🗳️ Looking ahead to the 2026 Municipal Election in Greater Sudbury

With the next municipal election set for October 26, 2026, it’s worth starting the conversation now — about leadership, priorities, and the kind of city we want to build together.

Some of you may remember that I put my name forward in 2018 and again in 2022, running in two different wards but grounded in the same core values:
➡️ Collaboration over division
➡️ Community-first decision-making (people before politics)
➡️ Strong neighbourhood advocacy
➡️ Transparency and engagement

Those campaigns were about showing up, listening, and taking municipal leadership seriously — understanding both its responsibilities and its limits.

Fast forward to today, and many of those values are needed more than ever.

Greater Sudbury is facing multiple, overlapping challenges:
• A housing and homelessness crisis
• A worsening drug and mental health epidemic
• Affordability pressures on families, seniors, and small businesses
• Aging infrastructure and long-delayed planning decisions
• Growing frustration and disengagement from local politics

It’s important to be honest about what municipal leadership can — and cannot — do.

City council alone cannot fix all of these issues. Many are tied to provincial and federal policy, funding constraints, legislation, and decisions made decades ago. These problems did not emerge overnight, and they will not be solved in a single council term.

That honesty matters — because when candidates make sweeping promises they can’t possibly keep, trust erodes. Campaign slogans eventually collide with budgets, jurisdictional limits, and the reality that progress at the municipal level is often incremental.

What council can do is lead.

Council can set priorities, make responsible long-term decisions, advocate forcefully to other levels of government, and stop repeating the short-sighted planning that helped create today’s challenges. The issues we face now are not about blaming the past — what’s done is done — but about forging a better path forward, with eyes not just on the next few years, but on the next few decades.

Residents should expect realism, not rhetoric:
• Leaders who listen and elevate community concerns
• Leaders who understand trade-offs and explain them honestly
• Leaders who plan beyond election cycles
• Leaders who follow through, even when change takes time

As we head toward May 1, 2026, when nominations officially open, more names will emerge and more conversations will begin. This is the moment to engage — with family, neighbours, community groups, and residents — about what good municipal leadership actually looks like.

Just as important, we need stronger voter turnout. Municipal decisions shape our daily lives in very real ways, yet too many people feel disconnected from City Hall. Rebuilding trust starts with honest conversations and early engagement.

The next chapter for Greater Sudbury should be guided by pragmatism, empathy, and long-term thinking — leaders who understand the scope of the challenges, respect the limits of the role, and are willing to do the steady work required to move the city forward.

The months ahead will be interesting.
More importantly, they should be engaging.

Let’s talk. Let’s listen. Let’s do better — together.