Ward 16 — Don Valley East

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The race & the 2022 baseline

• Office: Councillor, Ward 16 - Don Valley East
• Seats: 1
• Incumbent: Jon Burnside — running in 2026: yes — open seat: no

2022 result: Jon Burnside won by 24.0 percentage points over the runner-up — a landslide, not a close call. Source: City of Toronto official 2022 election results, as_of 2026-08-16.

This ward’s own 2022 turnout was 30.50% (18,785 of 61,583 eligible electors cast a ballot) — compared to a citywide 2022 turnout of 29.7% that year. Source: City of Toronto, City Clerk’s Office, “Elections – Voter Statistics” (2022 dataset), cross-checked against the Clerk’s own 2022 Municipal Election Report.

Who’s running here in 2026 (3)

Every candidate filed in this ward as of 2026-08-16, alphabetical by surname, identical fields for every name. Bios are synthesized only from each candidate’s own published campaign material and registry facts — never from news coverage, opposition material, or this project’s own judgment (see Receipts below).

Geography & boundaries

Legally defined (Elections Ontario boundary text, per Wikipedia): commences at Highway 401 & Victoria Park Avenue, south along Victoria Park to Sunrise Avenue, west along Sunrise (and its production) to the Don River East Branch, generally southwest along that branch to Don Mills Road, north along Don Mills Road to Overlea Boulevard, southwest along Overlea to the Don River West Branch, generally northwest along that branch to Eglinton Avenue East, east along Eglinton to Leslie Street, generally north along Leslie to Highway 401, then east along the highway back to the point of commencement. Named areas commonly associated with the ward, per neighbourhood-specific sources: Flemingdon Park (bounded by the West Don River, Eglinton Avenue East, the East Don River, and a rail-adjacent property line to the south) and Victoria Village (bounded by the Don Valley, Lawrence Avenue East, Victoria Park Avenue, and Eglinton Avenue East). [Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_16_Don_Valley_East, accessed 2026-08-14] [Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flemingdon_Park, accessed 2026-08-14] [Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Village, accessed 2026-08-14]

Civic texture — what’s live here

• Eglinton Crosstown (Line 5) opening, three stops in Flemingdon Park. Line 5 opened February 8, 2026, running through both Flemingdon Park and Victoria Village. Flemingdon Park specifically gained three stops: Don Valley Station, Aga Khan Park & Museum, and Wynford, connecting the neighbourhood to Line 1 (Yonge-University) and to Scarborough Town Centre. [Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flemingdon_Park, accessed 2026-08-14] [Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Village, accessed 2026-08-14]
• Ontario Line construction — two elevated stations planned for Flemingdon Park. The Ontario Line (under construction as of August 14, 2026) is planned to add two elevated stations in Flemingdon Park — Flemingdon Park Station and Don Valley Station — with the latter creating a direct interchange with Line 5. [Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flemingdon_Park, accessed 2026-08-14]
• Former Celestica site redevelopment. Plans are underway for a large development at the 24-hectare former Celestica manufacturing site (844 Don Mills Road, demolished late 2018) at Don Mills Road & Eglinton Avenue, described as bringing thousands of residents across eight condo towers plus new offices, shops, and (per an earlier-stage plan reported by a real-estate industry source) a 100,000-sq.-ft recreation centre and townhomes. [Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flemingdon_Park, accessed 2026-08-14]
• 25 St. Dennis Drive intensification, resident concern (dated context). A 37-storey residential addition to the existing 25 St. Dennis Drive apartment complex was approved by the City after being proposed in 2017; Toronto Star reporting (November 2020) recorded resident concern about consultation and displacement risk for "vulnerable communities." This is background from a 2020 news report, not independently re-verified against the project's current 2026 status. [Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flemingdon_Park, accessed 2026-08-14, citing thestar.com, November 25, 2020]
• Active City capital works, 2026. The City's own Ward 16 profile page lists a further set of live/recent construction notices — Don Valley Parkway bridge rehabilitation under Metrolinx rail and slope stabilization at Dallimore Circle; sewer/watermain work on Duncan Mill Road, Cranborne Avenue, Ferrand Drive, and Prestbury Street; O'Connor Drive storm sewer replacement (shared with Wards 19/20); and bridge rehabilitation at Spanbridge Road/Lawrence Avenue/Wynford Drive over the DVP. A general 2026 local road-resurfacing notice for the ward was issued in March 2026. [Source: https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/data-research-maps/neighbourhoods-communities/ward-profiles/ward-16-don-valley-east/, accessed 2026-08-14, page dated "modified July 15, 2026"]

