of Ontario in 2020 and unsuccessfully ran in University—Rosedale in the 2022 provincial election. She stepped down from the party to run for city council in the 2022 municipal election.

Throughout the term she has kept an eye on environment- and climate-related items, like the City’s faltering progress on its zero-emissions goals and the transfer of the blue box program. She has also voted in favour of planning changes that would permit more densification, like multiplexes and low-rise housing on major streets, and advocated for extending flood protection subsidies to fourplexes. She also made a Hail Mary attempt to protect Sneaky Dee’s by motioning the City to consider designating the establishment a heritage site.

Saxe’s attempt to find a compromise for the Bathurst RapidTO bus lane, by eliminating the planned priority lane north of Bloor Street, has yielded criticism from some transit advocates. She has also been accused, by advocates for the unhoused, of leveraging environmentalism to clear encampments from her ward. She was supportive of the “bubble zone” bylaw that restricts certain acts of protests within 50 metres of a place of worship, child care centres, and schools.

Platform: Saxe describes herself as a “pragmatic progressive” and touts her history of standing up to Doug Ford. Her campaign website mentions protecting bike lanes, limiting the impact of Ontario Line construction, and creating affordable housing while “maintaining the character, heritage and green spaces that make them special.”

Biography: Devyn Stackhouse’s website lists them as an artist and writer. They run their own diversity, equity, and inclusion micro-consultancy, “Cancel Proofed.” They are the author of an unpublished autobiographical book in which they say they will put forward a “very convincing Grand Unifying Theory.”

Platform: Stackhouse proposes four key policy ideas: installing “shade sails” on the Danforth; adjusting municipal fines, such as for off-leash dogs, on a sliding scale according to income; creating a new $15,000 fine for animal abuse; and better balancing accessibility needs with heritage conservation in older buildings. On their website, they detail additional proposals relating to expanding revenue streams, improving transit, and expanding non-market housing.

Biography: Jason Stevens describes himself as an animal rights activist. In a Facebook post, he mentions being previously unhoused. This is Stevens’ third run for Toronto city council, most recently coming 12th out of 16 candidates in a Ward 15 by-election in 2024.

In an April TikTok video that went viral, Stevens was filmed in an altercation with a Black business owner at a home show: when the business owner told him he’d spilled hummus on the floor, Stevens mimed putting his foot down on it and said, “I’ll just put my foot, like, you remember what happened to George Floyd?” (Floyd was a Black man killed by a police officer in 2020 after the officer put his knee on Floyd’s neck for eight minutes during an arrest). The business owner called Stevens’ comment “incredibly racist and disparaging.” In an email to The Local, Stevens said he apologized for the comment the day after the incident and doesn’t condone police brutality.

Platform: Stevens says he supports “a broad agenda of social action and change.” He has written on Instagram that he wants to freeze property taxes at 2 per cent (which would require approval by a majority of council) as well as fight antisemitism and Islamophobia, rename Sankofa Square, which he calls “Sanka Coffee Square” to Terry Fox square, and install bike lanes “where non congestive.”

Biography: Christiane Tetreault is the chair of the board of the Leslieville Business Improvement Area (BIA) and the owner of an event space and a “pop-up container market.”

Tetreault was critical of a safe consumption site in Leslieville which closed in 2025, arguing it had created “traumatic” situations for staff at local small businesses.

She has pushed for Metrolinx to do more to coordinate traffic in areas around its construction sites, arguing in 2023 that congestion had driven shoppers away from Leslieville.

Platform: Tetreault says her campaign commitments are to give the east end access to the Gardiner Expressway, address the affordability crisis, and create clean and safe neighbourhoods.

Biography: Maria Voutsinas has been the executive director of the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada for 20 years. The council is a non-profit that works out of an office at City Hall, and represents hundreds of media partners publishing in languages other than English or French. Under Voutsinas, the Media Council advocated for the Canadian government to set aside 25 percent of its advertising budget for Canadian media, rather than for U.S.-based social media companies.

Voutsinas says she is also a contributor and editor at a Greek-language publication.

She has previously run for school board trustee in 2014, coming third out of five candidates. At the time, as a member of the parent council at Jackman Avenue Junior Public School, she supported efforts to raise money for a less affluent school in the area.

Platform: Voutsinas says her top issues are affordability, safety, and responsible use of taxpayers’ money. As councillor, she says she would be responsive, push for faster answers on damaged roads and streetlights, and challenge wasteful spending. She wants to see safer crosswalks, a connected network of bike lanes, and reliable TTC service. While the Ontario Line is being built, Voutsinas says the community cannot be “abandoned.” She would create one central place for construction updates; hold public Q & As with Metrolinx and its contractors; help residents document and resolve problems with noise, dust and property damage; and push for local jobs. On housing, Voutsinas says “growth must make the community more affordable and livable.” She says she’ll fight for affordable homes, including in co-ops and non-profit housing; defend renters; and help seniors age in place.

