Council hopefuls register for race
New faces share a desire to see municipal government’s makeup change come Oct. 22 election
The son of Vietnamese refugees, a daughter of Pakistani immigrants and a man who as a child fled Nigeria for a better life in Canada are among the first candidates to throw their names into the 2018 municipal election race.
Kevin Vuong, Ausma Malik and Lekan Olawoye joined two dozen council hopefuls waiting to register at city hall’s election office as soon as it opened Tuesday morning.
One sentiment they and others shared over and over again was their desire to change the makeup of Toronto’s city council.
Olawoye, 33, is up against incumbent Councillor Frank Di Giorgio in the new Ward 12 in the Oct. 22 election. He was quick to point out he was born the same year Di Giorgio was first elected councillor — 1985.
“The community needs a fresh start, something different,” said Olawoye. As a child, he fled political unrest in Nigeria along with his mother and siblings. He became a youth worker in Toronto, and is currently a lead executive at MaRS Discovery District.
He said he knew right after he lost the 2014 election that he’d run again.
Vuong, a 28-year-old instructor at the University of Toronto’s faculty of medicine, will race against Malik for the new Ward 20. He said organizing the King Eats Pilot earlier this year as a transit advocate is a mere hint at what he’s capable of.
“I changed the narrative from ice sculptures and middle fingers to something more productive,” Vuong said, referring to some businesses’ reactions to the King St. streetcar project. “There’s a lot I can do as a councillor.”
When she was elected a school board trustee in 2014, Malik, 34, appears to have become the first hijab-wearing Muslim woman in Canada elected to public office. She arrived at city hall Tuesday morning flanked by leftleaning councillors Joe Cressy and Mike Layton and former mayor Barbara Hall.
“I am excited to bring more progressive representation to council. Most of all, we need new voices at city hall,” Malik said. “We need more women, more people who represent a new generation of Torontonians, from the Black community and racialized communities, people who actually reflect the diversity and experiences that we face in our city.”
Other early council candidates include 34-year-old environmental scientist Valérie Maltais running for departing Councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon’s seat, new Ward 37, and 29-year-old social worker Chiara Padovani for Ward 11.
Councillor Gary Crawford wasn’t far behind, but mistakenly registered to run in the new Ward 36 against Councillor Paula Fletcher. Shortly afterward, he tweeted he had signed up for the correct ward, Ward 38.
Mayor John Tory also filed his papers early Tuesday. Unusually, he entered the race facing no high-profile challenger.
Tory told reporters after a news conference about traffic safety measures that he expects that by Oct. 22, voters will have a long list of mayoral options, as is usually the case.
Tory said he won’t campaign much until after the term’s final council meeting in late July.
His campaign team is co-chaired by Conservative Vic Gupta, who a source said will take a leave of absence as the mayor’s principal secretary, and Liberal stalwart Vince Gasparro. On Monday, Gasparro stepped down from the Toronto Community Housing board.
At the news conference Tuesday, Tory said his campaign will focus on affordable housing and transportation. He re- jected suggestions his administration has been too conservative.
Tory’s first campaign news release, however, takes direct aim at progressive councillors urging him to raise property taxes above inflation to fund new investment in city services, and to cancel the $3.35-billion-and-counting onestop Scarborough subway extension.
“There are those who want to raise taxes beyond what we can afford and continually debate our transit plans, while nothing ever gets built,” he wrote.