🔎 The race
Whitby votes on **Monday, October 26, 2026** for a mayor and eight councillors — a local and a regional councillor in each of four wards — with **33 certified candidates across those nine council offices** (47 candidates were certified in total, including school-board trustees, and the two French-language trustee seats were acclaimed, per the town's certified-candidates release). The town lists 119,558 eligible voters; in 2022, 23,872 of 102,618 eligible voters took part, a turnout of about 23.3%. The official roster lives on the town's Plan Your Vote candidate list.
The structure of the ballot itself changed: Whitby's candidate information page shows each regional councillor seat now elected **by the electors of a single ward** ("One to be elected by electors in North Ward One"), where in 2022 the four regional councillor seats were elected town-wide on one ballot. That redraw reshapes several races — most sharply in East Ward 4, where incumbents **Maleeha Shahid and Steve Yamada, elected region-wide in 2022, must now fight each other for one ward seat** — a pairing Whitby This Week flagged as one of the two high-profile races of the campaign.
The mayor's race pits **incumbent Elizabeth Roy against regional councillor Chris Leahy**, with 25-year-old **Harshini Rajmohan** completing the field. Whitby This Week called it "the long-running duel between Mayor Elizabeth Roy and Reg. Coun. Chris Leahy": within about 20 minutes at a special council meeting in April 2026, Leahy announced "I'll be putting my name forward for mayor," and Roy answered "I'm running for re-election" — a statement Durham Radio News reported was met with cheers from a packed chamber. Roy won the seat in 2022 with **12,654 votes (53.8%)** over Deidre Newman's 9,355; Leahy was the town's second-highest 2022 vote-getter, re-elected regional councillor with 12,541.
**Chris Leahy** has made taxes his wedge: "The property taxes in this town are out of control," he told the September 24 chamber debate, pledging "I will freeze taxes for two years and the only cuts I will be making is to the mayor's compensation" (Whitby This Week). His campaign site touts his record as a former Durham Catholic school board chair, a value-for-money watchdog (the "million dollar door" at Durham Region headquarters) and his Jail NOT Bail petition; he holds a Wilfrid Laurier economics/politics degree and a McMaster DeGroote MBA and was a West Ward councillor from 2014 before becoming regional councillor. The run-up was combative: in April 2026, following an integrity commissioner's report, council voted **7-1 to suspend Leahy's pay for a month** over conduct complaints he denies (Whitby This Week); he argued at the debate that Roy "could have chosen the people of Whitby" when he brought forward a motion to cut the mayor's pay.
**Elizabeth Roy** runs on continuity and her record: "Affordability and property tax" is the urgent issue, she says, pointing to **$2 million in line-by-line savings, a core services review, a 40-unit Habitat for Humanity project in downtown Whitby** and the still-pending Whitby hospital (Frequency News). On the town's mayor-and-council page her 2026 economic update lists town property-tax increases of 5.8, 4.4, 3.9 and 3.4 per cent across 2023–2026 and a hotel accommodation tax that raised over $600,000 in its first full year. A Whitby councillor since 2006 (local, then regional from 2014) and a longtime health-care worker — "I have 34 years of front-line health care experience" — she frames growth with "growth should pay for growth."
**Harshini Rajmohan**, the field's only first-time candidate, campaigns on transparency and auditing: "People are not mad because the tax dollars are going up. People are mad because they have no idea why they're paying" (Frequency News). Her campaign site describes a Whitby resident with a Behavioural Neuroscience background who founded The Compassion Project while at university; she told the chamber debate "the best thing to do is audit everything" and pitched lakefront tourism, small-business support and "more responsible development."
Below mayor, the reshaped map creates open and stacked seats. **West Ward 2's regional seat is open** (Leahy vacating it) and draws **Deidre Newman**, the 2022 mayoral runner-up, against Debbie Lewis; **Centre Ward 3's local seat is open** as councillor Niki Lundquist moves to the regional race, with six local hopefuls including 2022 Ward 4 runner-up John Rinella and 2022 regional candidate Dave Sansom; and **West Ward 2's local race is a six-candidate rematch** of Matt Cardwell (2,995 votes in 2022) and Lori Lopes (2,431). North Ward 1 local councillor Steve Lee, elected in 2022 with no vote recorded, faces Anastasia Brown and Jay White.
