🔎 The race
**Kingston votes Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, for mayor, 12 district councillors and school board trustees** — 36 certified candidates for 13 city offices, on a roll of 114,356 eligible voters, per the city's certified candidates notice. Two races were decided before election day: incumbents Don Amos in Portsmouth and Vincent Cinanni in Williamsville were acclaimed, leaving 11 councillor contests plus the top job.
**Bryan Paterson is seeking a fourth term as mayor**, the longest-serving mayor in the city's history. He won his 2022 re-election with 21,844 votes — just over 74 per cent — on an overall turnout of about 31 per cent (Global News), and he briefly left the job's orbit in 2025 to win the federal Conservative nomination in Kingston and the Islands, losing to former mayor Mark Gerretsen before returning to the council chair. He launched his re-election bid on June 16, 2026 at a Highway 15 construction site, saying the city is at a "pivotal moment": "I think my decision is very much predicated on the pivotal moment that we see as a community... I am convinced that what is needed most right now is knowledge, experience and proven leadership in the mayor's office" (Whig-Standard). An economist and Royal Military College faculty member, he forecasts "choppy waters ahead of us" and answers critics who call him too close to developers with: "I'm not pro housing because I'm too cozy with developers. I'm pro housing because I'm an economist" (Whig-Standard mayor's race profile).
**Three challengers say it is time for a change of direction.** Coun. **Conny Glenn**, the only sitting councillor in the race, has represented Sydenham District since 2022 and chairs the city's housing and homelessness committee; she says "the consistent message is people are looking for change, looking for options and they'd like some new approaches to how we're dealing with some of the big problems" and, on housing, "we're falling behind" (Whig-Standard). **Vanessa Mensah**, a registered social worker and the city's former manager of equity, diversity and inclusion (she left the role earlier in 2026, per CBC), built a campaign on City Hall transparency, economic development and affordability: "People are tired of the lack of transparency that happens within city hall... In housing, supply doesn't mean affordability" (Whig-Standard). **Grant William Bedard**, a north-end lifelong Kingstonian with no political experience, frames the race as lived experience — "I went through the homelessness stage when I was younger. I was a ward of the court from a young age" (Whig-Standard launch profile). A fifth would-be mayor, Stephen Cuthbertson, withdrew from the mayoral race and instead ran in Lakeside District (Kingstonist candidate hub).
**Down-ballot, the race with no incumbent is the one to watch.** The Whig calls Sydenham — where Glenn's move to mayor left the seat open — "among the most hotly contested race in Kingston's municipal election," with four candidates including 19-year-old Queen's political science student Andrew DaCosta, the youngest on the ballot (Whig-Standard). Four-candidate fields also crowd Loyalist-Cataraqui (incumbent Paul Chaves against what the Whig colourfully calls "a pharmacist, a retired correctional officer, a real estate agent and a former rock star" — Whig-Standard), Pittsburgh (four-term incumbent Ryan Boehme plus three challengers) and King's Town (incumbent Greg Ridge against Aba Mortley and Melissa Reid — Queen's Journal). In Kingscourt-Rideau, incumbent Brandon Tozzo faces repeat candidate Michael Judd and Kevin Smith, who has lived on the streets and volunteered on the housing committee (Whig-Standard), and in Collins-Bayridge Joel Anthony Bruce is trying to unseat Lisa Osanic, the longest-serving councillor on council (Whig-Standard).
**The campaign has been unusually forum-rich and unusually thin on donor disclosure.** The Coalition of Kingston Communities staged an in-person mayoral all-candidates meeting at The Spire on Sept. 14 with all four candidates, plus district-by-district meetings in person and on Zoom through mid-October (organizer's summary); there were student debates, a Portsmouth Olympic Harbour debate on Oct. 8, and a Greater Kingston Chamber of Commerce mayoral debate on YourTV Kingston with all four candidates (YouTube). After all four agreed at a candidates' meeting to publish their donor lists, three did — Paterson did not (Whig-Standard). Elsewhere on the ballot's edges: the proposed Alto high-speed rail stop has drawn mostly cool responses from council candidates (Whig-Standard survey), and rural Countryside saw candidates Joseph Abreu and Jeff Scott decline to attend the district all-candidates meeting while Vic Sahai participated (CKC schedule).