Transit & development

TTC: the ward is now served by Line 5 Eglinton (three Flemingdon Park stops, per §3) and, per Victoria Village's own profile, multiple bus routes (24 Victoria Park, 34 Eglinton, 54 Lawrence East, 70 O'Connor, 91 Woodbine, plus express variants); exact station-to-ward assignment not independently verified against the boundary polygon — named as general context, not a formal join. Major transit projects: the February 2026 Line 5 opening and the under-construction Ontario Line (§3) together make this one of the more transit-active wards covered so far. Development: the former Celestica site (§3) is the single largest identified development; the 25 St. Dennis Drive intensification (§3) is a second, smaller but locally contested item. [Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flemingdon_Park, accessed 2026-08-14]

Local commons

• Flemingdon Park Branch, Toronto Public Library. [Source: https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/flemingdonpark/, accessed 2026-08-14, via citation in the Flemingdon Park Wikipedia article — not independently re-fetched]
• Victoria Village Branch, Toronto Public Library — at Sloane Avenue & Sweeney Drive; founded 1967 as a North York Public Library branch, renovated 1996. [Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Village, accessed 2026-08-14]
• Dennis R. Timbrell Resource Centre, Flemingdon Community Centre, Angela James Arena & Tennis Courts — City-operated community facilities in Flemingdon Park (Toronto Parks, Forestry & Recreation); E.T. Seton Park (part of the Toronto Ravine System), Ferrand Drive Park, Gateway Greenbelt, and Linkwood Lane Park/Parkette are the named public parks in Flemingdon Park. [Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flemingdon_Park, accessed 2026-08-14]
• Victoria Village Public Arena, Charles Sauriol Conservation Area, Anewen Greenbelt, Wigmore Park — named facilities/parks in Victoria Village. [Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Village, accessed 2026-08-14]
• Light research pass only — a fuller branch/CRC/park list needs the formal geospatial join named in the plan (§6), not this brief.

Toronto Public Library branches and Parks, Forestry & Recreation community/recreation centres located inside this ward’s boundary, joined by geographic coordinates (see Receipts) — complete citywide datasets for both layers, every ward covered.

Public libraries (4)

• Brookbanks — 210 Brookbanks Drive, Toronto, On, M3A 2T8
• Don Mills — 888 Lawrence Avenue East, Toronto, On, M3C 1P6
• Flemingdon Park — 29 St. Dennis Drive, Toronto, On, M3C 3J3
• Victoria Village — 184 Sloane Avenue, Toronto, On, M4A 2C4

Community & recreation centres (9)

• Angela James Arena — 165 Grenoble Dr
• Broadlands Community Recreation Centre — 19 Castlegrove Blvd
• Dennis R. Timbrell Resource Centre — 29 St Dennis Dr
• Don Mills Civitan Arena — 1030 Don Mills Rd
• Fenside Arena — 30 Slidell Cres
• Flemingdon Community Centre And Playground Paradise — 150 Grenoble Dr
• Sloane Public School — 110 Sloane Ave
• Victoria Park Collegiate Institute — 15 Wallingford Rd
• Victoria Village Arena — 190 Bermondsey Rd

Parks aren’t listed here: parks joining is partial citywide — not shown rather than shown unevenly. The citywide parks join has fetched and joined 400 of the dataset’s 1,511 Park-type rows so far; that 400-row sample isn’t evenly distributed enough per ward to publish per-ward park lists or counts responsibly yet.

Local media landscape

• No ward-specific community newspaper or dedicated local-news outlet was confirmed for this ward — stated plainly as a gap, not padded; see §8. (Neighbourhood-level Wikipedia sourcing drew primarily on Toronto Star and CBC coverage of specific developments, not a standing local outlet.)

Networks & local commons

As of August 17, 2026, this project's public organization registry maps 87 organizations directly to Ward 16 (Don Valley East) — corrected the same day from the 1 this brief had stated since mid-August, when a registry-wide bug was found: the public ward pages had been reading only the single canonical `"Ward 16 (Don Valley East)"` tag spelling and silently missing every alternate format the registry's own geography join (`org_placements.csv`) already resolves (bare `"Ward 16"`, a bare riding name, and more). The 1 organization named below remain this ward's own individually-verified, hand-researched anchors — that research is untouched by this fix. The 86 more behind today's 87 total are principally bulk City/CRA register rows (early-years childcare, K-12 parent councils) captured registry-wide rather than ward-by-ward, carrying the weaker `seed-web-verified` status rather than a direct confirmation; 8 of the 87 total carry `verified-live` status:

• Don Mills Residents Inc. (DMRI) — a residents' association. https://www.dmri.ca/

This is a starting point, not a finished map. This brief's Local Commons section above already names Ward 16's civic-infrastructure anchors; those are the next nodes the sweep will connect this organization to as it goes deeper, and city-wide organization mapping is underway ward by ward to reach the rest of this ward's faith communities, resident and tenant associations, cultural groups, service organizations, and the dozens of other categories this project tracks.

