While Toronto Mayor John Tory and his former chief city planner Jennifer Keesmaat have been waging a bloodless battle over who should lead Toronto for the next four years, mayoral candidates across the GTA have been engaged in more personal campaigns.

In Oshawa, a city councillor who was once a homeless alcoholic is running for mayor, and in Whitchurch-Stouffville, a former NHL player is taking on a mayor who brought unwanted attention to the municipality with a mural in his private bathroom at town hall.

In Brampton, Patrick Brown, who nine months ago stood at the pinnacle of provincial party politics in Ontario, is hoping to stage a comeback.

A look at three of the more interesting mayoral races in the GTA.

Oshawa

Mayoral candidate Dan Carter believes he has an advantage over his opponents when it comes to understanding those who are struggling in his city: he was himself homeless for many years.

From the time he was 17 until he was 31, he was an alcoholic living on and off the streets of Toronto.

He was 13 when his adored older brother Michael was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1974 and it was at his wake that Carter had his first drink. By 17 he was drinking heavily and for 14 years he fell into it. He became addicted to cocaine.

In an interview with the Star, Carter said he was trying to forget a sexual assault that took place when he was an 8-year-old paper boy, escaping from the cold at a neighbourhood gas station. He was raped by a stranger there. He told no one for decades.

School was difficult. He had a learning disability. Drinking made him feel like he was in command of his life.

“After having a few drinks I didn’t feel like the kid that was dumb, stupid. I was somebody else and that was exactly what I wanted. It made me feel like I was funny, good-looking, charming, smart,” Carter said in an interview the Star.

His older sister got him into rehab when he was 31.

A few years later he managed to break into broadcasting, and enjoyed a career as a Durham local news and talk show host. In 2014 his wife challenged him to run for council. He won a seat on local and regional council.

“I think that my life experience has helped me deal with some of the big issues that we’re facing today in not only our city, but cities across Canada,” said Carter, pointing to the opiate crisis and homelessness as two of those issues.

Oshawa Mayor John Henry — who is running for the position of Durham regional chair, opening the Oshawa mayor’s seat — said he encouraged Carter to run because he felt he was an excellent councillor and successfully chaired the finance committee.

Joe Ingino, publisher of the Oshawa Central newspaper, who ran against Henry in 2014, said he’s running against Carter this time around because he wants to see a change at city hall and in his opinion, Carter doesn’t represent change.

“If we elect Carter into office and Henry wins at the region, Henry will still be running the city through Carter,” said Ingino.

Ingino’s platform includes focusing the city on building up the downtown instead of allowing developers to build communities on prime farmland.

Carter said that since his recovery, he has worked to improve mental health and addiction services in his community, beginning with literacy skills for children — he and his wife have helped raise $1 million over 11 years to found and operate the Hope Centre of Learning in Oshawa at the Carea Community Health Centre, which promotes computer skills, literacy skills and youth leadership skills.

“I want to build different communities so that we create different pathways for individuals that are facing poverty or hardship,” said Carter. “How can we help them feel that they’re respected and served?”

Brampton

Mayor Linda Jeffrey is facing off against former Ontario Progressive Conservative party leader Patrick Brown in a race that is shining a spotlight on — among other things — the value of party loyalty.

Despite the fact that Jeffrey was a Liberal MPP from 2003 to 2014, Premier Doug Ford’s campaign manager, Michael Diamond, threw a fundraising event for her at the private Albany Club in Toronto, which bills itself as the home of Canadian Conservatives and business leaders.

Brown resigned as PC party leader in January amid accusations of sexual misconduct, which he has denied and is fighting in a defamation lawsuit.

Ford has repeatedly accused Brown of leaving the PC party in ruins.

Jeffrey is wielding that broken relationship to political advantage, warning voters that if Brown is elected, he’ll be an ineffective mayor because Queen’s Park won’t want to work with him.

“I can feel a real animosity there, which will really hurt us at the end of the day,” said Jeffrey in an interview with the Star, adding that she was approached by Conservatives about holding a fundraiser for her after a meeting in August of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.

“Mr. Brown is out there saying that Ford is not his BFF (best friend forever) — well, that is an understatement I think, and he’s giving people the impression that he’ll be able to get people to return his phone calls if he becomes the mayor and nothing could be further from the truth, they absolutely will not take our phone calls if that happens.”

Brown, meanwhile, has said Jeffrey has been unable to get consensus from city councillors to bring effective change to Brampton, especially on the transit file, a hot topic in a city projected to grow to one million people by about 2040, and already grappling with gridlock.

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“For four years, Linda Jeffrey and (former Ontario premier) Kathleen Wynne were best friends and Brampton didn’t get any results,” said Brown.

He pointed to recently announced provincial funding that he said Brampton won’t benefit from, including $25 million in new funding over four years to help curb a recent spike in gun and gang violence in Toronto and $90 million to help fund more hospital beds.

Brown said Brampton has fewer hospital beds than the provincial average and fewer police officers.

“It’s like we’re not even on the radar,” said Brown.

“We need someone who is going to shake it up and demand better.”

Other high-profile candidates in the running include veteran Councillor John Sprovieri and former Conservative MP Baljit Gosal.

Whitchurch-Stouffville

Mayor Justin Altmann, who has been dogged by controversy, is up for re-election, against opponents that include current Ward 5 Councillor Iain Lovatt and Keith Acton, a former NHL player.

“We’ve been dealing with a lot of drama,” said Lovatt in an interview with the Star. “I am running to bring some stability back to town hall.”

Altmann has been embroiled in conflict over a mural in his office washroom that included names and photos of staff and other councillors, which he has described as a mind-mapping exercise.

The incident led to him being banned from talking to town staff and going to municipal facilities. The ban was struck down in September by an Ontario Superior Court justice.

Lovatt said he would focus on rebuilding the town’s reputation, developing a strategic plan, growing the commercial and industrial tax base and preserving the community’s heritage.

“We don’t have anything protecting our heritage. I think we could lose what makes us so quaint,” said Lovatt.

Lovatt pointed out that aside from Altmann, he is the only candidate for mayor with experience on council.

“I think it’s a significant differentiator for myself. It’s the best opportunity for a seamless transition into the next term of council.”

Acton said that Lovatt was part of a council that wasn’t working well.

“There’s good experience and there’s bad experience,” said Acton, who was drafted into the NHL to play with the Montreal Canadiens in 1978, near the end of a decade that saw them capture six Stanley Cups. He won a Stanley Cup with the Edmonton Oilers in the 1987-88 season.

“I learned the formula for winning and I learned about leaders and how they conduct themselves,” said Acton, who also owns a Boston Pizza franchise.

“In business or in hockey, if you had dysfunction and failure for four years, you wouldn’t be considering rehiring somebody and you wouldn’t be considering promoting somebody.”

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