⚡ Key issues
Property taxes — town, region, and the mayor's own pay
Tax bills are the campaign's spine. Council adopted a **3.44 per cent increase** to the town's 2026 budget — about $78 a year on a home assessed at $500,000 — and the town says 34 cents of every residential tax dollar stays with Whitby, 55 cents goes to the Region of Durham and 11 cents to school boards (Frequency News). Looming over that is Durham regional council's endorsement in principle of a **roughly $1.1-billion, 10-year Durham Police capital plan**, with staff estimates reported to show total regional property taxes rising 9.02–10.52 per cent in 2027 — figures Leahy attacked at the debate and Roy said a "continuation" of working with the region must manage. The mayor's own pay became a proxy fight: Leahy cites a "mayor's $318,666 annual compensation" while the town's remuneration FAQ puts Roy's 2025 total compensation at **$231,647** ($160,998 town + $70,649 region), says increases since 2011 are set by a formula benchmarking other Durham lakeshore municipalities, not a council vote, and separately debunks a viral "69% raise" claim. Roy notes council found $2 million in 2026-budget savings — "It's time to really tighten our belts" — while Leahy pledges a two-year town-level freeze plus cutting the mayor's compensation.
The province's transit-oriented community at Whitby GO
The single biggest development in town isn't Whitby's: Infrastructure Ontario's **Whitby GO Transit-Oriented Community proposal** would replace the 2.32-hectare commuter parking lot at 200 Victoria Street West, beside the Lakeshore East GO station, with a **six-tower, roughly 2,355-home mixed-use community** with a public park over replacement GO parking (Infrastructure Ontario project page, planning rationale PDF). The rationale report notes Port Whitby's approved developments already slated to add over 3,600 units, with a further 7,400-unit master-plan project unapproved. In August, Mayor Roy — while saying "I support building more homes" — told residents the province "is responsible for the planning and consultation for this project – not the Town of Whitby," that she "share[s] many of the concerns residents have raised about the potential impacts of a development of this scale," and that she is pushing for a standard Planning Act process with a statutory public meeting plus hospital and school infrastructure to match (town statement). At the chamber debate, Rajmohan said Whitby must "plan for more responsible development" and stop "playing catch-up" on infrastructure. The town is also mid-way through the final phase of its **five-year Official Plan review** (whitby.ca), so the next council inherits both the plan and the GO file.
The promised Whitby hospital
The hospital announced for Whitby in 2024 — a planning grant, not shovels — never left the campaign trail. Roy says advocacy is working and the announcement happened because "the community stepped up," noting daily contact with her MPP and Lakeridge Health and an imminent announcement on what Lakeridge has finalized with the health minister (Whitby This Week). Leahy blames the town's "fractious relationship with the province" — "It was announced in August 2024 — that's too long, get it done" — noting Brampton's hospital is funded while Whitby's waits, and claims credit for a council motion chasing a slice of new federal defence spending; a town statement confirms the town is "still waiting on the next steps from the province — including the transfer of land." Rajmohan pressed both rivals on what they had personally done for the project, saying she'd "figure out what the priority is for Whitby."
Housing, development charges and who pays for growth
The three mayoral candidates split on levers. Roy points to the town's first commitment to **Habitat for Humanity — a 40-unit building in downtown Whitby** — plus partnerships with government and the development community, insisting "growth should pay for growth" (Frequency News). Leahy says "housing costs and development charges have gotten out of control" and would consider **reducing development charges** and tapping existing reserves to get units — especially affordable ones — built. Rajmohan is "not anti-development but I'm not development at any cost," and would assess each capital development for measurable outcomes and review town revenue options including small business and lakefront tourism. The underlying pressure is regional: Durham predicts sustained population growth into the 2030s, and Whitby's own Official Plan review is asking residents where the next 30 years of housing, jobs and roads go.
Downtown, hotels and new revenue streams
Economic development is the campaign's consensus issue with different price tags. Roy's August 2026 statement on new incentives pitches a hotel and conference centre package plus rental-housing support as diversifying revenue; her economic update credits the 4 per cent municipal accommodation tax with **$600,000+ in its first full year** without touching property taxes, and cites Downtown Whitby BIA and library partnerships. Rajmohan's platform goes further on tourism — developing Whitby's lakefront as a destination — while Leahy's fiscal-watchdog pitch targets spending like the Durham Region headquarters' "million dollar door" (campaign site). Chamber of Commerce members at the debate said affordability, taxes and a council that "works together" topped their list for the next council.
