Ward 1 — Etobicoke North

Etobicoke North is Toronto's northwestern gateway, a sprawling inner-suburban ward bounded by Steeles Avenue to the north, the Humber River to the east, and the city limits to the west. The ward takes in Rexdale, Thistletown, Humberlea, and the Woodbine Racetrack lands. With a population of roughly 115,000, it is one of Toronto's most diverse wards: large Somali, South Asian, Caribbean, and West African communities give the area a distinctly multicultural character. Household incomes sit well below the city average, and the ward has significant concentrations of social housing alongside pockets of postwar suburban homeownership. Rexdale, which anchors the ward's identity, has struggled with stigmatization around gun violence while simultaneously building a vibrant community infrastructure through organizations like the Rexdale Community Health Centre and the Rexdale Community Hub.

Bailao won Etobicoke North with 32.3 percent (5,748 votes) to Chow's 27.9 percent (4,972), a margin of 776 votes. The ward's most notable result was Mark Saunders's third-place finish at 15.4 percent (2,744 votes) — his strongest showing in the city. Saunders, a former Toronto Police chief, drew support from communities concerned about gun violence and public safety, and his campaign's emphasis on policing resonated in a ward where those issues are visceral. Only 17,822 votes were cast, among the lower totals in the city. Councillor Vincent Crisanti, who won back the seat in 2022 after previously serving from 2010 to 2018, did not make a prominent public endorsement.

Municipal Issues

The Finch West LRT, under construction at the time of the by-election, was the ward's most significant infrastructure project. The 10.3-kilometre line from Finch West station to Humber College promised to bring modern rapid transit to communities that had relied on overcrowded bus routes for decades. But the project's construction had disrupted businesses along Finch Avenue West and displaced traffic onto residential streets, and residents worried that the line would follow the Eglinton Crosstown into years of additional delays.

Community safety was the other defining issue. Etobicoke North had experienced multiple high-profile shooting incidents in the years before the by-election, fuelling a debate between enforcement-oriented and community-investment approaches to violence reduction. Saunders's promise of 200 transit constables and 600 new police officers resonated here more than in any other ward, while Chow's emphasis on youth programming and community hubs spoke to residents who saw poverty and lack of opportunity as the root causes. The ward's distance from downtown — both geographically and in terms of political attention — reinforced a sense among residents that City Hall's priorities did not reflect their daily concerns.