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Do municipal councils represent the diversity of their constituents?
An interactive map compares ward demographics, councillors and voter turnout in three cities.
Toronto, Mississauga and Brampton are among Canada's most diverse cities, but how closely do their municipal councils reflect the communities they represent?
As voters prepare for the Oct. 26 municipal elections, New Canadian Media has examined the barriers to political representation in these three major cities.
The series explored the challenges facing immigrant and visible minority candidates; the advantages enjoyed by incumbents; the role of campaign fundraising; and debates over the use of languages other than English to reach voters. It has also looked at whether public transit systems are meeting the needs of immigrant communities.
Voter participation remains a concern. In Ontario's 2022 municipal elections, participation fell to a historic low of 32.9 per cent, according to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO).
Toronto, Mississauga, and Brampton are reporting increased advance voting numbers, although that may not translate into a higher overall voter turnout.
In its Turn up the Turnout report, the AMO suggests the shrinking of the local media environment has had far-reaching impacts on voter participation and turnout.
As part of this coverage, NCM reporter Rodrigo Huerta Aguirre created an interactive map to help readers explore the relationship between local demographics, elected representatives and voter participation.
The map below shows municipal election results from 2022 and subsequent byelections, along with information on councillors, ward demographics drawn from the 2021 census and voter turnout in Toronto, Mississauga and Brampton.
These details offer a closer look at the communities that municipal councils represent, and the residents who participate in choosing them.
The map reveals striking differences between wards, even within the same city. In Mississauga, immigrants made up nearly 60 per cent of residents in Wards 4 and 6 according to the 2021 census. In Wards 1 and 2, immigrants accounted for one third of the population.
Voter participation varied widely across Toronto in 2022, with turnout reaching 38 per cent in Parkdale–High Park but falling to 22 per cent in Humber River–Black Creek.
By placing these demographic figures next to the names and photographs of elected representatives, the map shows how closely municipal councils reflect the communities they serve. The differences in voter participation also raise broader questions about political representation and the barriers to participation explored in NCM's election coverage.
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Copyright 2026, New Canadian Media. All rights reserved.
Rodrigo Huerta Aguirre, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, New Canadian Media.
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Recount flips Quebec riding to the Parti Québécois, Liberals refuse to concede
Recount flips riding to Parti Québécois
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
A judicial recount has flipped a riding in the Montérégie region of Quebec from the Liberal Party to the Parti Québécois by a three-vote margin.
However, the Quebec Liberal Party is refusing to concede victory to its rival for now.
Liberal candidate Affine Lwalalika had initially been declared the winner of the Vachon riding by a margin of ten votes.
A recount was triggered and ended on Wednesday.
Quebec's election authority says the recount gave the upper hand to PQ candidate Stephan Fogaing by three votes.
The Liberal Party says it acknowledges the results of the recount but that its lawyers are reviewing the situation.
“All options are on the table, and we will make a decision quickly on how to proceed,” the party wrote on its social media accounts.
Data from the election authority, Élections Québec, shows more ballots were rejected in the recount than on election day, going from 588 to 730 rejected ballots.
The incumbent for Vachon, former Coalition Avenir Québec cabinet minister Ian Lafrenière, congratulated Fogaing.
“The judicial recount declared him the winner by three votes in Vachon. The phrase ‘every vote counts’ takes on its full meaning,” wrote the former domestic security minister on X.
Lafrenière had finished third with just under 21 per cent of the vote on election day.
The PQ has also requested a judicial recount in Champlain, in the Mauricie region, where its candidate lost by 191 votes to Conservative candidate Adriana Szalontai.
The Court of Quebec confirmed the recount on Tuesday. It is set to begin Thursday at the Trois-Rivières courthouse.
In its press release, the election authority says there have been seven judicial recounts after a provincial election since 2000. Recounts in 2003 and 1994 led to ties, which triggered byelections.
— With files from Frédéric Lacroix-Couture
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 22, 2026.
Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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Toronto Crime Stoppers temporarily stops accepting tips after data breach
Toronto Crime Stoppers pauses program after breach
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graeme Roy
Toronto Crime Stoppers has temporarily stopped accepting tips after it says more than 175,000 of them were stolen by hackers earlier this year, alongside nearly 15,000 names.
The organization, which allows people to submit confidential crime tips to law enforcement, says in a statement that the tip software it has used since 2018 was hit by a data breach in March.
It says the company that owns the software reported that 176,859 Toronto tips submitted between January 2022 and last November were included in the stolen data, as well as 14,973 names.
Toronto Crime Stoppers says the company, Navigate360, has not disclosed whether the names are of people who submitted tips, are named in them, or both, nor has it provided the text of the stolen tips, despite repeated requests.
The Toronto program pause comes after CBC reported that 1.5 million tips submitted to Canadian Crime Stoppers programs over the last 25 years were exposed in a massive data breach.
Toronto Crime Stoppers says it didn't stop accepting tips sooner because Navigate360 initially said in April that Toronto data had not been taken, and when the company later said Toronto data was affected, it did not say what information was exposed.
It says it is working on a "safer way" to take tips and will share details in the coming days.
Toronto police say they are aware of new information regarding the breach, which they say "raises serious concerns regarding the protection of confidential information provided through the Crime Stoppers program."
The force says it has suspended its use of the program while it reviews the new information and assesses the additional measures being put in place at the organization.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 22, 2026.
Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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Toronto Councillor Calls Out Ford For Threatening 'Assault' In Today's COVID Presser
Toronto city councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam is criticizing Doug Ford because of comments he made at today's COVID-19 presser regarding Pfizer's CEO.
This article contains graphic content that might not be suitable for some readers.
Premier Doug Ford’s comments came as he described how unhappy he was that Canada is experiencing a temporary shortage of Pfizer vaccines.
Ford told reporters that if he was in the Prime Minister's shoes he would stay outside the Pfizer CEO's house until he got an answer about the vaccines, and also said that he would "be up that guy's ying yang so far with a firecracker he wouldn't know what hit him."
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Shortly after, Wong-Tam tweeted that the comment was a threat of sexual assault, saying "Premier threatens to sexually assault someone, if he doesn't get what he wants."
A representative from Doug Ford's office told Narcity that they would not "dignify [Wong-Tam's] repugnant and divisive claim with a response."
In an emailed statement to Narcity, a representative from Wong-Tam's office said the councillor stood by her remarks.
"The language he used is threatening to rape someone, and perpetuating the worst kinds of rape culture," the representative said.
In a statement emailed to Narcity, a representative from Pfizer said the company did not wish to provide any comments on Premier Ford’s remarks.