Ward 21 — Scarborough Centre

Biography: Taiba Ahmed is a student and research assistant at University of Toronto Scarborough; according to her LinkedIn, she is a volunteer at The Second Chance Foundation, an organization serving currently and formerly incarcerated women, and Crafting for a Cure, an arts program for children in hospitals.

Platform: Ahmed’s platform includes expanding funding for Toronto Community Housing, supporting incentives for local grocery stores, and expanding green spaces and tree coverage in Scarborough. Ahmed says she wants to build more city-led affordable rental units, speed up approvals, put underused city-owned land to work and make it easier to build co-ops, but also says she’s opposed to what she claims is the city’s “attempts to saturate quiet side-streets with six and eight-plexes” in Scarborough. She wants a one-year moratorium on data centres while the City conducts feasibility studies. She proposes partnering with community organizations and expanding Toronto police’s Neighbourhood Community Officer program to address crime among youth. On transit, she says the new platform barriers at subway stations are a “half measure,” and wants full-scale platform screen doors at subway stations.

Biography: Little information is available online about Bahareh Barahmand. She says she is a “longtime neighbourhood advocate” in Ward 21.

Platform: Barahmand’s policy priorities are keeping property taxes down, making the TTC more reliable, making emergency services “more effective” and focusing on prevention, providing mental health support, and delivering affordable housing for seniors and people with disabilities.

Biography: Patience Evbagharu is a placement specialist at the Birchmount Bluffs Neighbourhood Centre, according to her LinkedIn. She says she sat on Toronto’s Youth Cabinet, helped form the Toronto police’s first youth advisory board, has participated in community cleanups and has helped Nigerian newcomers get settled. In 2019, she told city council that uploading the TTC to the province wouldn’t matter to commuters, who just want to see improved service.

Platform: Evbagharu’s platform mentions safety, smart growth, respect for taxpayers, and economic opportunity. To reduce gun violence, she stresses that both enforcement and prevention are necessary. Evbagharu is critical of a pilot program that sees Toronto police collaborate with public health workers to provide people with harm reduction supplies and access to health care and mental-health care. Ahead of the FIFA World Cup, Evbagharu suggested Toronto wasn’t ready to welcome thousands of tourists, sharing photos of people using drugs on the TTC and urinating in public. She’s critical of the renaming of public spaces, saying it “does absolutely nothing to solve the real-life” crises Torontonians face.

Biography: Uthish Ganesh is a teacher at Winston Churchill Collegiate Institute. He is a cohort member of Toronto’s Poverty Reduction Lived Experience Advisory Group, and has organized town halls on Scarborough’s safety and tenant rights, in collaboration with groups like the Toronto police, nonprofit Scarborough Centre for Healthy Communities, housing advocacy groups and the TTC. He has also volunteered as an educator in spaces for youth facing mental health and addiction issues.

Platform: Ganesh’s campaign website says he will work on building more rent-to-own homes and integrate youth jobs and community benefits into the development process. He wants to have 1,000 youth jobs available every summer. He supports having more police in neighbourhoods for community safety. He is against the Kennedy Road bus lane. His platform also mentions improvement of community spaces and more robust food supports.

Biography: Stella Kargiannakis is a perennial candidate in municipal politics. She told Toronto.com in 2018 that she was a retired project coordinator and housing market analyst.

In 2024, Kargiannakis criticized the city’s Student Nutrition Program, saying that feeding children should be a parent’s responsibility instead of the government’s. In 2014, she wrote that elections should be eliminated and elected positions should instead be chosen like juries—as mandatory one-term posts for ordinary citizens.

According to the Toronto Society of Architects Q&A, Kargiannakis wrote that “Canadians should promote, advance, encourage and accept global warming.”

Kargiannakis previously ran for councillor in Ward 16 — Don Valley East in 2022, placing sixth out of 12 candidates, and before that in Ward 17 — Don Valley North in 2018 and 2017, in the former Ward 22 in 2014, and as an independent MPP for Don Valley East in 2007.

Platform: On Kargiannakis’s campaign website, she says that she’s pushing for lower taxes, restricting “all running, skipping, biking events to parks and trails” and not on the roads, eliminating grants and rebates, and removing funds (which she calls “handouts”) to nonprofits and charities. She wants to eliminate the city’s land transfer tax, widen arterial roads, and says that “riders must pick up a larger share of the cost per ride” on the TTC. She opposes the city’s Multi-Unit Residential Acquisition Program, which supports non-profits with funding to help acquire housing in order to make it affordable.