If you lead, work with, or simply know of an organization rooted in this ward, this project's tribes directory at https://unitetolove.ca/tribes/directory.html is where to add it or correct what's already there — every addition is checked against a public source before it's published.

The ward in numbers (2021 Census)

Source: City of Toronto Ward Profiles (25-Ward Model), Statistics Canada 2021 Census custom tabulations, City Planning Division, published December 2023. Household income reflects the 2020 reference year.

See the citywide summary table for the same census columns, all 25 wards, one page.

What else is on your ballot

Every Toronto voter marks three races on October 26, 2026: this ward’s councillor (above), the citywide mayor, and one school trustee.

• Mayor (citywide — the same race for every ward) — 42 candidates registered as of 2026-08-14, identical treatment: the mayoral race card.
• School trustee — one seat, for whichever of Toronto’s four school boards matches your school-support designation. Trustee-district boundaries do not in general line up with the 25 council wards; here is what this project has established for THIS ward, tiered by how confidently each is sourced:
  • Conseil scolaire Viamonde (French public) — Toronto-Est (Secteur 2, Annexe NORD-EST) (race card) — confirmed exact from the board’s own official regulatory determination document (Détermination et répartition des conseillers scolaires, Conseil scolaire Viamonde, March 2026, Annexe C).
  • TCDSB — narrowed to one of two TCDSB wards (TCDSB Ward 3 or TCDSB Ward 5), not resolved further by any source found — not presented as settled; see this ward’s precision note below.
  • CSC MonAvenir (French Catholic) — this ward falls in one of MonAvenir’s two Toronto régions (Toronto-Est or Toronto-Ouest); the board has not published a ward-level boundary document, so which région applies here is not resolved — a region-level statement, not a guess at which one.
  • TDSB — not established for this ward: no reliable source pairs it to a specific TDSB ward (a named gap, not a guess).
  39 TDSB and 21 TCDSB trustee candidates are registered citywide as of 2026-08-14. Whatever the tiers above show, MyVote is the authoritative resolver for your own address — check it before you vote: MyVote.

This ward’s trustee-crosswalk precision note: TDSB: NOT ESTABLISHED. TCDSB: see ward 15 note - UNRESOLVED. Viamonde exact. MonAvenir not disambiguated.

Get involved — from thirty seconds to a year

Everything on this page is published so that anyone who lives here can use it: there is no membership, no gate and nothing to belong to. If you want to do something with it, the doors below start at thirty seconds and stop wherever you like — every one of them is optional, every one of them is free to copy or fork, and none of them asks who you vote for.

• The ladder — what you can do today: thirty seconds, an hour, an evening, a week, a season, a year. Every rung a real door, every rung optional.
• The Harvest — add three lines to one public record: a vision for 2030, a complaint about what is broken, or a neighbour worth naming.
• Add your name to the count — a name and a way to reach you is the whole first ask; everything after that is optional.
• The mobilization framework — for anyone who already leads a room and wants that room, and every room like it, to act together. Free, forkable, evidence-based, nothing to join.
• The plan — one year, all-out — what this city could do in a single year, month by month, with every number labelled as a target rather than a promise.
• The conversation kits — free, open kits for running your own conversation about Toronto’s future, at a kitchen table or in a hall.
• Mutual aid — how neighbours already help each other across Toronto, what a block circle is, and how to start one where you live.
• The letters — written to the people this city keeps writing about instead of to. Read one; pass it to someone it is about.

This is a neighbours’ project rather than a campaign or an organization: it publishes tools, data and evidence, and leaves every decision to the person reading. Nothing here endorses a candidate or a party, and nothing here needs our permission to be used.

