The Star identified several “Wards to Watch” in a 47-ward election. Now that new legislation has made it a 25-ward election, we have determined all of the wards are worth watching. This is one in a series of articles. The election is Oct. 22. Advance voting begins Oct. 10.

Not so long ago city councillor John Filion announced his retirement and urged people to vote for Lily Cheng in what was then a 47-ward election. A few chaotic months later they are fighting each other, and 16 other Willowdale candidates, for votes in a 25-ward contest.

“I am a mom, a woman and a minority — that perspective is not represented on council,” Cheng says in an interview at Yonge St. and Sheppard Ave. in the centre-north Ward 18, which is suffering strains from hyperdevelopment rivalling that in the city core.

Cheng is positioning herself as progressive, like Filion, while pledging to build a “connected community” of condo dwellers, with local “champions” personally checking on, and talking to, neighbours while sharing news and information through digital networks.

“I envision a summer in Willowdale rampant with street parties and garage sales where neighbours meet neighbours,” says Cheng, who started the North York Moms group and another called We Love Willowdale that organized vigils after the April van attack on Yonge St.

Candidates cite issues including: condo development without accompanying services or infrastructure; desperate need for a subway relief line to make space on oft-packed Yonge line trains; pedestrian and cyclist safety; and a controversial plan for bike lanes on a stretch of Yonge.

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Filion says voters are not hungry for a fresh face in the new district that includes parts of his current Ward 23 and neighbouring Ward 24 now represented by retiring councillor David Shiner.

Filion was set to leave politics after more than three decades but changed his mind when Premier Doug Ford’s government slashed the size of Toronto council. A race with no incumbent, he said, makes it possible a candidate with close ties to land speculators would get into city hall.

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“In a strange way people at the door almost like me more this time because they thought I wasn’t running again, and they weren’t going to have me any more,” he says, adding Willowdale voters are worried about “political chaos and instability” over the Ford’s four-year term.

“They’re saying we need somebody at council with experience to deal with the chaos and they’re angry, conservatives included, at (council cutting) Bill 5 and the premier’s threat to use the notwithstanding clause,” says Filion who wrote a 2015 book about Ford and his late brother Rob.

Sam Moini, who became a prominent voice of the taxi industry during protests over city efforts to legalize such ride-hailing services, has a different message for voters: elect him and he can work well with Ford to benefit the community.

“The premier has been a great friend to me for many years, he believes in Willowdale and he gave a great speech at my campaign launch. He comes here and he’s like a rock star,” says Moini, stressing a collaborative approach that lets him work with people of all political stripes.

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“Sometimes I feel like Doug Ford is misrepresented — he’s a soft, gentle and caring person. He’s very loyal and he believes in this city,” says Moini, who vows to fight “overdevelopment,” keep property taxes low and try to get the Sheppard subway line extended east and west.

Some fear Ford will heed calls to extend the Yonge subway line north into the 905 region before the relief line is built. That raises the spectre of Willowdale residents, some of whom already travel north to Finch to get a seat on a southbound train, boxed out of their own transit.

When it comes to vehicle traffic on Yonge, Filion is a minority, according to Star interviews, in fully backing the Transform Yonge plan, now on hold, that would widen and beautify sidewalks, improve pedestrian crossings and replace two vehicle lanes with protected bike lanes.

Candidates including Moini, Sonny Cho who sought the federal Liberal nomination in Willowdale in 2014, and former councillor Norm Gardner who’s attempting a comeback, want bike lanes put on nearby residential Beecroft Rd., as proposed by Mayor John Tory. Cheng wants to try vehicle lane reductions as a pilot project and “let the data decide” if the change should be permanent.

“Listening to people at the door I have come to realize that a large percentage of people in Willowdale are not ready for such a drastic change,” and more consultation is needed, she says.

Saman Tabasinejad, who ran unsuccessfully for the NDP in the Ontario election and whose council run is endorsed by the Toronto and York Region Labour Council, says she would try to get both bike lanes put on Yonge’s west side to ensure buses can safely turn right on Finch.

She also wants to eliminate a landscaped median so the number of vehicle lanes can be adjusted during the day to accommodate rush-hour traffic.

David Mousavi, a lawyer who finished second to Filion in 2014 and now says Willowdale now needs “strong leadership, integrity, and action,” is also critical of Transform Yonge, saying “the TTC has raised valid concerns about it’s impact on (bus) public transit,” that need to be studied.

His platform includes greater transparency around “Section 37” funds developers pay to the city, in exchange for extra building height or density, and transferring some of the money to the Toronto District School Board to expand classroom spaces.

Danny DeSantis, a successful entrepreneur and community volunteer whose platform includes fighting for a better access ramp to Highway 401 and building underground PATH-style pedestrian tunnels, has scored endorsements from local politicians that initially included one from Liberal MPP Michael Coteau.

But Coteau rescinded his endorsement after DeSantis tweeted a Ford Fest photo of himself posing with Faith Goldy, a white nationalist among 35 people running for mayor of Toronto.

DeSantis says he rejects all racism and only knew that Goldy is a mayoral hopeful. He eventually deleted the Twitter photo, but, he says, as “people person” he believes “sometimes you have to beat people up with kindness and maybe that way you’ll change their ideologies.”

Ward 18 is among the city’s most ethnically diverse with 67 per cent visible minorities, compared to 51 per cent for all of Toronto, and strong Chinese, Persian, Korean and Russian communities.

Also running for the council seat are: Farah Aslani; David Epstein; Andrew Herbst; Marvin Honickman; Albert Kim; Gerald Mak; Sam Mathi; Chung Jin Park; Winston Park; and Hamid Shakeri.

David Rider is the Star’s City Hall bureau chief and a reporter covering Toronto politics. Follow him on Twitter: @dmrider

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