- The brief asked whether incumbent Steve Ellis is running: **no candidate named Steve Ellis appears on the certified list** (47 certified, per the town's Aug. 25, 2026 release), and per the pack Whitby's incumbent mayor is Elizabeth Roy, first elected in 2022. No 2026 coverage linking Ellis to this race was found; a candidate named Will Ellis appears on the separate school-trustee roster only.
- The brief's "Tanyta Gardens" issue could not be traced to any Whitby, Ontario election coverage or development filing under that name (Taunton Gardens is a Taunton Road East retail plaza with no election-related coverage found). The verifiable development flashpoints instead are the Infrastructure Ontario **Whitby GO transit-oriented community** and the town's **Official Plan review**, which are covered in key_issues.
- The brief's news links are news.google.com RSS redirects; they were resolved in a live browser session and replaced with direct publisher URLs. Every URL cited in this file passed the required curl -sIL -A 'Mozilla/5.0' --max-time 15 HEAD check with HTTP 200 (54 URLs checked, including failures).
- DurhamRegion.com articles render partially behind a subscription shell for simple fetches; all quotes taken from them were read from the fully rendered page in a browser session and verified verbatim there.
- Whitby Public Library's candidate-meeting page (whitbylibrary.ca/MunicipalElection2026) failed validation (HTTP 406 to the required HEAD check, and "not authorized" in the browser), so the library-hosted ward and mayoral candidate meetings reported there are **not asserted or cited** anywhere in this analysis. WhitbyThisWeek's debate-preview article also failed to render body text and its URL is not cited.
- Tower-height details for the Whitby GO TOC (33–45 storeys) come only from UrbanToronto, which failed the 200 check (403) and is therefore not cited; unit counts, the six-tower description, site details and the Port Whitby pipeline figures are cited to Infrastructure Ontario's project page and June 2026 planning-rationale PDF.
- The 9.02–10.52 per cent 2027 regional tax-estimate figures are CBC News reporting relayed second-hand through Frequency News/Wesal TV; they were not reconciled against Durham Region's budget documents. The mayor's-pay figures conflict by design of the campaign: Leahy says $318,666; the town's own FAQ says Roy's 2025 total compensation was $231,647 — both are presented with sources rather than resolved.
- elizabethroy.ca is a parked GoDaddy domain, so Roy has no campaign website to cite; several ward candidates (Ikramah Mohhy-Ud-Din, Michelle Arseneault, Dave Sansom) have no registered campaign site, Tracy Brown's registered site returned 406 and is uncited, Mehmood Kohistani's resolves only to a temporary hosting domain, and Zartasha Zainab Chaudhry's registered links are social-media accounts only — their profiles carry official-roster and 2022-history facts only. All 2022 vote figures used anywhere here come solely from the brief/pack. School-board trustee races are outside the pack roster and not analyzed.
- Durham Region chair John Henry (flagged in the brief as context) could not be tied to a validated 2026 source and is not discussed; he gave the Region's annual update to Whitby council per May 2026 town minutes found in search but that thread was not carried into the analysis.