What this page doesn’t cover yet

This ward’s research brief names these additional gaps, plainly, rather than guessing over them:

• WebSearch unavailable this ward (see file header) — live news search for any 2026-specific development or safety stories was not possible.
• Exact Line-5/station-to-ward and future-Ontario-Line-station-to-ward assignment (§4) stated from general geography, not a verified point-in-polygon check — flagged, not asserted as precise.
• The 25 St. Dennis Drive project's current (2026) construction status was not independently verified — sourced from a 2020 news report only.
• Local media landscape (§6) — no ward-specific outlet identified; not attempted via live search due to the tooling constraint above.
• Trustee-ward crosswalk not attempted here — out of this brief's scope (per plan §0/§6, only 3 wards have a positive trustee match on file; W16 not stated as one in material read for this brief).

• A full address-to-trustee-district crosswalk is not complete for every board (school board trustee races do not share the 25-ward boundary map): for this ward, TDSB carries not established and TCDSB is narrowed to one of two TCDSB wards, not resolved further; CSC MonAvenir is resolved only to a region (Toronto-Est or Toronto-Ouest), never a ward, for every ward citywide. Conseil scolaire Viamonde is the one board fully resolved, exact, for every ward. See the tiered breakdown and this ward’s precision note in “What else is on your ballot” above.
• Libraries and community/recreation centres are now geospatially joined to this ward’s boundary (see “What’s live here, by the numbers” under Local commons above — complete citywide datasets for both layers). Parks joining is partial citywide; not shown rather than shown unevenly (400 of 1,511 City-classified park-type rows fetched and joined so far).

Receipts — where every figure on this page comes from

• Council race and 2022 baseline: this project’s Toronto elections registry (race ON-toronto-council-w16), as_of 2026-08-16.
• Filed 2026 candidates: the same registry, 3 rows for this race, as_of 2026-08-16 — re-pulled from the City Clerk’s candidate feed and refreshed after nominations close 2026-08-21.
• Candidate bios: synthesized only from each candidate’s own published campaign material (their website, their own social accounts, their own platform document) and registry facts already on file — never from news coverage, opposition material, or inference beyond what the candidate has themself published. A candidate with no captured public material is stated plainly, never guessed over. As of 2026-08-14.
• 2021 Census figures: City of Toronto Ward Profiles (25-Ward Model), Statistics Canada 2021 Census custom tabulations, prepared by Strategic Initiatives, Policy & Analysis, City Planning Division, City of Toronto, December 2023 (`2023-wardprofiles-2011-2021-censusdata_rev0719.xlsx`, sheet "2021 One Variable"). Household income figures reflect the 2020 reference year used by the 2021 Census.
• Land area: City of Toronto Ward Profiles geographic-areas file, published December 2023 (`2023-WardProfiles-GeographicAreas.xlsx`).
• Geography, civic texture, transit/development, local commons, local media: this ward’s research brief, researched 2026-08-14 — full source list below.
• Dataset-wide registrant figures: the 2026-08-14 Toronto figures pull, from the City of Toronto Clerk’s official candidate feeds.
• This ward’s own 2022 turnout: City of Toronto, City Clerk’s Office, “Elections – Voter Statistics” (2022 dataset), cross-checked against the Clerk’s own 2022 Municipal Election Report. (per-ward figures joined 2026-08-15).
• Libraries and community/recreation centres: City of Toronto Open Data — Toronto Public Library branch list and the Parks, Forestry & Recreation “parks-and-recreation-facilities” dataset, joined to the 25-ward boundary layer by coordinates, 2026-08-15 (both layers complete citywide).
• School-board trustee crosswalk: Conseil scolaire Viamonde’s own official regulatory determination document (exact, all 25 wards); Toronto Catholic District School Board’s own published ward pages (exact where cited, one-of-two where noted unresolved); TDSB local news reporting (not yet verified against an official board document); CSC MonAvenir’s own election page (region-level only) — built 2026-08-15, see this ward’s precision note above.

This ward’s research-brief sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_16_Don_Valley_East — accessed 2026-08-14
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flemingdon_Park — accessed 2026-08-14
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Village — accessed 2026-08-14
• https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/data-research-maps/neighbourhoods-communities/ward-profiles/ward-16-don-valley-east/ — accessed 2026-08-14 (page dated "modified July 15, 2026")
• https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/flemingdonpark/ — accessed 2026-08-14 (via citation only)

Per-candidate research notes, QA flags, and source-capture logs are kept in this project’s internal working files, not published here; every bio and every fact on this page is drawn from that work but the page itself states the fact, not the working notes behind it.

Found a mistake?

That’s the system working. Every figure on this page traces to a public source or a candidate’s own published material, cited in the Receipts section above; if one is wrong, out of date, or reads differently than the source supports, we want to know before anyone else repeats it. Send it to the corrections page — it takes thirty seconds, and every correction is published, dated, and left visible.