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Incumbents have almost unbeatable head start in GTA elections
Thirteen of 14 immigrant and visible-minority candidates in the analysis won their races.
A seat on a municipal council is a stronger predictor of success for immigrant candidates than how much money they raise for their election campaigns, according to an analysis by New Canadian Media and interviews with academics who study electoral dynamics.
With Ontario voters heading to the polls on Oct. 26, NCM reviewed the audited 2022 financial statements of 14 candidates in Toronto, Mississauga and Brampton who have publicly identified as immigrants, the children of immigrants or members of a visible minority. Thirteen won.
NCM counted only candidates who identified themselves as immigrants in an interview, on social media or in an official biography.
Candidates who described themselves as immigrants or the children of immigrants, raised as much and often far more than their rivals in three of the most immigrant-heavy cities in Canada during the 2022 municipal elections. The ones who were already in office had an advantage over new candidates.
More than half of Mississauga's residents (53.2 per cent) and Brampton's (52.9 per cent) were born outside Canada, according to the 2021 census. In Toronto, that number was 46.6 per cent.
Money and office travelled together
Six of the 14 candidates were sitting members, and all six won. Bonnie Crombie raised $505,675 for the Mississauga mayoral race, more than 20 times her nearest rival. In Mississauga's Ward 7, Dipika Damerla raised $40,870, about three times the amount raised by the next closest candidate.
[caption id="attachment_43318" align="alignleft" width="375"] Dipika Damerla. Photo: The Pointer[/caption]
Toronto's Josh Matlow raised $90,668 compared to the $3,425 raised by his closest challenger. In Brampton, Martin Medeiros raised $62,812 against $5,750; and Pat Fortini and Rowena Santos also raised more campaign funds by wide margins. (Matlow is Canadian-born, and his Jewish identity is the only self-identification in our sample.)
The pattern held beyond our sample. In Mississauga, eight of the nine sitting members who ran for office, including the mayor, won.Ron Starr lost Ward 6 to Joe Horneck, 25 per cent to 60 per cent. In Brampton, seven of eight won; regional councillor Gurpreet Dhillon lost Wards 9 and 10 to Gurpartap Singh Toor. In Toronto, Mayor John Tory and 16 sitting councillors won, and Mark Grimes lost Ward 3 to Amber Morley.
[caption id="attachment_43322" align="alignright" width="389"] Rowena Santos. Photo: The Pointer[/caption]
Without an incumbent, money still mattered. In Toronto, Ausma Malik raised $105,944 to win Ward 10, about double that of the next candidate. Alejandra Bravo raised $102,681 in Ward 9 and Chris Moise raised $91,695 in Ward 13. Dianne Saxe won Ward 11 by 123 votes and raised $85,814 compared to the $61,759 raised by her closest rival, Norm Di Pasquale.
Across Toronto and Mississauga, the candidates who were the top fundraisers won 30 of 38 seats.
Where the money lost
In Mississauga Ward 9, Nokha Dakroub raised $37,985, the most in an 11-candidate field — more than twice what the winner, Martin Reid, raised. Still she finished second, 241 votes behind Reid. Alvin Tedjo won Mississauga's Ward 2 but raised less money than Silvia Gualtieri. Lily Cheng won Toronto's Ward 18, but didn’t raise as much for her campaign as Markus O'Brien Fehr.
[caption id="attachment_43321" align="alignleft" width="373"] Martin Medeiros. Photo: The Pointer[/caption]
Damerla, who won Ward 7 with 55 per cent of the vote, is now running for mayor and proposes term limits for the mayor and councillors.
"It's time for fresh ideas and letting somebody else come in," she told NCM. She said a three-term ceiling could open the door to new candidates, though a change like that would have to fit Ontario's legislative framework.
What the experts say
Erin Tolley, a Carleton University professor who studies diversity in Canadian politics, said incumbency is the biggest edge in municipal politics.
"Incumbency is by far the greatest advantage in municipal politics — there's no bigger advantage," she said. Name recognition, a track record on city council and relationships with voters is clearly valuable.
A 2024 study by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario reached a similar conclusion. Based on interviews and surveys with candidates and people considering municipal office, researchers found that many candidates had their first electoral success after an incumbent stepped down.
Some candidates also reported difficulty raising money to compete against sitting councillors. They said potential donors were reluctant to support a challenger because their contributions would become public, and they worried that if the incumbent won, the councillor might be less willing to help them in the future.
Randy Besco, a University of Toronto Mississauga political scientist, co-authored a 2022 study that found visible minorities donate less money on average to federal party candidates; South Asian donors were an exception.
Besco said the results didn't surprise him. "There are lots of very successful immigrants. It doesn't surprise me that some of them are very proficient fundraisers."
He said he has not tested whether the donor findings hold for municipal elections.
Besco cautioned against reading the incumbent's fundraising success as proof of an incumbency effect. Incumbents find it easier to raise money, he said, but "it's possible that it's kind of a selection effect." Candidates who can raise money are the ones who win. He said he doesn’t know which factor is greater.
Besco said immigrant candidates usually run for municipal council in the community where they live, and that wards with many immigrants are easier places for them to run because they might have community networks.
Sukhman Sangha, a lawyer running for an open regional council seat in Brampton's Wards 9 and 10, said money is not the first thing he would tell a new candidate to focus on.
Sangha said he was born in the riding and is the son of Punjabi immigrants. Nine other candidates are running for seats and only one other lives in the riding.