⚡ Key issues
Housing and the rental market
Housing is the consensus top issue, with a twist: the market is cooling but still brutal. CMHC put Kingston's purpose-built rental vacancy at **2.4 per cent in 2025** (down from 2.9) and the average rent at **$1,713** — still among Canada's tightest markets — while Statistics Canada found Kingston posted **the largest year-over-year decline in listed asking rents of any CMA in Canada** in early 2026 (Queen's Journal). Paterson touts exceeding provincial housing targets three years running and 1,011 homes broken ground on in the past year, plus a $3.2-million Building Faster Fund award and nearly $7 million in provincial housing infrastructure money (Queen's Journal); his platform promises the city acting "as an active partner in getting homes built, not just approving them," including a public/non-profit housing initiative (Kingstonist profile). Glenn says the city needs "a different approach to spur the creation of more homes" — "we're falling behind" — and Mensah argues "in housing, supply doesn't mean affordability" (Whig-Standard).
Homelessness, mental health and addictions
Every mayoral candidate runs on the intersecting homelessness, mental-health and addictions crisis, but from very different seats. Paterson calls it one of the "real headwinds" driving his re-election bid (Kingstonist profile); Bedard, its most personal spokesman, says "the mental health, the addictions, the homelessness, they're all kind of tied in together... I think for years we've been just scratching the surface and things have gotten substantially worse" (Whig-Standard); Kingscourt-Rideau candidate Kevin Smith ran after experiencing homelessness and calling the city's response to a fatal encampment fire "absolutely horrible" (Whig-Standard). King's Town challenger Melissa Reid has made the closure of the city's supervised consumption and treatment services central — "we're the last supervised consumption site to close in Ontario" — while incumbent Greg Ridge points to 33 new supportive housing units for seniors on Queen Mary Road and $200,000 in municipal grants for food-insecure organizations (Queen's Journal).
Water and sewer: the Utilities Kingston shake-up
Kingston is quietly re-engineering who runs its water. On June 16, 2026 council voted **8-4 to endorse a municipal service corporation (MSC)** to take oversight of roughly **$3.2 billion** in water and wastewater assets from the city's books, transferring about $150 million of utility debt and giving the new corporation borrowing powers of its own (Kingstonist). Staff projected household water/sewer bills rising about **seven per cent a year under the MSC versus about 10 per cent under the status quo**, on top of already-approved 4.8-per-cent rate increases in each of 2025 and 2026 (Kingstonist). The Coalition of Kingston Communities called the process "secretive" and urged council to scrap the MSC and bring Utilities Kingston back under direct municipal control (Kingstonist); critics also fear the provincial backdrop — the Ford government's Water and Wastewater Public Corporations Act — could open a door to privatization. King's Town's Reid campaigns explicitly on "recent changes at Utilities Kingston" (Queen's Journal).
The conference centre (and hotel) that fell through
Kingston's long-chased downtown conference centre and hotel deal **collapsed in March 2026**, a week into the election period. The city and the Patry Group-led consortium with Milhaus and Broccolini terminated their letter of intent during the 120-day exclusivity period without reaching agreement — ending a proposal for a **59,000-square-foot conference centre for up to 1,000 delegates, a 247-room hotel and two 340-unit residential towers** on Block 4 near Slush Puppie Place (Kingstonist, city notice). Paterson called it "a temporary setback. We are still very much committed to the conference centre project," and staff are to report back to council later in 2026, but tourism groups have pressed for this convention infrastructure for years and the failure lands squarely on the incumbent's record in a re-election year (Kingstonist).
