Billings Out, Richardson In, and Six Want to be Mayor in 2025 Election

By the time nominations closed at 2 pm on Friday, there were nearly 50 Guelphites who had made the leap to run for either mayor or city councillor.

Across the seven categories, there are 49 candidates compared to 46 in 2022.

Only seven of those candidates are incumbents running for re-election compared to nine in the last election although there are two current members of council vying for mayor.

The ward with the most number of candidate running is Ward 5 with 10 while Ward 3 and Ward 4 are both tied for the least number of candidates with five each.

Like last election, there are six people running for mayor, including John Edward Krusky who previously ran for mayor in 2022. Current city councillors Lenne Caron and Ken Yee Chew are probably the leading contenders, but there’s also “sign guy” Ryan Meunier, Indigenous activist Evaristo Ramos, Jr., and area realtor Rajee Sinha all vying for Guelph’s top job and succeed Cam Guthrie.

Guthrie himself appeared on social media before the deadline to “Rick Roll” the people who’ve long suspected an 11th hour August surprise from the current mayor…

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Instead, one of the biggest surprises of the day was Ward 4 Councillor Christine Billings’ decision to not run for re-election. Billings filed her papers on deadline day in 2022, so there was a reasonable expectation that she would do that again, but on the other hand Billings has been a city councillor since 1997 with the exception of breaks during the 2000-2003 and 2010-2014 terms.

The other big surprise was Michele Richardson’s decision to run for re-election after all. Earlier this year, Richardson told Guelph Politico that it was her intention to seek new challenges as she retires from her job at Wellington County. In 2022, Richardson won the second seat in Ward 3 by a 65-vote difference between her and community activist Kevin Bowman, who announced his campaign to run in this year’s election back in May.

In the school board races, there are a few open seats. Luke Weiler and Laurie Whyte both opted not to run for re-election in Wards 5, 1 and Wards 2, 3, 4 respectively in the Upper Grand School Board, while Sebastian Dal Bo and Joe Tersigni have both decided that they wouldn’t stand for re-election in the Wellington Catholic District School Board though current chair and vice-chair Vikki Dupuis and Marino Gazzola are both running again.

Aside from the two seats in the French school boards, there will be no acclaimed races in Guelph this election, which is not the case everywhere in the immediate area. Wellington County councillors David Anderson (Ward 1), Earl Campbell (Ward 2), Mary Lloyd (Ward 5), Diane Ballantyne (Ward 6), Matthew Bulmer (Ward 7), Doug Breen (Ward 8), Jeff Duncan (Ward 9) all ended up unopposed though the two Wellington North councillors Campbell Cork (Ward 2) and Stephen O’Neill (Ward 4) are facing challenges from Dan Yake and Allan Tota respectively.

The municipal election is on October 26 and polls will be open from 10 am to 8 pm. Early voting will take place at City Hall on from October 10-15, and then additional locations will be added on the weekend of October 16-18.

You will be able to update your voter information starting on September 1 either by visiting City Hall in person or by going to the City of Guelph’s election website at guelph.ca/vote.

If you’re interested in working for the City of Guelph during the election, you can get more information about those opportunities here.

See the full list of mayor, city council and school board candidates below: