Introducing Every Candidate

A week later than planned, and about 10% as ambitious, but here we are: the public launch of the Every Candidate project for the Toronto municipal election. This is what we believe to be the most complete set of information on 358 candidates for city council across Toronto’s 44 wards.

This is an exciting Monday.

Every Candidate is a wildly aspirational project to explore what the 485 individuals running for the position of councillor or school trustee tell us about city they seek to represent. Who are they? What is their background? What does their campaign material have to say? What do public records reveal?

There are all kinds of questions that this project aspires to answer – some quirky, some hopelessly esoteric – but, at the same time, we hope that this project asks questions that also interest you, as a resident of Toronto. Whether you are a concerned citizen or a parent, Every Candidate hopes that we can help play a small part in your election-day research.

Today we are releasing the information that we’ve collected on 358 candidates for city council across Toronto’s 44 wards. In the coming days, we will also release information on the 127 trustee candidates for Toronto District School Board. Beyond the raw data, we aim to publish some non-partisan analysis and fun Toronto election tidbits – not “scoops” per se, but interesting stories in the data.

This site itself, and all of the data it relies on, are publicly available to improve upon, remix, re-use, and re-distribute. If you see an omission or error in the data, please take a minute to let us know.

You’ll notice the conspicuous absence of information about the 65 individuals running for the office of mayor. That is deliberate and at the core of what Every Candidate is about. We are fascinated by the question of what people running public office could tell us about a city as a whole, and – with limited time & resources – we decided to focus on candidates for councillor and school trustee, the 485 individuals running for positions that serve more than 2.5M residents of Toronto.

We have full confidence that you’ll hear more than enough about the individuals running for the position of mayor, or at least those few that are anointed as “electable” by mainstream news sources.

The other positions on the Toronto Catholic District School Board, Conseil scolaire Viamonde, and Conseil scolaire de district catholique Centre-Sud – while no less important – simply provide diminishing returns on the time investment to investigate thoroughly. That said, if you’re passionate about those positions, please join our (volunteer) team.

Speaking of joining the team: if you’ve got a passion for municipal politics, research skills, and some time on your hands, please take a minute to scan our get involved page.

Here we go. This is going to be fun.