Ontario votes for its local governments on Monday, and about 30 Black candidates are on the ballot for city council and school board seats, the Jamaica Gleaner reported. One of them is Jason McDonald, who has run a barbershop and beauty salon in Toronto’s Little Jamaica for 27 years and has never run for anything before.
McDonald is challenging long-time Ward 8 (Eglinton-Lawrence) councillor Mike Colle, in a race that also includes Domenico Maiolo, Enzo Torrone, Daniel Trayes and Liz Grade. Polls for most of the province open at 10 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.
His argument is about what happened to the street. Little Jamaica, the stretch of Eglinton Avenue West that has been the heart of Toronto’s Caribbean community for decades, spent about 15 years beside Eglinton Crosstown LRT construction, with foot traffic falling and businesses closing. McDonald, a former chair of the Little Jamaica Business Improvement Area, calls it “a state of emergency.”
“This was a vibrant community,” he told NOW Toronto. “We were always busy. It was a hub.”
His platform asks for public art and community gathering space, stronger tenant protection bylaws with funding for legal advocacy clinics, and more accountability from condominium developers. He has described himself to the Gleaner this way: “I don’t see myself as a politician…I’ve coined the word ‘people-tician.'”
He is not alone in Toronto. The Gleaner lists Black council candidates in Ward 1 (Etobicoke North), Ward 4 (Parkdale-High Park), Ward 6 (York Centre) and Ward 7 (Humber River-Black Creek), and two incumbents seeking re-election: Michael Thompson in Ward 21 (Scarborough Centre) and Jamaal Myers in Ward 23 (Scarborough North).
Outside the city, Brampton has seven more Black candidates, for council and for council school board trustee seats. Others are running in smaller places: Alethia O’Hara-Stephenson, founder of the Dufferin County Canadian Black Association and a current Upper Grand District School Board trustee, is seeking a council seat in Shelburne. Yolan Williams is running for deputy mayor of Bradford West Gwillimbury. Joan John is an incumbent councillor in Southgate Township.
O’Hara-Stephenson said of her town’s growth: “I want that growth to strengthen Shelburne, not simply make it bigger.”
Local councils decide the things that land on Black neighbourhoods first: zoning and development near transit lines, tenant bylaws, and, through police services boards, how a city is policed. Candidates in Brampton made that last point in 2022, when 11 Black candidates called on Peel Regional Police to act on use-of-force data showing Black residents were far more likely to have force used on them.
Results come Monday night.
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