Ward 16 — Don Valley East

Samina Alim previously served as the chair for the Milne Valley Middle School’s School Council from 2018 to 2019. In 2017, Alim was one of 31 candidates who applied to fill the position of city councillor left vacant by the late Pam McConnell, but lost to Lucy Troisi.

Walter Alvarez-Bardales is currently a doctoral student at Royal Roads University pursuing a PhD in Social Sciences, and formerly worked as a trust account examination officer at the Canada Revenue Agency. He holds an MBA from Cape Breton University. Alvarez-Bardales ran in the 2022 provincial elections as a Liberal candidate for York-Simcoe, placing second with 6,319 votes. During his campaign, Alvarez-Bardales stated that he wanted to improve healthcare access and senior care. While campaigning during the 2022 provincial elections, Alvarez-Bardales says his signs were repeatedly vandalized and that he and his campaign manager also experienced abuse. His platform prioritizes social justice, community safety, especially for women on the TTC, maintaining low taxes without neglecting the poor, protecting the environment, and providing more bike lanes wherever feasible and prudent. He also opposes the province’s decision to give the city’s mayor strong powers, as well as the city’s treatment of unhoused people. He has signed Right 2 Housing’s affordable housing pledge. In survey responses to The Local, Alvarez-Bardales said that further analysis is needed before increasing or reducing police budgets to balance “community safety and the concerns of racialized Canadians.”

Information about this candidate could not be found at time of publication.

Jon Burnside is the former city councillor for Don Valley West, holding office from 2014 to 2018. He is a former police officer with 10 years of experience and currently works as the manager for strategic initiatives at the Deputy City Manager’s Office, where he was involved in the city’s removal of park encampments earlier this year as well as in 2021. During his tenure as councillor, Burnside helped found the ProAction Hockey League, a free program for children living in the Flemingdon Park and Thorncliffe Park communities. While councillor, he supported a motion to affirm the Toronto Police’s right to march in Pride, voted against a motion to ban handguns, supported police raids in marijuana dispensaries across the city, and wanted the city to install cameras at stop signs to improve traffic safety. He believes the biggest issue facing his ward is development. Burnside wants to ensure that his community is “safe and livable for everyone.” Burnside has been endorsed by current Mayor John Tory.

Stella Kargiannakis is a retired project coordinator and housing market analyst. She previously ran in the 2018 municipal elections for Don Valley East where she placed eighth. Prior to that, she was one of the 29 candidates running for the municipal by-elections for Ward 42 in 2017 and came in 15th. Kargiannakis also ran for the position of city councillor during the 2014 municipal elections for Ward 22, Trinity-Spadina, coming in 17th, as well as an independent MPP for the Don Valley East riding during the 2007 provincial elections, coming in with fifth. Kargiannakis references low taxes, safer streets, and balanced budgets as central to her platform. During her previous campaigns, Kargiannakis has stated her desire to “”ensure that bus service is accessible, frequent, reliable, and affordable for all transit users,”” address municipal neglect, push for the elimination of property tax exemptions and rebates, implement waste-to-energy use of garbage, improve transportation, and work with the municipal and provincial governments to “effective strategies for addiction treatment, mental health, joblessness, delinquency and vagrancy.” She has also stated her desire to close drug injection sites, opt out of marijuana sales and work with provincial and federal governments to reintroduce police checks of persons, their vehicles and belongings on public property. In 2018, Kargiannakis allegedly told constituent and journalist Christine Estima that the opioid crisis isn’t real and wrote a letter to the Toronto Star editor stating that men whistling at women was a compliment and not harassment.

Stephen Ksiazek is a community advocate and small business owner, and has operated a waterproofing company since 2011, prior to which he operated a home construction company. Hehas been the president of Don Mills Residents Inc. since 2015, which appealed development plans for a new community centre in central Don Mills. As part of his campaign, he is focused on bringing customer-focused service to government, restoring city service levels including snow removal service and tree-trimming, tackling affordable housing, expanding transit service, implementing gun control by banning handguns, and ensuring community involvement in development decisions. Ksiazek has been endorsed by Michael Coteau, the current MP for Don Valley East, as well as the Toronto & York Labour Council.

