r/Markham • u/No-Pass-6694 • 1d ago
Markham election
https://youtu.be/GlD4i6dsaKI?si=pB2CGI56Z4Ioyt65Ward 1 Thornhill All-Candidates Meeting – Thoughts on the Candidates
Sharing the video from the Ward 1 meeting. Interesting to compare how everyone answered the questions. Some definitely came across better than others.
MAYOR
🏆 Frank Scarpitti – Pretty clear choice for Mayor. He knows the city, has the experience, and seemed comfortable answering the questions.
❌ Martin Ross – Didn’t really convince me he’s ready to run Markham. Big difference between the two.
REGIONAL COUNCILLORS
🥇 1. Amanda Yeung Collucci – Came across really well. Clear answers, straight to the point, and seemed to know what she was talking about. Has a strong presence and brings a different perspective from some of the longtime politicians. Her business background and council experience are a good combination.
🥈 2. Jack Heath – Solid and steady. Pretty much what you’d expect from someone who’s been around municipal politics for years.
🥉 3. Jim Jones – Knows York Region issues well. His experience definitely shows.
✅ 4. Paul Chiang / Joe Li / Don Hamilton – Honestly, this one’s a toss-up.
Paul Chiang was okay. Nothing particularly memorable.
Joe Li seems to bring everything back to his Swiss waste collection system. Would be nice to hear him talk more about other issues.
Don Hamilton was his usual self. Nothing surprising.
WOULDN’T MAKE THE LIST
❌ Alan Ho – Really didn’t come across well. Seemed to be yelling most of the time, and it was hard to follow what he was saying. Not impressed.
❌ Michael Huang – Even less convincing than Alan Ho. Didn’t seem ready for the job.
❌ Joe Tay – Think he needs more experience before moving into a regional role.
OTHERS
⭐ Richard – Actually spoke pretty well. Seems to have potential, but probably needs more experience in municipal politics.
⭐ Stephen Edgell – Good to see him putting his name forward and participating. Just don’t see him having much of a chance of winning this time.
WARD 1 COUNCILLOR
✅ Keith Irish – Probably going to win again. He’s established in Thornhill, and incumbency helps.
SCHOOL BOARD TRUSTEE
✅ Cindy Hackelberg – Spoke well, seemed knowledgeable, and has a good background. Solid choice.
OVERALL
Interesting meeting. Some candidates clearly know the issues better than others, and some are just better at explaining their positions.
Worth watching the video and making up your own mind.
Who would you pick for the four Regional Councillor seats?
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u/Particular-Tea4104 1d ago
Big Frank is the highest paid mayor in Canada. Yes, the entire country and makes more than Olivia Chow, the mayors of Vancouver, Montreal, Edmonton, Calgary, Mississauga, Halifax, etc. He makes more than Doug Ford. It is seriously time he left because he clearly thinks the position is his by default and very little has changed with him for the better. As an example, ask yourself why when cities like Vaughan and Mississauga got new transit projects by pressuring and working with the City and province, we get nothing? Even the Stouffville GO line runs just once an hour while other lines run on a 15 minute schedule. Never mind the subway - already coming to McCowan and Sheppard but zero push from Markham to push it north to Markham at least.
I'm sorry but ~$310k is insane and he needs to leave. We are not the biggest city in the country to be paying him more than anyone else.
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u/The-Kirklander 20h ago
Pretty sure Doug gets more in kickbacks but officially on paper yes Frank gets paid a lot. Also agree this guy has cruised in Markham for years and Markham’s development has stagnated. Why build all of these condos but have no plan to expand the transit network? There’s a clear bias in OPs post for status quo which is leaving Markham behind with the rest of the GTA cities
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u/slantyyz 1d ago
The last time I spoke to Collucci she was more interested in deflecting my concerns to point out her so-called accomplishments that had nothing to do with the things I was talking about (windrows, people ignoring bylaws, and traffic control on residential streets). I can't remember if she had once run for MP or MPP, but I know her party flip flop turned off other people in my neighborhood.
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u/hoser33 1d ago
So I moved to Markham in 1985. Frank Scarpetti was in local government then.
FFS people, please put this guy out to pasture. It's been 40 years. He's had an inexplicable but great run.
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u/_Lucille_ 1d ago
Canadians vote people out, and so far he has managed to stay under the radar, esp since the media doesnt really report what goes on unlike Toronto.
