By Pepper Parr
May 2nd, 2026
BURLINGTON, ON
City Hall was accepting nomination forms from those who wanted to be candidates in the October 26th municipal government.
Running for Mayor
City Hall was accepting nomination forms from those who wanted to be candidates in the October 26th municipal government on Friday.
Ward 2 Councillor Lisa Kearns and Ward 3 Councilor Rory Nisan filed their forms on Monday.
Kearns has a very robust website and plans laid out for an active campaign.
Kearns decided it was either to get elected as mayor or to leave politics entirely.
Rory Nisan, candidate for Mayor
Nisan has a website with little in the way of content. His decision to run for Mayor did not come as a complete surprise.
Ward 1 candidate:
At this point, the only nominated candidate is Kelven Galbraith
Ward 2 candidate:
Nothing yet. There are two people who have said they will file papers: Brad Harness and Sean Cameron might be holding back until they learn what Regional Chair Gary Carr will do. He is rumoured to be interested. He attended the Ward 2 meeting that took place last week.
Ward 3 candidate:
Nothing yet. With current Ward 3 Councilor Rory Nisan throwing his hat in the ring to become Mayor the ward is wide open.
Ward 4 candidate:
This is where things have heated up. Current Councillor Shawna Stolte will face Oliva Duke who ran against her in 2022 and got 1748 votes; Stolte won the seat with 3591 votes. Chris Carter has also filed nomination papers and has a website in place.
Current Ward 2 Councillor Shawna Stolte
Chris Carter, Ward 4 candidate
Olivia Duke, trying a second time to serve the residents of Ward 4
Ward 5 candidate:
Nothing yet. Everyone will be waiting to see what current Councillor Paul Sharman decides to do. His decision to run again is not a certainty.
Ward 6 candidate:
Current Ward 6 Councillor Angelo Bentivegna
Angelo Bentivegna has filed his papers and is expected to have his van decorated again.
Some elections get very active, particularly when there is an electorate that is grumpy and unhappy. Names that are being talked about have Karina Gould reported to be considering a run for Mayor and Mayor Meed Ward taking a look at the federal seat, should Gold jump into municipal politics. Rumours like this have to be taken with a grain of salt. However, Gould is reported to have visited Marianne Meed Ward at her home.
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Anyone would be better than the current mayor. I’d like to throw my hat into the ring of procurement head, I need to get my kids into York, based on the swim allocation it’s easy to get that perk. Also I’m sure there’s other great “perks” to the job and you can literally use AI to review all the documents so it’s somewhat straight forward. Being mayor seems out of reach for me I’ve never been one for photo ops and I’m terrible at lying.
Well, the die is certainly cast now for another Meed Ward term as mayor. Given that Nisan has announced that he will also vie for the top chair, neither he nor Kearns will be able to topple the Red Queen. Indeed, they will split the anti-Marianne vote and she will walk in comfortably. But Nisan has often said that he would never run against the current mayor. So, what has changed? Presumably he knows that she will not be running or that it is likely that she expects a seat higher up on the political food chain and is biding her time. Regional Chair perhaps? She’s been seen wearing a lot of blue lately.
Oh, and the Ward 2 candidate that you refer to as Brad XXXX is Brad Harness, your competitor in ‘high stakes journalism’.