Colin Mahovlich is a recent graduate of the University of Toronto with a degree in political science. He worked as a client care representative at LifeWorks, prior to running for councillor. He is the grandson of former hockey player and Liberal senator, Frank Mahovlich, who retired in 2013 after serving as senator for 14 years. Mahovlich has also volunteered with Willowdale’s Provincial Liberal Association, has served as provincial policy officer and financial director on the University of Toronto’s Liberals association, and worked as a special assistant to Councillor Josh Matlow. Mahovlich’s platform prioritizes affordable housing, which he hopes to accomplish by making exclusionary zoning less restrictive for property owners, using the city’s existing inclusionary zoning rules to require a higher percentage of affordable housing in new luxury developments, holding landlords to account to maintain rental properties responsibly, and building a diversity of housing including lowrise apartments to fill in the “missing middle” of housing. His platform also includes building infrastructure to support growth and safe movement within our community for pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers through Toronto’s Vision Zero strategy, and building new transit projects such as the Ontario Line.

Jonathan Mousley is a former political aide and economist who worked for former cabinet minister David Collenette during the Chrétien years. In 2012, Mousely declared his candidacy for federal Liberal party leader but withdrew before registering; he previously tried unsuccessfully to receive a Liberal nomination for the Don Valley West riding in 2008. He currently works as the senior manager of secretariat services for the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA). Mousley previously served as the vice president of the Don Mills Residents Association and currently chairs the board of directors of the Don Mills Family Health Team, as well as Manantial Neighbourhood Services Inc., a non-profit charitable organization that provides crisis intervention and newcomer integration services. Mousley’s platform prioritizes improving the city’s infrastructure by imposing a fine on public and private sector utilities, burying hydro wires underground, and adding more attractive street furniture and lighting; making housing more affordable by providing housing allowances directly to low-income households, imposing vacancy controls on multi-family rental housing, increasing the supply of inexpensive modular housing, implementing a simplified planning application process, scrapping minimum parking space requirements, introducing co-housing options, and expanding the licensing of rooming houses; and maintaining the frequency of bus service through Don Valley East. He also aims to improve community safety through expanding non-police community safety response initiatives, increasing investments in the Confronting Anti-Black Racism strategy, implementing city-funded programs to help youth, and redeploying police resources to community policing. Mousley also wants to prevent large, illuminated billboards from being built alongside major routes.

Nick Pachis is the owner of a business permit and license consulting firm. He is also a mental health advocate, volunteering with CAMH. His platform prioritizes affordable and available housing, functional transit, ensuring street safety, and alleviating climate issues through environmental policies and goals.

Dimitre Popov is the founder of Canadians for Integrity, a non-profit watchdog organization that aims “to fight dishonorable and unscrupulous public officials.” He previously ran in the 2022 provincial elections as a Consensus Ontario candidate for Don Valley East, where he placed eighth with 180 votes. Popov has also previously run for councillor during the 2018 and the 2014 municipal elections for Don Valley East where he placed fourth and and sixth, respectively, with 1,104 and 578 votes. In 2020, Popov, alongside two other organizers, created an online petition to fight a housing development in Flemingdon Park that they fear would displace low-income residents. His platform prioritizes the removal of political parties, reducing inflation, and making owning or renting a home affordable. Popov also wants to limit the outsourcing of jobs and extend OHIP to cover health care outside Ontario and Canada. In an email correspondence with The Local, Popov called the COVID-19 vaccine “life-threatening” and “experimental” and says promoting vaccination is “anti-public propaganda funded by corrupt politicians and the criminal pharmaceutical cartel.”

Information about this candidate could not be found at time of publication.