After four extremely eventful years marked by a global pandemic that saw cities scrambling to grapple with rolling lockdowns and other unprecedented challenges, residents across Ontario will now be able to cast their votes for their next mayor, council and school board trustees in Oshawa, Whitby, Ajax and Pickering.

Live Election Results for Oshawa:



Live Election Results for Whitby:



Live Election Results for Ajax:



Live Election Results for Pickering:



Oshawa

Mayor

There’s never a dull moment in Oshawa politics but Mayor Dan Carter, despite his first term in the big chair being nearly two-thirds taken up by a deadly pandemic and faced with numerous non-COVID related challenges as well, managed to stay relatively scandal free. With only Sara Lear – back for a second crack at Carter – and Joe Ingino – a perennial fringe candidate – on the ballot with him, the former homeless man-turned motivational speaker seems poised for a second term.
Council

There are five wards in Oshawa, with each ward delivering a Local Councillor as well as a Regional Councill who also represent the City at Durham Region Council. All ten incumbents have thrown their hat in the ring for a another go-round.

There are some interesting races, including the Regional Councillor seat in Ward 4, which has two-term incumbent Rick Kerr facing former seat-holder Doug Sanders and long-time City Hall watchdog Jeff Davis. Two City Councillor races – both with one-term incumbents – may also prove to be tight. Jane Hurst in Ward 2 is challenged by Jonathan Giancroce, who has run for the Liberals more than once, as well as Jim Lee, Julia McCrea, John Sturdy and Amin Ullah. And in Ward 4, there are four candidates after Derek Giberson’s job, including former newspaper executive Fred Eismont, former OPUC Commissioner Dave Thompson, James Bountrogiannis and Mark Logan.

In the Ward 1 Regional race John Neal is facing challenges from Christopher Parkinson and Rosaldo Russo, while City Councillor Rosemary McConkey has competition for her seat from Theresa Corless and Ahmad Formuly. In Ward 2 (Regional) Tito-Dante Marimpietri, who has spent 15 years on council (interrupted by a four-year gap between 2014-18) has only candidate vying for his job: Lina Fouroughy.

Ward 3 (Regional) veteran Bob Chapman also has just one rival in the election: Jemma Lambert, while rookie councillor Bradley Marks will face off against Amber Derby, Timothy Dobson and Joe Shaw in the race for the City spot. Ward 5’s Regional Councillor incumbent Brian Nicholson is facing a stiff challenge from realtor Alex Down, a Conservative Party candidate in this year’s provincial election who came within 757 votes of winning Jennifer French’s seat in the Legislature, as well as Todd Forbes. In the City race, former Mayor John Gray will try to hold his seat against Karrie Lynne Dymond, Amanda Lewis and Taylor Bailey.

Durham District Board of Education

In the Durham Board of Education race there are zero incumbents, with two of the three incumbents moving out of the area. There are 15 candidates in all in the campaign, each looking for one of three spots on the board:

Shailene Panylo, a legislative assistant who twice ran for the NDP in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections – finishing second each time – is one of those candidates, as is Tony Stravato, who ran as an independent in the recent provincial election. Also in the hunt is Linda Stone, a former trustee who was forced to resign her seat in May amid public outcry over several tweets deemed transphobic by observers, George Milosh (part of a noted Oshawa restaurant family) and Deb Oldfield.

Other candidates include Derk Bellamy, Rileigh Bint, Larry Down, Eric Ghazal, Dean Lindsay. Elizabeth Jamischak, James Leventakis, Sindiswa Moyo, Christine Winters-Geret and Nagina Zahir.

Winners (3)

Durham District Catholic School Board

Oshawa elects two members of the Board of Trustees. Board Chair Morgan Ste. Marie is running again while Robert De Souza is seeking a seat for Whitby, leaving one opening. Three candidates are campaigning for those two seats: Ste. Marie, Kim Beatty and Amber Gormley.

Winners (2)

One candidate will also be selected for the Conseil Scolaire Viamonde, the French-language public school board. Kristine Dandavino and Serge Paul are vying for that seat.

Conseil Scolaire Viamonde (1)

Whitby

Mayor

After a raucous term of council with plenty of infighting, Mayor Don Mitchell has called it a career, leaving a pair of councillors – Deidre Newman and Elizabeth Roy – to duke it out for job, with Evan Griffiths also running for Mayor.

Council

Whitby has four regional councillors elected; all elected at large. All four councillor, along with a former councillor are running again. Incumbents Chris Leahy, Rhonda Mulcahey, Maleehaj Sahid – who ran for the Conservatives in the 2021 federal election, finishing behind Liberal Ryan Turnbull – and Steve Yamada.

Challenging them will be Michael Emm, who won a seat on council in 204, only to lose it by 13 votes to Jane Alexander (now Drumm) in 2018, Ron Kapuscinski, Vasu Mallula and Dave Sanson.

