CTV News Kitchener reached out people who are running to become Guelph’s next mayor ahead of the municipal election on Oct. 26, 2026. All candidates were given the same questions and were asked to limit their answers to 400 words or less. In fairness to all participants, CTV News Kitchener will only share responses up to the requested limit. Any answers exceeding that threshold have been cut off at exactly 400 words. If you are a candidate that did not receive a survey, or your responses were submitted by the deadline but are not included below, please reach out to ctvkitchenerwebteam@bellmedia.ca. Leanne Caron Q: Why have you decided to run in the municipal election? LC: Guelph is changing, and people are feeling it. Costs are rising, finding or keeping a home is getting harder, our infrastructure is aging, and there is increasing pressure on the services we rely on. At this moment, we need a mayor who is experienced, serious, and compassionate. I believe I am the mayor to meet this moment. During my many years of serving this community as a volunteer, school board trustee, city councillor, and fellow neighbour, I’ve come to know the families, businesses, community organizations, and residents that call Guelph home. I’m running because I believe we can build on what makes this city special while making thoughtful choices about the challenges ahead. To that end, I’ve developed three comprehensive action plans to deliver on affordability, create an open and collaborative city hall, and build a liveable city. I love this city, and I want to bring my experience, skills, and commitment to serving our community to the mayor’s office so that, together, we can build a city we can be proud of. Q: In your opinion, what is the most pressing issue Guelph’s community is currently facing? LC: Affordability is the number one issue I’m hearing about at the doors and across our community. It affects everyone, including students, families, seniors, and businesses, in every corner of our city. Housing, groceries, utilities, and transportation all cost more, and for many households, property taxes are another growing pressure. City Hall can’t control every factor affecting the cost of living, but we can take responsibility for the choices we make here in Guelph. My affordability plan tackles costs from all directions: strengthening City finances to reduce pressure on property taxes while investing in services and programs that help lower residents’ everyday expenses. The plan lays out 30 specific actions to find efficiencies without sacrificing services, make strategic investments that save residents and the City money over time, and identify new sources of revenue to reduce our reliance on property taxes. We need to work harder for every dollar, make responsible financial decisions, and ensure residents can see the results. My goal is to make Guelph a city where people can afford to live, raise a family, start a business, and retire with confidence. Q: How would you address homelessness and encampment issues in Guelph? LC: We cannot leave people in our community without housing. Safe, stable, and secure housing is the foundation people need to live, and my approach to homelessness is grounded in Housing First. We need to build more social and transitional housing with our partners at the County of Wellington and the Province, connecting people with the resources and services they need to achieve long-term stability. Encampments are a symptom of a much larger housing crisis. We need to respond with compassion, while recognizing the importance of public safety and ensuring our parks and public spaces remain accessible to everyone. That requires working collaboratively with service providers, people with lived experience, and other levels of government to connect people with appropriate housing and supports. We cannot expect enforcement alone to resolve homelessness when people have nowhere else to go. I’ve also supported renter protections on Council, including renoviction, rental replacement, and vacant home bylaws, to help protect vulnerable tenants and prevent people from losing their homes in the first place. As mayor, I will continue working with our partners to advance permanent housing solutions, expand access to supportive services, and advocate for the provincial resources our community needs. Q: What is your plan to tackle addiction issues? LC: Addiction is a complex health issue that requires a coordinated response involving harm reduction, treatment, housing, and ongoing support. I believe we need harm reduction that keeps people alive, voluntary treatment and recovery that help people move forward, and a Housing First approach that connects people with safe, stable, secure housing and wraparound services. The City cannot solve addiction alone, but we can bring together housing providers, health care professionals, addiction services, and community organizations to support people throughout their recovery, support effective local services, and fight for the provincial resources Guelph needs. Ken Yee Chew Candidate did not respond to survey request within CTV News Kitchener’s two-week deadline. John Edward Krusky Q: Why have you decided to run in the municipal election? JEK: I have a number of qualifications to be working in government and public policy, with three university degrees, two college certifications, and even a year of law school through distance education with the University of London, England. Accounting for all of my years enrolled in college and university this is 11 years of law, public administration, public safety and policy studies which guide me in my management decision making. I have operated