Biography: There is little information available online about Denise Walcott. She says she is a business owner and condo board president, and mentions experience in marketing. Walcott ran for council in Ward 14 in 2022, placing fourth out of five candidates.

Platform: Walcott says she would advocate for businesses and residents affected by Ontario Line construction, enforce noise bylaws, push for plain-language updates from city hall about its budget, and protect essential services while addressing wasteful spending. She wants to expand Toronto’s Home Ownership Assistance Program, which provides loans to home-buyers but only through non-profit builders like Habitat for Humanity. She also wants to see public reporting on how many affordable housing units are currently under construction (this information is already available from the city). On safety, Walcott says she would create a Toronto-Danforth Community Safety Table and advocate for evidence-based safety programs. She also wants to pilot free and low-cost after-school programs (Toronto’s current program costs $623 for the school year, or $3.46 per day).

Walcott opposes the provincial government’s proposal to expand Billy Bishop airport.

Biography: Elina Feyginberg has worked in insurance and financial services since 2014, according to her LinkedIn. She is currently a branch manager for R.K. Mooney Insurance Brokers. She says on her website that she has also worked in “community and public safety,” though she does not specify in what role.

Platform: Feyginberg supports policing in schools, saying she will “champion community safety officers” and advocate for “clear conduct standards” to improve school safety. She also says she will “scrutinize spending” and report to parents, and work to ensure every school is delivering the same quality of education.

Biography: Andrene Gregory is a content writer, blogger, and self-published author. According to her website, she also has experience as a researcher, a life coach, and law clerk.

Platform: Gregory’s platform mentions providing transparency, accountability, and opportunities for students, with a focus on core skills such as literacy, numeracy, and critical thinking. She also says she wants to improve the quality of care that students receive by “examining the disparities within the educational system” and working to eliminate them.

Biography: David Gulyas previously ran in the 2023 Toronto mayoral by-election. At the time, he was a restaurant manager at the Queen West French bistro La Palette.

Platform: Gulyas does not have a platform online at the time of publication.

Biography: Jared Kolb is the managing director of Green Communities Canada, a national non-profit that coordinates the efforts of community-based climate action groups across the country. He has also served in leadership positions at Cycle Toronto and the Canadian Urban Institute. He is the co-chair of the parent council at Roden Public School.

Platform: Kolb’s platform mentions innovative learning opportunities for students, fiscal responsibility, and strengthening “core skills”.

Biography: Maureen Larkin is a community organizer who most recently worked in the office of Spadina-Fort York MPP Chris Glover as a constituency assistant.  As co-chair of the parent council at Market Lane PS, she says she “worked with parents, staff, and students to increase school safety and staffing.” Previously, Larkin says she worked in the film and TV industry as a writer, and taught film studies at the University of Toronto.

Platform: Larkin’s website mentions fighting to protect schools and the role of elected trustees in the face of provincial supervision. She lists her priorities as being accessible to the community, advising MPPs on the issues and challenges within the education system, and mobilizing community members to “stand up for public education.”

Biography: Andrew Massey says he is a technical writer and editor who currently works for Connect 6ix, one of the consortiums building the Ontario Line. On his website, he says he has a son in the TDSB.

Platform: Massey’s platform includes advocating to reverse cuts to special education and model school funding. He opposes school closures, and wants to address the TDSB’s maintenance and repair backlog. He calls the province’s takeover of the school boards an “open assault on our local democracy” and advocates for transparency and regular communication with parents. He advocates for the reinstatement of class size caps, and is against the presence of police in schools.

Biography: Gus Stefanis is the former leader of the Canadian Nationalist Party, a short-lived federal political party described by the Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN) as an “overtly neo-Nazi” organization. According to the CAHN’s reporting, he has espoused a belief in the white-supremacist conspiracy theory known as the “great replacement”, as well as participated in a number of “white lives matter” protests, and spouted “antisemitic talking points.” Last year, he ran to be the trustee in Ward 11, Don Valley West, losing to Stacey Cline.

Platform: Stefanis’ platform focuses on repealing sex education, and his opposition to “gender identity theory” and “critical race theory”.

Biography: Little information is available online about Janine Viret. According to Imprint Pilates, where she works, she has been a registered massage therapist since 2004, and has worked as an insurance examiner in the auto insurance industry.