Taxes, affordability and City Hall transparency
"Taxes, taxes, taxes" — as Loyalist-Cataraqui candidate Charanjeev Sekhon puts it, "that's the biggest thing everyone is complaining about. That's what I get the most e-mails about" (Whig-Standard) — runs against a city finance picture under real pressure, with affordability framed as a municipal-budget problem too (Whig-Standard). Paterson's pitch is keeping property-tax increases "among the lowest of any major Ontario city" (Kingstonist profile); Glenn pairs "fiscal responsibility" with "finding new sources of revenue" and running "a lean and effective City operation" (Kingstonist profile); Mensah makes transparency her brand — "we want to make sure that the money that is coming in is being spent properly" (Queen's Journal). It landed: after all four mayoral candidates agreed to publish donor lists, the three challengers did — Glenn posted 81 donations topping $42,200 — while Paterson held his back (Whig-Standard). Transparency International Canada's October report on Ontario municipal campaign finance argues disclosure rules arrive "after voters have already cast their ballots" (Whig-Standard).
- The brief pointed to "Kingston Community Food Centre / CFMLO streams" for all-candidates forums. No Kingston Community Food Centre or "CFMLO" forum could be found in any source; the documented forum host for 2026 is the Coalition of Kingston Communities (with YourTV Kingston broadcasting the Chamber of Commerce debate). The brief's reference may be garbled — treated as unverified and excluded.
- No poll results for Kingston's mayoral race were found; no credible 2026 polling appears to exist.
- Whig-Standard ward-series articles exist for Loyalist-Cataraqui, Kingscourt-Rideau, Sydenham, Trillium, Lakeside, Collins-Bayridge and King's Town; the Trillium, Lakeside and Collins-Bayridge pieces were seen only in headlines/summaries (paywall-adjacent), so their details aren't quoted here.
- Daria Juudi-Hope's 2025 federal NDP candidacy is sourced from Wikipedia's election table (spelled Juüdi-Hope there); her ballot name is Daria Juudi-Hope.
- The City of Kingston's certified-candidates page and the CKC schedule disagree on a few ward-meeting attendee lists (e.g., Sydenham's meeting listed Jago Garrett, who later withdrew); pack roster is treated as authoritative.
- Candidate-website claims (tax pledges, project promises) come from candidate-authored Kingstonist 'Six questions' profiles — flagged as such, not independently verified.
- Google News links in the brief point to redirect stubs; each article was re-sourced to its publisher URL.
- The Utilities Kingston rate-change article (utilitieskingston.com/News/Article/budget-rate-changes) returns HTTP 403 to automated checks, so it was dropped; the 4.8-per-cent figures rest on the cited Kingstonist coverage. Postmedia URLs intermittently bot-gate automated checks (404/403 on some attempts, 200 on retry); the Mensah-launch URL was confirmed live on repeated HEAD and GET requests.
- Ryan Boehme recusal, donor-list totals and forum attendee lists come from news coverage of primary documents (council vote, posted donor lists, CKC schedule); the underlying documents themselves were not fetched.
| Bryan Paterson Incumbent Elected 2022 · Mayor (74.3%) | 🔎 Incumbent mayor since 2014 and Kingston's longest-serving mayor, an economist and Royal Military College professor who took a leave of absence from the political scene to win the 2025 federal Conservative nomination in Kingston and the Islands — and lose to Mark Gerretsen — before returning to seek a fourth term (Wikipedia). Running on experience against "choppy waters": affordability, housing where the city is "an active partner in getting homes built," and what he calls the "largest road repair blitz in Kingston's history" (Kingstonist). The only mayoral candidate who had not released his donor list by mid-October (Whig-Standard). |
| Conny Glenn Serving council — different office Elected 2022 · Councillor, Ward 10 Sydenham | 🔎 Sitting Sydenham District councillor (elected 2022, elected with 504 votes in a four-way race) and chair of the city's housing and homelessness committee — the only councillor challenging the mayor (Kingstonist). An ergonomist and business owner who says she founded Kinesiology consulting practices and helped establish her profession's regulation, she campaigns on "opening City Hall" and a systems-based approach to housing, the economy and municipal finances (Queen's Journal). Posted the largest published donor list: 81 donors, more than $42,200 (Whig-Standard). |