In the Local races Steve Lee was acclaimed in Ward 1, while former Whitby Dunlop hockey star Matt Cardwell will face off in Ward 2 against Lori Lopes, Kamlesh Patel, Jim Skenderis and Anjali Thorve. JoAnne Drumm, the daughter of Whitby Council legend Joe Drumm who won in 2018 as JoAnne Alexander, will have a fight for her seat from Durham school board trustee and Caremongers Whitby founder Niki Lundquist in Ward 3 while Durham Catholic board trustee John Rinella will take on Victoria Bozinovski, Rajat Sharma and PG Case in Ward 4.

Durham District School Board

Whitby elects two trustees to the board. With Vice-Chair running for Ward 4 on Whitby Council and Mikhail Yurkoski not seeking re-election, the board is clear for new blood. Running for those two seats is Robert De Souza an Oshawa trustee transferring to Whitby), Trevor Aitcheson and Olivier Camara.

Winner (2)

Conseil Scolaire Catholique Avenir

The French-language separate school board elects one member locally. The seat will be filled by acclimation this year.

Winner – Marcellin Mondo (Acclaimed)

Ajax

Mayor

Ajax Mayor Shaun Collier, who the 2018 election by more than 2,500 votes, should be returned for a second term with Colin Hubble, Arthur Augustine and Garry Reader standing in his way.

Council

All six members of council – plus Mayor Collier – are running again and on paper it doesn’t look there will be too many tight races. In Ward 1 veteran Marilyn Crawford – ten years a school trustee and now 12 years on Council will take on a challenge from Intab Ali for her seat wile incumbent Rob Tyler-Morin (co-founder of the Two For the Show entertainment property) will face Andras Adaikkalam and Arshad Awah.

Sterling Lee, a former advisor to Liberal MP Mark Holland, is back looking for a second term on Durham Council in Ward 2, with Adam Bashir and Vic Jagomohan as opposition, while businessman and boxing coach Ashmeed Khan is hoping for another term as Ward 2 Local Councillor. He is being challenged Ramon Estaris, Nancy Henry, Selladural Jeyakumaran and Azhar Khasn.

Joanne Dies, with 19 years of council experience, is campaigning against Daniel Corrigan for the Regional Council seat in Ward 3 wile incumbent Lisa Bower will have a challenge for the Local Council spot from Lillane Kisoro.

Durham District School Board

Ajax elects two members to the public school board. Just one – Donna Edwards – mis running for re-election. Other candidates are James Evangelista, Dameon Halstead, John Ingold, Kelly Miller, Nico Morcos-Brown, Avril Rowe, Capucine Sheehan and Waqqas Syed.

Winners (2)

Durham District Catholic School Board

Ajax selects two trustees to the Catholic board. There are six candidates for the two seats, including one incumbent: Monique Forster. Others in the race include Joe Careen, Auguste Deonarine, Marisa Hall, Richard Karikari and Alban Mendonca.

Winners (2)

Pickering

Mayor

After 19 years as Mayor – the longest unbroken term in Pickering’s history – Dave Ryan is calling it quits. Health issues may have made the decision easier – Ryan had to take a leave of absence in 2020 after a double lung transplant, following a diagnosis of Interstitial lung disease – but the pro-development Mayor won’t be easy to replace. Kevin Ashe, whose late father George was Pickering’s first Mayor in 1973, is the front-runner to follow in his Dad’s footsteps. Ashe, who has been on council as long as Ryan has been Mayor, will be up against entrepreneur and political activist Janice Frampton and Bradley Nazar.

Council

Pickering has three Wards, each with a Regional and Local Councillor. Because of retirements and councillors taking on new challenges there are only two incumbents in the campaign and they’re both in Ward 3. In the Regional spot, 22-year council veteran David Pickles facing a challenge from Peter Rodrigues, who held the Regional seat in Ward 2 from 2010-2014. The Local seat will see incumbent Shaheen Butt go up against Ali Naqvi, Darshan Sritharan and Damian Williams.

Local Councillor Maurice Brenner moves up to take a shot at the Regional seat abandoned by Ashe’s mayoralty campaign in Ward 1, with Tom Hayes as his only opponent. Brenner served the ward for 21 years (1985-2006) before returning to Council in 2016 after a couple of failed attempts at Ryan’s job. His old seat is being contested by eight candidates: Lisa Robinson, James Blair, Tony Harold, Zeynab Kazi, Raveen Rajasingham, Anthony Yacub, Karen Sloan and Jeanine Siligo.

Ward 2 is going to elect two newcomers. The race for the Regional seat is led by Eileen Higdon, who has run for office multiple times (including for Mayor), with Linda Cook, Ali Marani and Gary Strange also in the hunt. The Local seat will be won by either Dave Currie, Frank McGillan, Mara Nagy, Ayesha Sardar, George Turner or Nancy Van Rooy.

Durham District School Board

Pickering voters elect two trustees to serve their interests on the Board of Trustees. Because of retirements and residency requirements there are no incumbents. Six candidates are looking to fill those two seats:

Michael Courtis, Sherry Croteau, Emma Cunningham, Michelle Francis, Stephen Linton and Donna Sobers.

Winners (2)

Durham District Catholic School Board

Pickering elects just one trustee for the separate school board. Jim McCafferty is running once again, with competition from Terrence Peters and Tony Valookaran.

Winner