Biography: Little information is available online about Nisha Kumari. She runs an Instagram account where she regularly posts about her life as a mother.

Platform: In an Instagram video, Kumari says that the city needs a housing system that protects both tenants and landlords. She also says she wants the city to have more events catered to seniors to make them feel more connected to the community. In another video, Kumari says the city should prioritize maintaining TDSB school infrastructure.

Biography: Little information is available online about Akina Lalla. She runs an interior design business, and was a fourth-year, part-time student at the University of Toronto last year.

Platform: A post on Lalla’s Instagram mentions improved roads, parks, and traffic flow. She wants to increase police presence in the ward.

Biography: Willie Reodica is a real estate agent, according to Remax.ca. He is a perennial candidate for office, running for council in Toronto in 2003 and 2006, for mayor in Whitchurch-Stouffville in 2014, and for Toronto mayor in 2023, when he placed 44th.

In 2004, Reodica’s son, Jeffrey, was killed by Toronto police. At the time, police alleged that Jeffrey pulled out a knife while resisting arrest. They shot him three times in the back. In the aftermath of the shooting, Reodica spoke about racism and excess use of force by police. In 2024, he said that he wished to re-open the case, but was limited by lack of funds, which also prevented the family from being able to bring the case to court at the time of the shooting.

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

Biography: Madura Shanmugaratnam says on LinkedIn that she works as a coordinator at Laurentian Bank. She has been involved in work with the TDSB Parent Involvement Advisory Committee.

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

Biography: Michael Thompson has been on Council since 2003, first representing the old Ward 37 — Scarborough Centre and, after 2018, Ward 21—Scarborough Centre. He was one of John Tory’s regional deputy mayors, a longtime Economic Development Committee member, the first “night mayor”, and a member of the Toronto Police Services Board. He currently sits on the General Government Committee and the Board of Health.

Thompson racked up exorbitant travel expenses while on the Economic Development Committee. In 2018 the Integrity Commissioner found Thompson breached the Code of Conduct in using his position to “quarterback” a developer friend’s application, but Council declined to reprimand him.

Thompson was charged with sexual assault in 2022 less than a month before the municipal election, which did not prevent him from being re-elected with 55% of the vote. The trial ended in September 2025 with Thompson being declared not guilty.
While Thompson has long had a “tough on crime” stance, he has become increasingly critical of the Toronto Police Service, pushing to curb carding and even trying unsuccessfully to cut the police budget in 2016. He voted for most of the policing reforms proposed at Council in 2020.

This term, Thompson was sharply critical of a Council decision to not accept or discuss the Ombudsman’s finding of systemic discrimination and anti-Black racism after City staff turned refugee claimants away from shelters in 2022.

Platform: On Thompson’s website, he lists the expansion of diverse and character-appropriate housing, shelter spaces, and job pathways as his priorities. He wants to address traffic congestion and prioritize cleanliness in the ward. On safety, Thompson leads with a prevention-based approach to crime, gun violence, and mental health issues.

Biography: Krissan Veerasingam is the former co-chair of the board at TTCriders, a public transit advocacy organization, and co-founder of the Scarborough Environmental Association, a group that organizes repair cafes, clothing swaps, bike repair events, and other “climate-friendly” community programs. His background is in software development, according to his LinkedIn. Veerasingam has also organized cultural initiatives like the Scarborough RT Farewell Food Tour and the Scarborough ethnic grocers map. He is endorsed by the Toronto & York Region Labour Council and has volunteered with Progress Toronto, teaching a workshop on how to build community in inner suburbs and advocating for policies like the Vacant Home Tax and inclusionary zoning.

Platform: Veerasingam’s priorities include expanding the City’s involvement in food provision like food rescue programs and community grocery stores, improve the ward’s climate resilience through infrastructure, and focus on preventative means to tackle crime. He calls traffic congestion “crippling,” and promises to increase the frequency of buses, make transit rides free after a passenger takes 36 rides in a month, and prioritize road repairs on the streets that buses rely on. He calls a new housing co-op across from Kennedy Station “a great start,” promising to build more collectively owned homes in Scarborough.

Veerasingam is endorsed by Progress Toronto and the Toronto & York Region Labour Council.