The 2022 Mayoral Election - Who's Running and Why?

With the mayoral election quickly coming up, Brescia students may feel uninformed about the candidates running for the position of London’s 65th mayor. To make your decision about the mayoral election easier, here is a quick and comprehensive list of who is running and what they are running for. 

As a quick disclaimer, while ten people have their names down as candidates for the upcoming election, not all have accessible platforms or websites that are easy to find. So, this article only has candidates who had readily available online platforms or had any online presence about their mayoral campaign. 

First on the list is the youngest candidate to ever run for mayor of London. With advertisements primarily focused on TikTok views, Dylan Wallace is focused on getting London youth what they want. In a statement on TikTok, Wallace summarized his platform by saying that he wants London to get a Chick-Fil-A, for gas prices to go down, for “balance, for a nicer downtown..., and I need your trust”. While some may seem confused about why a big TikTok and YouTube personality is running for mayor, Wallace reiterates that his campaign is “not a joke”. If you are interested in his platform or socials, his TikTok handle is @dylanwallaceyt.

Next is Josh Morgan, a former deputy mayor focused on a future for young Londoners. To enact this goal, Morgan focuses on housing and affordability, mental health and addictions, an inclusive London, safe and vibrant neighbourhoods, climate change, and economic prosperity. A rather ambitious plan Morgan wants to: build 50 000 homes in the next decade, call for an emergency meeting of the Province of Ontario focusing on mental health addictions, implement the Green Bin program here in London, and partner with Fanshawe and Western to find canvas opportunities all over the city. To view a comprehensive action plan for Morgan’s proposed London, you can download a pdf here. 

Sandie Thomas is a refreshing female voice in a list of candidates that are predominantly male-identifying. Sandie Thomas comes to the mayoral podium with an extensive resume, from pastoring at a downtown church to sitting on the London police’s anti-racism panel. She has also founded London’s Black Public Library, a unique branch of the London Public Library. Her platform and vision for the future of London include effectively improving transportation, ensuring that our future is clean, raising living standards for all, improving innovation and technology here in London, and improving London’s mental health services. I encourage you to read her list of qualifications and her extensive platform on her website here.

Sean O’Connell, a former Western student, is one of many candidates running to improve busing and infrastructure in London. In his own words, O’Connell is looking to “build a platform for London and to manage our growth”. Alongside this, O’Connell also hopes to improve the animal fostering system in London by strengthening the Approved Foster Organization agreement. He also hopes to change city hall and law enforcement, wanting to reform both systems through effective new policies. O’Connell looks to maximize green spaces in London as a solution to our environmental crisis and is looking to redefine what London thinks is ‘affordable’ housing to improve purchasing power. To read more about O’Connell’s extensive platform, you can find his website here.

Khalil Ramil has been a citizen of London since 1989 and has served as an MPP in Queen’s Park since 2003. Ramal has a six-pronged platform for London’s future – homelessness, jobs, efficient transportation, affordability in housing, safety, and the environment. Ramal wants to “move London forward” through these platforms to create a “better London for everyone”. Ramal emphasizes that he did not develop these policies – London did. Ramal created his platform to create a London that citizens want. To view more about Ramal’s platform, you can access his website here.  

Not all the candidates this year have extensive lists of political experience – Norm Miles, a mechanic and family man who has lived in London for nearly 25 years, is running with a platform that seeks to “move the homeless off the streets”.  His plan for London is to move those without homes into army barracks and provide them with mental health support, create more severe penalties for drug dealers, create more police enforcement in the city, and create bike lanes and more electric vehicles to move London to be a greener city. When asked for a statement on student voting, Miles urged students to vote, telling them to “focus on what you want in life” and vote on what matters to them. For more on Mile’s platform, you can view his website here.

There seem to be many candidates running for London’s 65th mayor; however, something that the list seems to be missing is diversity. Out of the ten candidates running, only two are female-identifying, and only one of these individuals has a website. Johanne Nichols, the other female-identifying candidate, neglected to create a website or even advertise for her campaign, opting to run only by “word of mouth”. 

While other candidates are available to vote for, none have accessible platforms or websites, so it is difficult to tell what they are running for. Hopefully, this article has helped you understand who you want as mayor of London for the next term. Finally, the Brescia Buzz would like to encourage every eligible student to vote in this election! Brescia is not only a student body that is primarily young but also entirely female-identifying. It’s time to raise our voices – get out and vote!