| Chris Leahy Serving council — different office Elected 2022 · Regional Councillor | 🔎 Incumbent regional councillor (West Ward 2 councillor 2014–2018, regional councillor 2018–, re-elected 2022 with 12,541 votes, the town's second-largest 2022 tally) running for mayor on a two-year town tax freeze, cutting the mayor's compensation, lower development charges and better relations with the province. A Wilfrid Laurier grad with a McMaster DeGroote MBA and former Durham Catholic school board chair (campaign site), he announced his candidacy at an April 2026 special council meeting; that same month council voted 7-1 to suspend his pay for a month following an integrity commissioner's report, which he denies wrongdoing in. |
| Elizabeth Roy Incumbent Elected 2022 · Mayor (53.8%) | 🔎 Incumbent mayor, first elected in 2022 with 12,654 votes (53.8%); a Whitby councillor since 2006 (West Ward local 2006–2014, regional 2014–2022) with 34 years of front-line health-care experience. Running on "it's working" continuity: $2 million in line-by-line budget savings, a core services review, a 40-unit Habitat for Humanity build downtown, the accommodation tax, and continued advocacy for the Whitby hospital; has no campaign website — elizabethroy.ca is a parked domain. |
| Harshini Rajmohan | 🔎 25-year-old first-time candidate, a Whitby resident with a Behavioural Neuroscience background who founded The Compassion Project at university (campaign site). Campaigning on transparency and a line-by-line audit of town programs — "People are mad because they have no idea why they're paying" — plus infrastructure-first, "responsible" development, small-business support and lakefront tourism; relies mainly on social media and her site. |
| Anastasia Brown | 🔎 Challenger for North Ward 1 local council, running against incumbent Steve Lee and Jay White with campaign site VoteBrown.ca; no substantive 2026 platform material was found that passed validation. |
| Jay White | 🔎 Challenger for North Ward 1 local council against incumbent Steve Lee; campaign site jaywhite.net; no substantive 2026 platform coverage was found. |
| Steve Lee Incumbent Elected 2022 · Councillor, Ward North Ward 1 | 🔎 Incumbent North Ward 1 local councillor, elected in 2022 with no vote recorded in the official results; seeking re-election against Anastasia Brown and Jay White (campaign site). |
| Christine Thatcher | 🔎 Candidate for North Ward 1 regional councillor against incumbent Rhonda Mulcahy; campaign site votethatcher.ca; no substantive 2026 platform coverage was found. |
| Ikramah Mohhy-Ud-Din | 🔎 Candidate for North Ward 1 regional councillor; no campaign website is listed in the town's candidate registry and no 2026 platform material was found. |
| Rhonda Mulcahy Incumbent Elected 2022 · Regional Councillor | 🔎 Incumbent regional councillor and the town's top 2022 vote-getter (12,947 votes), now seeking North Ward 1's regional seat, which is elected by that ward alone for the first time in 2026 (campaign site). |
| Tracy Brown | 🔎 Candidate for North Ward 1 regional councillor, challenging incumbent Rhonda Mulcahy; a campaign site is registered in the town's candidate list but failed URL validation (406), so no link is cited and no platform claims are made here. |
| Judith Tait | 🔎 Candidate for West Ward 2 local council in the six-person race led by incumbent Matt Cardwell; campaign site electjudithtait.ca; no substantive 2026 platform coverage was found. |
| Lori Lopes Ran 2022 · Councillor, Ward West Ward 2 | 🔎 West Ward 2 local candidate seeking a third attempt at the seat; trailed Matt Cardwell 2,995–2,431 in 2022 and is in the 2026 Ward 2 local race again (campaign site). |
| Matt Cardwell Incumbent Elected 2022 · Councillor, Ward West Ward 2 | 🔎 Incumbent West Ward 2 local councillor, elected in 2022 with 2,995 votes; faces a six-candidate field including Lori Lopes, whom he beat by 564 votes in 2022 (campaign site). |
| Mehmood Kohistani | 🔎 Candidate for West Ward 2 local council; a registered campaign site currently resolves only to a temporary hosting domain, so no platform claims are made here. |
| Michelle Arseneault | 🔎 Candidate for West Ward 2 local council; no campaign website is listed in the town's candidate registry and no 2026 platform material was found. (Note: a same-surname candidate, Jason Arseneault, is running for Durham District School Board trustee — no relationship is documented.) |
| Yar M. Naeme | 🔎 Candidate for West Ward 2 local council; campaign site Yarnaeme.ca; no substantive 2026 platform coverage was found. |
| Debbie Lewis | 🔎 Candidate for West Ward 2 regional councillor against Deidre Newman in the open seat being vacated by mayoral candidate Chris Leahy; campaign page hosted on Google Sites; no substantive 2026 platform coverage was found. |