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

Biography: Jennifer Volk has served as a member of the parent council at Riverdale Collegiate Institute. She is also a member of education advocacy groups East End Parents for Public Education and the Toronto Education Advocacy Network. She is endorsed by the Toronto and York Region Labour Council, Progress Toronto, and by Toronto Education Workers/Local 4400, a division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

Platform: Volk’s platform includes advocating against the provincial supervision of the TDSB, restoring the powers of trustees, and pushing for increased education funding.

Biography: Angela Kennedy is the incumbent Trustee for Ward 11, a role she’s held since 2000. She was the chair of the board from 2008 to 2010 and from 2015 to 2017. She has been a nurse since 1969.

Kennedy has previously opposed abortion rights, at the time some city councillors did not want Kennedy on the City’s Board of Health because of her history of voting against gay-straight alliances in schools, HPV vaccinations for female students, and abortion stance. However, Kennedy has publicly changed her stance on Ontario’s sex-ed curriculum—she was previously opposed to it, but changed her mind after learning from her son that he had been sexually abused as a child and would have benefited from the things taught by the curriculum. At the time, in an interview with Toronto Life, she also said she also “wasn’t really opposed” to gay-straight alliances. In 2022, she said that she advocated for enhanced safety measures during COVID and was a member of the TCDSB’s first 2SLGBTQ+ committee.

In 2022, Kennedy ran in the provincial election as a Progressive Conservative, placing third of nine candidates.

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

Biography: Little information is available online about Anton Perera. He ran for Ward 11 TCDSB trustee in 2022, finishing last. At the time, in a biography published in Beach Metro, Anton Perera says that he is an ophthalmic assistant for an eye surgeon.

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

Biography: Jean-François L’Heureux is the director of Collège Boréal’s Toronto campus. Prior to this role, L’Heureux worked as the investigations and early resolutions manager at the French-language unit of Ombudsman Ontario.

L’Heureux was previously a Conseil scolaire Viamonde trustee from 2010 to 2018: he was elected in Ward 3 in 2010, acclaimed in Ward 4 in 2014, and served as chair of the school board from 2014-2018. In 2018, L’Heureux ran for trustee for Viamonde’s Ward 4, and lost to Geneviève Oger, who has since been the incumbent trustee.

L’Heureux was also president of the École élémentaire Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau parent council, where he initiated raising funds for the council, with proceeds going towards paying for the cost of a new playground on the school site.

Platform: L’Heureux’s campaign website says he wants to have schools of “the 21st century” that are inclusive, safe and accessible, diverse, eco-friendly, and close to where families live. He also wants to promote the French language and culture within schools, and envisions a school board that is efficient with its spending, transparent, and communicative.

Biography: Anna-Karyna Ruszkowski is the incumbent trustee for Conseil scolaire Viamonde Ward 3. She was elected for the role during the Viamonde Ward 3 by-election in 2023. Her LinkedIn page says that she’s also a chief risk officer at BMO Insurance.

In 2018, Ruszkowski ran for Conseil scolaire Viamonde trustee within Durham but came in second place out of two candidates.

Platform: If re-elected, Ruszkowski says she will continue working on creating a board-wide extracurricular program that’s designed to retain students and preserve their French education. She also lists her desire to build another French school within the ward. When it comes to Collège français and École élémentaire Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau, two schools in Ward 3, Ruszkowski says she will work on finishing gym renovations and addressing the sanitation issue on outdoor school grounds, respectively. She will also review cell phone use in schools by speaking with school communities.

Biography: Rhea Dechaine was elected trustee for Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir Ward 4 in 2023. Before that, she spent eight years on the parent council at Georges-Étienne-Cartier elementary, including four as co-president. Dechaine says she has 10 years of experience in finance, has organized numerous community events, and attended a MonAvenir school herself.

Platform: Dechaine says she has helped make “significant progress” on the project to bring a French-language Catholic high school to east Toronto, and will keep working on it if re-elected. She commits to listening to parents before making decisions, supporting families as they navigate the school system, and defends the French-language Catholic school system. Dechaine emphasises that students need more than academic achievement to succeed, and wants to make schools places where all students can feel “safe, welcomed, respected, and supported.”

Biography: Little information is available online about Clescadine Gustave. In a candidate survey conducted by Toronto Public Library in French and machine translated to English, Gustave said she has children who have attended MonAvenir schools.

Platform: Gustave said in the library survey that her first priority as a trustee would be to promote the Catholic faith within schools and to ensure students start and end each day with prayer. To fight bullying and discrimination, Gustave said schools need better training for principals and staff. She supports class size caps, saying classrooms should have one teacher for every 21 students, or one teacher and one teaching assistant for every 27 students.

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.