| Grant William Bedard | 🔎 Lifelong Kingstonian from the city's north end running as a political outsider with "no political experience whatsoever" — the first thing he says about himself (Whig-Standard). A former ward of the province who left children's aid at 15 and has lived with homelessness, he says he'd use the mayor's chair so "no one is left behind," and calls council a team whose priorities the mayor sets jointly, not alone (Whig-Standard). Ran a deliberately light campaign, skipping one all-candidates debate, with a one-page carrd site as his main web presence (Kingstonist hub). |
| Vanessa Mensah | 🔎 Originally from Ghana, in Kingston since 2013; a registered social worker with an MBA who founded Selah Counselling and Consulting and served as the City of Kingston's manager of equity, diversity and inclusion before leaving earlier in 2026 to run (Whig-Standard). First-time candidate running on four pillars — safer neighbourhoods and services, transparency and accountability at City Hall, housing and well-being, and jobs/economy — arguing "Kingston is growing and it's changing, and it really deserves leadership that can bring people together" (Queen's Journal). |
| Jeff Scott | 🔎 One of three candidates for the open Countryside District seat (no incumbent ran) and a registered candidate with a campaign site (city candidate list). He and rival Joseph Abreu declined to attend the Coalition of Kingston Communities' all-candidates meeting for the district; Vic Sahai took part (CKC schedule). |
| Joseph Abreu | 🔎 One of three candidates for the open Countryside District seat (city candidate list); declined to participate in the district's all-candidates meeting, leaving Sahai as the only attendee (CKC schedule). |
| Vic Sahai | 🔎 One of three candidates for the open Countryside District seat (city candidate list); the only Countryside candidate to attend the Coalition of Kingston Communities' Zoom all-candidates meeting in September (CKC schedule). |
| Andrew DaCosta | 🔎 At 19, a second-year Queen's political science student and the youngest candidate on Kingston's ballot, running for the open Sydenham seat after councillor Conny Glenn left for the mayor's race (Whig-Standard). "I'm not just running a student campaign... I don't see the university and the city as being at odds"; he wants the city's student housing strategy accelerated ahead of the 2027 official plan (Whig-Standard). |
| Annie Palone | 🔎 Among the first challengers to file in this election, entering the Sydenham race back in May when no incumbent remained (Whig-Standard); one of four candidates for the seat (city candidate list). |
| John Meligrana | 🔎 One of four candidates for the open Sydenham District seat, one of the most contested races in the city (Whig-Standard). |
| Rajesh Kumar | 🔎 Sydenham District candidate who argues Kingston's headline problems share root causes: "We have housing problem. We have homelessness. We have food insecurity. I think these are not the root causes" (Whig-Standard). |
| Aba Mortley | 🔎 King's Town candidate: a St. Lawrence College professor (esthetics program coordinator), spa owner and mother of four who came to Kingston from Trinidad 25 years ago to attend Queen's (Queen's Journal). |
| Greg Ridge Incumbent | 🔎 Incumbent King's Town councillor since November 2022 running on four priorities — housing, affordability, arts and culture, community safety — pointing to 33 new supportive housing units for seniors on Queen Mary Road and $200,000 in municipal grants for food-insecurity organizations, citing that one in three Kingston households is food-insecure (Queen's Journal). |
| Melissa Reid | 🔎 King's Town challenger campaigning on affordability, responsible growth and what she calls the cost of inaction on drug toxicity — noting Kingston kept "the last supervised consumption site to close in Ontario" — plus criticism of recent changes at Utilities Kingston (Queen's Journal). On homelessness: "I work a lot with the unhoused community... I would wear that title proudly because it's probably the biggest issue of our era" (Queen's Journal). |