| Deidre Newman Ran 2022 · Mayor (39.8%) | 🔎 Candidate for West Ward 2 regional councillor; Whitby West Ward local councillor 2018–2022 and regional council alternate, lawyer (U of T BSc, Queen's LLB), former Ontario government policy adviser, 2025-26 president of the Rotary Club of Whitby, daughter of past mayor Des Newman, and the 2022 mayoral runner-up with 9,355 votes (campaign site). Her platform lists affordability, the new hospital, public safety and "balanced growth." |
| Akuah Frempong | 🔎 Candidate for the open Centre Ward 3 local seat; campaign site akuahforcentreward.ca; no substantive 2026 platform coverage was found. |
| Bob Baker | 🔎 Candidate for the open Centre Ward 3 local seat in a six-person field; campaign site bobbaker.ca; no substantive 2026 platform coverage was found. |
| Dave Sansom Ran 2022 · Regional Councillor | 🔎 Centre Ward 3 local candidate; ran for regional councillor town-wide in 2022, receiving 3,457 votes. No campaign website is listed in the town's candidate registry. |
| John Rinella Ran 2022 · Councillor, Ward East Ward 4 | 🔎 Centre Ward 3 local candidate; ran in East Ward 4 in 2022, receiving 2,166 votes — 265 behind winner Victoria Bozinovski — and now seeks the open Ward 3 seat (campaign site). |
| Laura McCarney | 🔎 Candidate for the open Centre Ward 3 local seat; campaign site lauramccarney.ca; no substantive 2026 platform coverage was found. |
| Scott Templeton | 🔎 Candidate for the open Centre Ward 3 local seat; campaign site scotttempletonforcentreward.ca; no substantive 2026 platform coverage was found. |
| Melissa Heckbert | 🔎 Candidate for Centre Ward 3 regional councillor against incumbent-councillor-turned-regional-hopeful Niki Lundquist; campaign site MelissaHeckbert.com; no substantive 2026 platform coverage was found. |
| Niki Lundquist Serving council — different office Elected 2022 · Councillor, Ward Centre Ward 3 | 🔎 Incumbent Centre Ward 3 local councillor (elected 2022 with 2,492 votes) running for Ward 3's regional seat against Melissa Heckbert (campaign site). |
| Saima Hammad | 🔎 Candidate for East Ward 4 local council against incumbent Victoria Bozinovski; campaign site saimahammad.ca; no substantive 2026 platform coverage was found. |
| Shah Hosein | 🔎 Candidate for East Ward 4 local council against incumbent Victoria Bozinovski; campaign site shahhosein.ca; no substantive 2026 platform coverage was found. |
| Victoria Bozinovski Incumbent Elected 2022 · Councillor, Ward East Ward 4 | 🔎 Incumbent East Ward 4 local councillor, elected in 2022 with 2,431 votes over John Rinella; seeking re-election against Saima Hammad, Shah Hosein and Walter Perdigao (campaign site). |
| Walter Perdigao | 🔎 Candidate for East Ward 4 local council against incumbent Victoria Bozinovski; campaign site waltforwhitby.ca; no substantive 2026 platform coverage was found. |
| Maleeha Shahid Incumbent Elected 2022 · Regional Councillor | 🔎 Incumbent regional councillor (East Ward local councillor 2018–2022, regional since 2022 with 11,441 votes) — now one of two sitting regional councillors forced into the same first-ever ward-based East Ward 4 regional race against Steve Yamada (campaign site). |
| Steve Yamada Incumbent Elected 2022 · Regional Councillor | 🔎 Incumbent regional councillor (East Ward local councillor 2014–2018, regional since 2018; 12,287 votes in 2022), a former elementary teacher, in the headline East Ward 4 regional contest against fellow incumbent Maleeha Shahid (campaign site). |
| Zartasha Zainab Chaudhry | 🔎 Third candidate in the two-incumbent East Ward 4 regional race; her registered campaign links are social accounts only, and no substantive 2026 platform material was found. |
🎙 Debates & forums
One all-candidates forum and mayoral debate has been held. The **Whitby Chamber of Commerce Municipal Election Forum** ran on **September 24, 2026** at the Abilities Centre, 1 Jim Flaherty Drive, with a 6–8 p.m. all-candidates meet-and-greet and the mayoral debate at 7 p.m. (event coverage). A full house watched moderator Ken Regular put five questions, a debating period and a lightning round to Roy, Leahy and Rajmohan, with Chamber CEO Karey Anne Large stressing the chamber "does not endorse candidates" (Whitby This Week recap, Frequency News, Daily Durham). No verified record of town- or library-hosted ward all-candidates meetings is included here — see notes.
🗞 On the radar — local coverage
- Three Whitby mayoral candidates battle it out for your vote in lively debate Thursday night
- Whitby mayoral candidates debate affordability, housing and growth
- Whitby mayoral debate features candidates for top job on Sept. 24
- You can meet Whitby election candidates
- There are rules and regulations surrounding election signs in Whitby
- Race for mayor expected to be a hot one in Whitby this year
- Town of Whitby hiring for municipal election