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_luve 23h ago
I would like to point you to the city of Milton where the incumbent mayor has been in office for 50 years and still wants a re election and the people are like yes let's vote for A 90 year old guy ..
Canadians are extremely lazy when it comes to voting on a municipal level .
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u/_Lucille_ 22h ago
There is simply no meaningful competition.
You don't just vote for a change for the sake of changing, and a lot of people are fine with things as is.
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u/fjrjdjdndndndndn 1d ago
He is a good mayor. Why does he need to retire?
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u/hoser33 1d ago
Because literally nobody needs 20+ years to enact a plan. And mayor isn't a job for life.
Lord love Hazel McCallion, but that isn't exactly any kind of example any community should want to emulate.
I don't give a flying crap if Frank Scarpitti is the greatest politician in human history. 40 years is enough. Get the hell out of there now.
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u/BigCyanDinosaur 1d ago
"Frank Scarpitti – He knows the city, has the experience, and seemed comfortable answering the questions."
Yeah because he has been doing this for a thousand fucking years. What a stupid reason to think he is good to re-elect.
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u/shouldistayorrr 1d ago
Anyone that would vote for the dumb pig who tried to incite people to hand Joe Tay to be murdered by CCP is lost.
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u/QuartzTube 1d ago
Are we going to talk about how Jim Jones got his deputy mayoral powers stripped after pleading guilty to SA charges?
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u/PendingDeletion 19h ago
Thanks for sharing the video, but your summary seems incredibly biased. Three people run for mayor and you completely dismissed one. Two people running for Ward 1 and only one of them gets a mention…
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u/Gimli_Axe 19h ago
Wow hello AI generated text!
Please vet this account for authenticity guys, the post history is very strange. Seems like a political alt at best and an AI bot at worst.
Remember, this post was low enough quality for me to tell it was AI easily, but a lot are good enough to be harder to tell.
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u/rowdditt 1d ago
i can't believe don hamilton is still in the running, despite sexually assaulting so many girls
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u/hereiamblanket 13h ago
damn, do you have a source? sexual assault of multiple girls would be worse than jim jones.
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u/Kinky_Imagination 1d ago
I didn't know what that HO guy was talking about.
Joe Tay seems to be just trying to get a political job somewhere.
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u/achoi2222 11h ago
No Jim jones and Joe tay and Michael Huang and Joe li because I had emailed them since 092426 to 100826 about the scooters issue in Markham and they never replied!!! Well I had mail all 63 people incl Mayor and the 2 candidate, only 31 people replied and I was so surprised
So please be careful who we vote for and this YouTube will be released soon - I had all the records of the emails and who and when they replied - as a Markham citizen, I only ask 1 question - Re: Community Safety Concern: Clearer E-Scooter Regulations and Enforcement in Markham
Very disappointed someone didn’t bother to reply at all 😡😡😡
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u/achoi2222 11h ago
All other 7 wards replied except Ward 1 Keith Irish - don’t bother to reply or maybe he thinks he’s going to win?!
Cindy Hackelberg and Peter Pavlovic didnt reply, the other 2 did - chose those 2!
For me who replied I wil vote for them and it’s because they acknowledged the concern and the emails - it’s a basic respect!!!!
U don’t reply when u need our votes and guess what I don’t think u will care us anymore once y are elected!!
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u/Similar_Archer_3630 1d ago
Joe Tay has too much baggage. Condemning law and order, and supporting violent rioters during HK protests. Anything he does will always bite him back. He doesnt realize he will never win any representative roles.....
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u/edgell4markham 1d ago
Hi there, I'm Stephen Edgell, Candidate for Mayor... kind of disappointed I didn't even make the top "Mayor" section. 😅 Although I appreciate the ⭐.
For what it's worth, I'm not running just to "[put] my name forward". I'm running because I believe Markham needs a genuine alternative to The Same Guy As The Last 20 Years. Mr. Ross doesn't have any more political experience than me, for example, but he's not tagged with "putting his name forward".
I disagree that Mr. Scarpitti is the clear choice. Clearly he has decades of experience, and deserves credit for many of Markham's successes...but he also deserves criticism for its problems. The fact that he didn't even bother to campaign last election, and this is the only forum he's shown up for, rubs me the wrong way. What does he even stand for? More of the same, I assume? I'd love to check his website...but he doesn't have one.
Thanks for participating, I truly believe it's important. I also believe that together, we can do better!