| Chelsea Rae | 🔎 One of four candidates seeking the Pittsburgh District seat held by Ryan Boehme (city candidate list); all four took part in the Coalition of Kingston Communities' Zoom all-candidates meeting on Sept. 22 (CKC schedule). |
| Matt McTaggart | 🔎 Filed in June 2026 to push the Pittsburgh District race to four candidates against incumbent Ryan Boehme (Whig-Standard). |
| Ryan Boehme Incumbent | 🔎 Incumbent Pittsburgh councillor seeking a fourth term (Whig-Standard); as a Utilities Kingston employee he recused himself from council's June 2026 debate and vote on transferring water and wastewater to a municipal service corporation (Kingstonist). |
| Zachary Typhair Ran 2022 · Councillor, Ward 5 Portsmouth | 🔎 Pittsburgh District challenger who previously ran in Portsmouth in 2022, receiving 164 votes of the district's seven-way race (Whig-Standard); took part in the Pittsburgh all-candidates meeting (CKC schedule). |
| Charanjeev Sekhon | 🔎 Loyalist-Cataraqui candidate whose pitch is municipal housekeeping: "There's constant significant increases in taxes, and I think the funds that we collect so far can probably be better managed to decrease the financial burden on the residents of Kingston" (Whig-Standard). |
| Dorian Hartley | 🔎 Loyalist-Cataraqui candidate who says he entered the race after talking with friends and neighbours about council's direction and wants "to represent the ordinary citizen at Kingston's city council table" (Whig-Standard). |
| Jeff Pearce | 🔎 Loyalist-Cataraqui candidate who points to residents in Westbrook and Cataraqui North feeling unheard by council on park-tree concerns before going public — "in some cases, city council has been unresponsive to resident concerns" (Whig-Standard). |
| Paul Chaves Incumbent Elected 2022 · Councillor, Ward 2 Loyalist Cataraqui | 🔎 Incumbent Loyalist-Cataraqui councillor (2022 winner with 1,709 votes) facing three challengers; roads are his banner issue — "that's the reason I ran last time, and I want to make sure it maintains to be a priority for next term" (Whig-Standard). |
| Joel Anthony Bruce | 🔎 Collins-Bayridge candidate in his first election campaign, filing in July to try to unseat council's longest-serving member, Lisa Osanic (Whig-Standard). The two debated at a Coalition of Kingston Communities Zoom meeting on Sept. 21 (CKC schedule). |
| Lisa Osanic Incumbent Elected 2022 · Councillor, Ward 3 Collins Bayridge | 🔎 Council's longest-serving member, seeking a sixth term in Collins-Bayridge (Whig-Standard; 2022: 2,236 votes) against first-time candidate Joel Anthony Bruce (Whig-Standard). |
| Stephen Cuthbertson | 🔎 Kingston-raised construction-sector project manager who first ran for mayor, pitching the city as a large-scale residential landlord and doubling social housing over a decade (CBC profile) — "housing affordability is arguably the biggest thing Kingston faces" (Global News). He withdrew from the mayoral race and instead is running for the Lakeside District councillor seat against incumbent Wendy Stephen (Kingstonist hub). |
| Wendy Stephen Incumbent Elected 2022 · Councillor, Ward 4 Lakeside | 🔎 Incumbent Lakeside District councillor (2022: 1,697 votes) seeking re-election against defected mayoral candidate Stephen Cuthbertson; the Whig reports affordability is the top issue in the district (city candidate list, Whig-Standard). The two debated at a Coalition of Kingston Communities Zoom meeting on Sept. 29 (CKC schedule). |
| Don Amos Incumbent Elected 2022 · Councillor, Ward 5 Portsmouth | 🔎 Incumbent Portsmouth councillor **acclaimed** on Aug. 24, 2026 when no one else filed (city notice); 2022: 776 votes. |
| Jimmy Hassan Incumbent Elected 2022 · Councillor, Ward 6 Trillium | 🔎 Incumbent Trillium District councillor (2022: 1,874 votes) facing challenger Prakash Dayal (city candidate list); the two were slated for the Coalition of Kingston Communities' Zoom all-candidates meeting on Oct. 1 (CKC schedule). |
| Prakash Dayal | 🔎 Challenger to incumbent Jimmy Hassan in the Trillium District race (city candidate list); participated in the district's Oct. 1 all-candidates meeting (CKC schedule). |
