A city council debate
On September 24, the nave of the College Street United Church was filled with passionate followers of municipal politics and community members with pressing concerns. Posters on streetlamps had invited the residents of University—Rosedale to gather for a debate between the Ward 11 city councillor candidates in anticipation of the upcoming municipal election.
All of the University—Rosedale city councillor candidates as of that day were in attendance: Keenan Courtis, Terri Hawkes, Mike Layton, Karina Lemke, Alice Li, Gian Pireli, Paul Viret, and Diana Yoon. Each of the candidates gave an opening statement before the floor was opened to the community for questions.
There were four questions moderated by community member Rory Gus Sinclair, and answered in full by the panel; these related to Bathurst parking restrictions, Palmerston Bike lanes, community housing, and the Bickford community centre. The third question can be summarized as follows:
Community member: How would you improve the state of Toronto community housing?
Lemke: “It needs an overhaul.”
Li: “We need more funding. I am able to audit here, and I will find the money to make capital.”
Pireli: “I’m going to be there to actually make those changes happen.”
Viret: “I don’t know much about community housing, but I would like to talk afterwards.”
Yoon: “I am working in affordable housing. I work at the national co-op housing federation. I’m at the table with the CEO when we are talking about reviewing the national housing strategy, because we need more funding.”
Courtis: “Keeping a public option is the only way that we’re going to solve the broader housing problems in the city. We have to get on top of this problem.”
Hawkes: “We need to bring all stakeholders into the conversation [and] figure out a solution that honours human dignity, gives people a safe place to live, and allows us to work together, to make this situation better.”
Layton: “We need either revenue sources from the city to fix public housing, or we need support from other levels of government, and we need accountability from [the Toronto Community Housing Corporation].”
In the remaining question periods, the most consistently addressed topics by the panel were the removal of the Bloor bike lanes and safe injection sites.
Courtis referenced how the provincial government had interfered with the Bloor bike lanes: “we need a council that sees the MPPs as a counter-party, not a future career path.” Former councillor Layton highlighted his experience with the two issues: “as the councillor who was responsible for putting in those three aforementioned bike lines, I would fight with everything I can to keep them. I support safe consumption sites.” Lemke had a different perspective than the rest of the panel. He stated that “not every road deserves a bike lane or can facilitate a bike lane properly,” and that he believed safe injection sites “are giving out the tools for drug use, not the treatment.”
The 2026 Toronto municipal election for mayor and city councillors will occur on October 26. Any students living in Toronto for the school year are eligible to vote in the election if they are Canadian citizens. To find out how and where to vote and which candidates support your vision for Toronto, visit https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/elections/.