Municipal and school board elections across Ontario will be held on Monday, October 26, 2026.

Municipal elections in Ontario differ from provincial and federal elections in that candidates do not run under political party banners.

Candidates seeking positions such as Mayor, City Councillor, Regional Councillor and School Board Trustee run as individuals. As a result, political party names such as Liberal, Conservative or New Democratic Party do not appear alongside candidates’ names on municipal election ballots.

While October 26 is the main election day across Ontario, individual municipalities establish their own schedules and arrangements for advance voting, online voting and other available voting methods.

Among those contesting the 2026 elections are candidates with known connections to the Tamil community, as well as others who may have a Tamil background based on their names and other publicly available information.

So far, 22 such candidates have been identified and confirmed on official candidate lists. Of these, 14 are men and eight are women.

In York Region, two candidates are running for Markham City Council. Thamiraa Ragikaran is contesting Ward 5, while Killi Chelliah is running in Ward 7.

In the election for York Region District School Board Trustee representing Markham Wards 5 and 7, Rukshan Para, Garishan Ravishankar and Hemamalini Venkataraman are among the candidates.

This brings the number of candidates included in this overview from Markham to five.

In Durham Region, three candidates have been identified in Pickering.

Rajkumar Nada is running for City Councillor in Ward 3, while Priya Vadivel is contesting the City Councillor position in Ward 1.

Sinthuja Kanageswaran is running for the Durham District School Board Trustee position representing Pickering.

Accordingly, three candidates from Pickering are included in this overview.

Also in Durham Region, two candidates have been identified in Ajax.

Ranjith Paranivasagam is contesting the Ward 2 Regional Councillor position, while Mayoorey Murugathasan is running for Durham District School Board Trustee.

In Toronto, all 12 candidates included in this overview are contesting City Council seats.

Roy Samathanam is running in Ward 17 – Don Valley North.

In Ward 20 – Scarborough Southwest, incumbent City Councillor Parthi Kandavel is seeking re-election.

In Ward 21 – Scarborough Centre, 11 candidates are running for City Councillor. Madura Shanmugaratnam and Krissan Veerasingam are the two included in this overview.

In Ward 22 – Scarborough-Agincourt, Sindia Vijayarajan is running for City Councillor.

In Ward 23 – Scarborough North, Piravena Sathiyanantham is running for City Councillor.

In Ward 24 – Scarborough-Guildwood, Nachi Ramasamy and Arun Sivanandan are contesting the City Councillor position.

In Ward 25 – Scarborough-Rouge Park, Dharshan Casinathen, Somas Kaneshapillai, Kannan S’ree Jr and incumbent City Councillor Neethan Shan are contesting the election.

This brings the number of candidates included in this overview from Toronto to 12.

Overall, the candidates identified in this overview comprise five from Markham, three from Pickering, two from Ajax and 12 from Toronto, bringing the total to 22 across the four municipal areas.

They are contesting positions involving Markham City Council, Pickering City Council, Toronto City Council, the York Region District School Board and the Durham District School Board.

While some are contesting these positions for the first time, others are returning to the electoral arena after previously running in municipal or school board elections.

Killi Chelliah, who is contesting Markham Ward 7, also ran in the 2025 by-election for the same ward and is returning to contest Ward 7 in the 2026 municipal election.

Rukshan Para, who is contesting the York Region District School Board Trustee position, also ran in a school board election in 2022 and is once again seeking a trustee position in 2026.

Parthi Kandavel, who is running in Toronto Ward 20, also contested the same ward in the 2022 municipal election. He later won the 2023 Ward 20 by-election and became a Toronto City Councillor. As the incumbent councillor, he is now seeking re-election in 2026.

Neethan Shan, who is contesting Toronto Ward 25, won the 2025 Scarborough-Rouge Park by-election and became a Toronto City Councillor. As the incumbent councillor, he is seeking election again in the same ward in 2026.

Accordingly, among the 22 candidates included in this overview, Killi Chelliah, Rukshan Para, Parthi Kandavel and Neethan Shan are identified as returning candidates who have previously contested municipal or school board elections.

The 2026 Ontario municipal elections therefore feature individuals connected to the Tamil community not only in contests for municipal council representation, but also in races for school board representation.

Ontario voters will determine the final outcome when they cast their ballots on October 26.