| Brandon Tozzo Incumbent Elected 2022 · Councillor, Ward 7 Kingscourt Rideau | 🔎 Incumbent Kingscourt-Rideau councillor (2022 winner with 800 votes in a six-way field) facing two challengers in a historically less affluent district the Whig says is "seeing increasing gentrification" (Whig-Standard). |
| Kevin Smith | 🔎 Kingscourt-Rideau candidate who experienced homelessness, volunteered on the city's housing and homelessness committee, and ran after what he called the city's "absolutely horrible" response to an encampment fire last year — "if I'm going to keep saying these things, I better run" (Whig-Standard). |
| Michael Judd Ran 2022 · Councillor, Ward 7 Kingscourt Rideau | 🔎 Kingscourt-Rideau candidate making a second straight run after his first council campaign was derailed three weeks in by COVID in 2022 (he got 255 votes that year). Since then he's served on boards including Resolve Counselling Services, Independent Living Kingston and Community Living Kingston, and faults council for short-termism: "Everything is knee jerk. It's very reactionary. Councillors aren't tasked with doing much research" (Whig-Standard). |
| Daria Juudi-Hope | 🔎 Meadowbrook-Strathcona candidate who previously ran federally — the NDP candidate in Kingston and the Islands in the 2025 election (Wikipedia) — challenging incumbent Jeff McLaren alongside Roger Dennis (city candidate list). |
| Jeff McLaren Incumbent Elected 2022 · Councillor, Ward 8 Meadowbrook Strathcona | 🔎 Incumbent Meadowbrook-Strathcona councillor (2022: 1,518 votes) seeking re-election against challengers Roger Dennis and Daria Juudi-Hope (city candidate list); the three debated at a Coalition of Kingston Communities Zoom meeting on Sept. 30, moderated by former councillor Annette Burfoot (CKC schedule). |
| Roger Dennis | 🔎 Meadowbrook-Strathcona challenger to incumbent Jeff McLaren; responded to Kingstonist's candidate-profile questionnaire (Kingstonist) and took part in the district's Sept. 30 all-candidates meeting (CKC schedule). |
| Vincent Cinanni Incumbent Elected 2022 · Councillor, Ward 9 Williamsville | 🔎 Incumbent Williamsville councillor **acclaimed** to a second term on Aug. 24, 2026 (city notice); 2022: 675 votes. |
🎙 Debates & forums
Kingston's 2026 race had an unusually full debate calendar, organized mainly by the **Coalition of Kingston Communities (CKC)** — the same citizen coalition that has staged all-candidates meetings in 2018 and 2022. Its in-person **mayoral all-candidates meeting was held Sept. 14 at The Spire (82 Sydenham St.)** with all four candidates — Bedard, Glenn, Mensah, Paterson — moderated by journalist Bill Hutchins (Spire listing, organizer recap). CKC-chair Christine Sypnowich: "We believe it's important that voters get to hear what the candidates have to say in an open, accessible forum." **District all-candidates meetings ran Sept. 21 – Oct. 13**, in person (King's Town, Kingscourt/Rideau, Sydenham) or on Zoom (Collins-Bayridge, Pittsburgh, Countryside, Lakeside, Meadowbrook-Strathcona, Trillium, Loyalist/Cataraqui); Countryside's Abreu and Scott were the notable no-shows. Other stages: a **student debate at Bayridge Secondary on Oct. 2** (Paterson and Mensah attended; Bedard absent, Glenn had car trouble — Whig-Standard); a **Portsmouth Olympic Harbour mayoral debate Oct. 8** (Whig-Standard); and the **Greater Kingston Chamber of Commerce mayoral debate** — all four candidates, moderated by chamber CEO Karen Cross — filmed for YourTV Kingston and posted Oct. 14, covering workforce, housing, infrastructure, transportation and economic growth (YouTube).
🗞 On the radar — local coverage
- Kingston’s municipal election: the mayor’s race - Kingston Whig-Standard
- Kingston’s municipal election: Kingscourt-Rideau - Kingston Whig-Standard
- Kingston’s municipal election: Loyalist-Cataraqui - Kingston Whig-Standard
- Kingston’s municipal election: Trillium District - Kingston Whig-Standard
- Four candidates make their case for Kingston mayor
- Official list of candidates running in Kingston's municipal election is out
- Busy ballot: 32 candidates for Kingston City Council so far, as election nomination period reaches halfway mark
- Councillor, political newcomers challenge mayor seeking 4th term in Kingston race