a set of companies offering private investigation and security services in the tri-city area of Guelph, Cambridge, and Kitchener-Waterloo for almost a decade now, and I have a focus on management and innovation. I am a conscientious person, and someone who wants to consult with all parties before major undertakings are pursued. I consider myself a legal scholar, and I will balance the needs of all the citizens residing in Guelph, with proposing a variety of policy options that I hope city council would give heavy consideration to. And, I am a team player, and someone who knows the importance of moving past differences of opinion, and ideology, in order to obtain the best results for everyone involved. I hear a great deal of dissatisfaction from local residents in Guelph about decisions being made on city council, ranging from exorbitant spending at City Hall, lack of accessibility, unnecessary infrastructure projects, misallocated resources, poor quality of management and services, and missed opportunities. For instance, one example of excessive and wasted spending includes the bicycle lane barriers which were installed on many main roadways in Guelph, and which created obstructions for snow plowing during the winter season, adding to road maintenance costs. The City of Guelph could have simply painted green on the roadway surfaces for bicycle lanes in a highly visible shade, and this would have been sufficient. Many Guelph residents now want these newly installed traffic barriers to be removed. This type of unnecessary spending has become commonplace in Guelph. Our current city council members continually approve motions for exorbitant city projects and undertakings, adding to higher taxes and the overall cost of living for all Guelph residents, including higher rents costs. I was born in Guelph, and I have lived forty out of forty-four years of my life here in this city, with family roots that date back to the 1830’s in Wellington County. I am very familiar the major policy issues confronting the City of Guelph. Q: In your opinion, what is the most pressing issue Guelph’s community is currently facing? JEK: Affordability is the most pressing issue for many Canadians living in southern Ontario. Real estate costs, taxes, rent, debt payments, essential services and grocery costs combined with the costs of inflation have all added to the burden of living in this part of Canada in recent years. We need policy-makers at every level of government who will consider struggling Canadian families, seniors, and young adults who are experiencing difficulty with meeting the costs of living, and who will not approve unnecessary government expenditures, programs and projects that add to people’s debt burdens. Four years ago, I opposed the new Guelph Public Library construction project because I noted it would add to the cost of taxes in an already expensive Ontario city. Voters largely decided to elect the same people back into city council and now they are seeing even higher taxes. I feel this is partially due to a lack of coverage by television news coverage in the City of Guelph, and a lack of more accessible print news coverage for seniors, leading some demographic sectors in the Guelph population to be ignoring many of the more current policy issues facing Guelph residents. If people want affordability from their government, they have to be conscientious of who they are voting for. If a candidate is proposing 50 per cent service cuts, then you have to realize this will mean the loss of jobs for many city workers. It would be more rational to review the “big ticket” items that our council members have been pushing through city council for years, and which are adding greatly to annual property taxes in this city. It would make sense to cut municipal funding for these types of unnecessary programs and projects. Q: How would you address homelessness and encampment issues in Guelph? JEK: This is the second time that I have run for Mayor of Guelph. I spoke four years ago about the idea of ending homelessness in the City of Guelph. I spoke about dormitories for people who are dealing with poverty, unemployment, job loss, addiction, and homelessness. I see the vacant Ontario Reformatory building on York Road in Guelph as an opportunity to undertake a joint program with Wellington County and the Government of Ontario. The building has everything that would be required: an administration centre, a cafeteria, an area setup for laundry facilities, a recreation and gymnasium area, and hundreds of vacant rooms, and cells with plumbing, waiting to be retrofitted for dormitory use. I am not proposing that the City of Guelph purchase the building and land from the Ontario Government. I am proposing that we venture into a joint program with Wellington County to lease the building from the Province of Ontario, and to upgrade and repair the facility, as well as to have a social services organization manage the property. While I do not want to detract from the difficult work that the current charity and shelter management organizations in Guelph perform for the community, there is no reason why we cannot have several more prominent charitable organizations operating in this city to assist people with shelter services. Certain people have been uninvited from attending the properties managed by certain organizations in this city, and then they have nowhere else to go in Guelph for shelter. Even homeless people need options. People need lockers to secure their valuables, resume workshops and computer access to apply for employment opportunities, mailboxes to protect their personal information, and a safe place where a person can lock