What you need to know about the race in Ward 17 - Don Valley North

An advanced polling station in Toronto. (Scott Lightfoot/2022)

In her 19 years on city council, Shelley Carroll has seen a lot.

First joining council in 2003, she was budget chair during the financial crisis of 2008 and was instrumental in implementing the Municipal Land Transfer Tax during David Miller’s final term as mayor.

She was re-elected in 2010 and 2014, but stepped down as councillor in 2018 to run as the Liberal candidate for Don Valley North in the provincial election, ultimately losing to Conservative Vincent Ke.

Following ward boundary changes prior to the 2018 municipal election, Carroll was elected to council once again in the newly formed Ward 17 - Don Valley North, beating out Christina Liu, who was endorsed by former mayor Mel Lastman.

“The pandemic has undoubtedly changed how we look at our city and our neighbourhoods here in Don Valley North. As your councillor, it’s my job to make sure that our community gets the supports we need to get through this together. We’re almost there, but there’s still a lot of work to do to create the city we want to see once this is over,” Carroll says on her website.

Unlike the 2018 election, however, Carroll doesn’t have a high-profile challenger.

Five other candidates are running in Ward 17 but only two of them have discernable platforms.

Daryl Christoff is the candidate with the most information available. He ran for councillor in Ward 20 in 2014, finishing with 705 votes. He also ran for mayor in 2018, finishing with 1,751 votes.

According to his website, a pillar of his campaign platform is reducing TTC fares to $1. He says it will reduce traffic congestion and pollution.

“This is direct action in fighting climate change. Ask any candidate/public servant why they wouldn’t support this policy,” his website says.

He describes himself as fiscally conservative and also says: “No painting circles in parks, closing schools, playgrounds & parks. No shutting down small businesses & places of worship.”

Angela Lindow is another candidate with little information available online aside from a campaign website.

Lindow says she has nine years of experience working in emergency management for the government of Ontario and says that she wants to engage with her constituents in a new and unique way.

“Torontonians are being asked to go to the polls for the third time in less than a year. As such, I do not want to limit my constituents in how they interact and instead, I want to elevate their preferred modes of engagement. As such, I plan to use tools such as Whatsapp, Instagram, TikTok, Line, Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Spotify, in order to create new avenues of interaction and meaning,” she says.

The three other names on the ballot are Sandakie Ekanayake, Justin Knott and Calvin Xu.

Don Valley North at a glance

Population: 110,080

Average number of people per household: 2.57

Median age: 41.1

Population growth over the last decade: 8.4 per cent (Toronto-wide average is 9.1 per cent)

Household

Visible minorities: 70 per cent of population (Toronto-wide average is 51 per cent)

Average household income: $87,491 (Toronto-wide average is $102,721)