“The biggest obstacle for a first-time candidate in Peel is not knowing how to run a campaign,” Sangha said. He recommends that new candidates first work on someone else's campaign to gain experience in the municipal election system.
Sangha said his previous work as a senior advisor to Ontario's Minister of Transportation taught him how to navigate government. Whether he raised more than his rivals will not be public until the filing deadline in March.
Copyright 2026, New Canadian Media. All rights reserved.
Shilpashree Jagannathan, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, New Canadian Media.
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Quebec Superior Court hears arguments to suspend Montreal bylaw banning insults
Court hears Montreal bylaw injunction request
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi
Lawyers are asking Quebec Superior Court to suspend a recently-adopted bylaw banning insults against employees of the city of Montreal, including police officers.
The bylaw prohibits insults, harassment, threats, abuse and intimidation, as well as offensive and aggressive behaviour.
Justice Eleni Yiannakis heard arguments from lawyers representing an association for progressive jurists and the St-Michel legal clinic Thursday morning.
Lawyer Sibel Ataogul argued the bylaw is too broad and encroaches on fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of expression, and is against public interest.
Lawyer Dardia Garcelle Joseph argued that the bylaw will mainly apply to interactions with police and can lead to serious harm to those already marginalized.
Lawyers for the City of Montreal are expected to argue in the afternoon.
Yiannakis stressed that she will rule only on the request for the injunction and not on the constitutionality of the bylaw.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 22, 2026.
By Erika Morris | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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Korchinski-Paquet's mother makes new allegation against police at coroner's inquest
Korchinski-Paquet inquest grapples with new claim
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
A coroner's inquest into the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet is scrambling to find a way forward after the Toronto woman's mother unexpectedly made a new allegation against police officers during her testimony this morning.
Korchinski-Paquet fell from her 24th-floor balcony in the late afternoon of May 27, 2020, while police officers were in the west-end apartment she shared with several family members.
As she described her memories of that day, Claudette Beals told the inquest this morning that she saw officers push her daughter toward the balcony, prompting lawyers for several of the parties to raise concerns in the absence of the jury about previously undisclosed evidence.
Among them were lawyers representing the officers at the scene, who said their clients weren't given a chance to respond to the allegation when they testified earlier this week.
The presiding coroner has called a recess so that counsel can discuss how to proceed.
The inquest has heard Korchinski-Paquet had a history of seizures from epilepsy, often followed by erratic and aggressive behaviour, and had experienced two seizures earlier in the day before police were called over a disturbance involving knives.
One of the province's police watchdogs later cleared the officers of wrongdoing in the fatal fall, which it said happened as she was trying to move from her apartment's balcony to a neighbour's.
The inquest's scope includes how first responders are informed and trained about epilepsy but is not meant to examine the various watchdog investigations into the case.
"There's lots of good things to explore about epilepsy, about public support for families, about awareness of postictal delirium, about police response and how those two can intermingle," presiding coroner Dr. David Cameron said before the recess.
"We've explored lots of great things during this inquest and everyone has worked really well together ... and now we've got a bit of a problem and we'll have to work through it."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 22, 2026.
Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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Tu vas assurément la perdre si tu continues de faire ces 17 choses-là
Être en couple c'est un travail à temps plein. il y aura toujours des hauts et des bas, des moments ou tous les deux vous devrez faire des compromis, à trouver des solutions aux conflits, à faire vivre des moments uniques qui rappel à l'autre que tu l'prends pas pour acquis.
Bien que le parcours que vous tracez à deux ne sera jamais un tracé bien droit, plusieurs aspects clés feront en sorte que vous viserez le même but, la même direction.
Les couples qui durent ou qui se séparent ce sont tous, à un moment ou à un autre, retrouvés à la croisée des chemins. Du genre, ça passe ou ça casse. Peu importe la raison, ce qui fait la différence c'est ce que t'es prêt à faire pour t'améliorer afin que les choses aillent pour le mieux.
Tout est une question de choix, mais assurément, la personne que tu adores, tu vas la perdre si tu continues de faire 17 de ces choses-là:
1. Si tu continues de lui faire sentir qu'il/elle est une option et non une priorité
2. Si tu continues de lui mentir et de croire qu'il/elle l'ignore totalement.
3. Si tu continues de lui manquer de respect au point de lui faire perdre son estime propre.
4. Si tu continues de croire que tu n'as jamais rien à te reprocher et que tout part de lui/d'elle.
5. Si tu continues de prendre tout de lui/d'elle sans jamais redonner en retour.
6. Si tu continues de te soucier toujours et seulement de toi.
7. Si tu continues de jouer avec ses émotions et son corps quand bon te semble.
8. Si tu continues de le/la laisser avec un sentiment de solitude , même quand t'es là.
9. Si tu continues de la/le blesser et d'agir comme si t'avais rien fait.
10. Si tu continues de fuir la confrontation chaque fois que les conflits vous brisent un peu plus.
11. Si tu continues de crier sur lui/elle pour ensuite agir comme si ça ne laissait pas de cicatrices.
12. Si tu continues de la/lui faire sentir que tu désires plus souvent les autres qu'elle/lui.
13. Si tu continues de l'ignorer chaque fois qu'il/elle t'appelle ou te texte.
14. Si tu continues de faire des choix seulement pour toi au lieu de bâtir des projets à deux.
15. Si tu continues de la/le reconquérir pour mieux le/la blesser à nouveau.
16. Si tu continues de la/le laisser se battre seul pour vous deux.
17. Si tu continues de ne jamais te soucier de savoir comment il/elle va.