their room at night, or when they go out. I am not suggesting we house the homeless of Ontario. I am suggesting that we assist the people who are known to be in need of social assistance, and have been for years in this city. As a side note: I think the idea of a National Urban Park on the Ontario Reformatory property is also a pursuable idea with the land, and there is no reason why the Province of Ontario might not consider parsing a section of the land for park and recreational use by the general public. Q: What is your plan to tackle addiction issues? JEK: Four years ago, I was the only mayoral candidate in the City of Guelph who opposed the decriminalization of opioids. I am still firmly against any decriminalization of these substances, which are a serious threat to teenagers and young Canadians. Cardiac arrest affiliated with narcotic use is a leading cause of death among younger adults in Canada. I do not feel that our provincial or federal governments are doing enough to protect teenagers and Canadian youth from exposure to these addictive substances. The affordability problems we are experiencing in Canada due to poor government policy and planning at the federal and provincial levels of government, have also led to higher crimes rates. Politicians need to address the public safety issues of crime and narcotics trafficking in Ontario through tougher penalties, which I am a strong advocate for. I believe that we need for more police cooperation between the Guelph Police Service, the Halton Regional Police Service, Peel Regional Police, the Waterloo Regional Police Service and the Ontario Provincial Police in identifying, apprehending, and bringing about the prosecution of narcotics traffickers in this region of Canada. While I support the victims of narcotics trafficking in getting into addiction rehabilitation programs, and I believe that the Drug Treatment Courts are the best means of deterring narcotics use, I will work with the local community on programs that city council and people in the City of Guelph would like to see put into place. I would like to see a certain section of our city’s budget set aside every year for addressing policy and community issues related to opioid addiction. Ryan Meunier Candidate did not respond to survey request within CTV News Kitchener’s two-week deadline. Evaristo Ramos Jr. Candidate did not respond to survey request within CTV News Kitchener’s two-week deadline. Rajee Sinha Q: Why have you decided to run in the municipal election? RS: My reason for standing up for Mayoral elections in Guelph is to solve the problems that are at grassroots level like: Affordability: Our property taxes are very high they are making every residents’ life difficult. I want to reduce the property taxes by 20 per cent and freeze them for 4 years. Look at the budget and stop unnecessary spending and run it efficiently. Spend the money towards what matters the most to every resident. Like better roads, better transit services. Every resident over 60 years of age should travel free in our transit. Better healthcare services by fighting for a new hospital. Arranging for a space for our seniors to meet in our community centres. Having all inner streets cleaned during winter times immediately. Holding teams accountable for faster services to our residents. Any construction projects to be completed in a timely and efficient manner. Should not take years to fix our downtown where business are suffering. Pushing for faster housing projects to build more houses so we are not easing property taxes for current residents. There are building projects on hold and need to speed those up. Holding builders accountable for faster home building projects and fining them if not following deadlines. Holding City staff accountable for quicker and faster services and delivering on promises. Better services: full service of Guelph transit on Sundays so people can easily go to work on weekends. Quick response to service issues raised by the residents. Like potholes, street/road maintenance. Services for seniors in community centres. Holding teams accountable for faster services. Safety: working closely with Guelph Police and ensuring that safety of the residents is a priority. Making the city safe and tracking the results. Goal to be top 5 city on CSI ratings. Q: In your opinion, what is the most pressing issue Guelph’s community is currently facing? RS: Most pressing issue is affordability. Everyone I speak with says the same thing our property taxes are too high. Reducing property taxes. Q: How would you address homelessness and encampment issues in Guelph? RS: Learning from other cities like Helsinki, Ginland and Houston, Texas. Focus on housing first priority and getting all homeless people in a house first. Whether it’s buying an apartment building providing housing to homeless people. There it will be easy for social services and mental health services to provide better services and easily access to the homeless people. When this is done there should be no encampment issues. It will reduce police time in locating people and our emergency services. Goal is to get 70 per cent homeless people back on work force by proving small business incentive and grants. Q: What is your plan to tackle addiction issues? RS: With the above solution it will control addiction issues. Work with the police department to crackdown on the roots of the drug handlers. People get addicted as they have given up on life and this is only way for them to comfort themselves. By providing housing and proper health/ mental care services will help in reducing drug addictions and getting the homeless people to look for a better life.
