Former MP runs for Beaches council seat
New Democrat brings name recognition in race to represent Ward 37
Matthew Kellway, the former New Democrat MP for Beaches—East York, is hoping to make a political comeback at Toronto city hall.
Kellway plans to register Tuesday to run for city council in Ward 37, where incumbent Mary-Margaret McMahon — a believer in term limits — is not seeking re-election after two terms totalling eight years.
An official with an energy professionals’ union, Kellway won Beaches—East York for the NDP in 2011 in an upset that ousted the Liberal incumbent.
But in the 2015 federal election Kellway, then the NDP urban affairs critic, was defeated by Liberal Nathaniel Erskine-Smith.
After his defeat, the 53-yearold said he returned to work at the union now called the Society of United Professionals and resumed community volunteer efforts, including the Beaches Out of the Cold program, while deciding if he still had a passion for politics.
“It’s still there,” he said Monday, adding he decided last fall to run and has resigned his job to campaign until the Oct. 22 civic election, which seems set to send an unusually large number of fresh faces to city hall thanks to incumbents not running and the creation of new wards.
Kellway’s campaign will focus on issues including: housing affordability; pedestrian and cyclist safety, especially at the Queen St. E. and Woodbine Ave. intersection; the Tuggs Inc. restaurant and concessions lease he wants to “undo”; and ice time at Ted Reeve Arena.
He will face at least three rivals. Brent Bittner, Joshua Makuch and Valérie Maltais have already registered to run in hopes of representing the ward’s 54,000 residents. Nominations close July 27.
Maltais, an environmentalist, shop-local activist and community volunteer for agencies including Youth Rising Above, said she is not worried about facing a rival with local name recognition.
“A variety of candidates is a necessary component of a healthy democracy,” Maltais told the Star. “It will ultimately be the voters who decide which candidate best reflects their values … My professional experience, combined with my undeniable enthusiasm and inexhaustible energy, makes me the best representative to bring real solutions to Toronto city council.”
McMahon, a former neighbourhood activist and fiscally minded environmentalist, was among the centrist councillors who fought former mayor Rob Ford’s budget cuts.
Kellway said he has no plans to ask for McMahon’s support.
“I won’t be pursuing MaryMargaret’s endorsement,” he said. “I’ve got my own platform and my own history and my sense of what needs to be done and the kind of politics I’d like to practise in the community.”