Former Toronto diversity officer and longtime Ward 20 activist Ceta Ramkhalawansingh is the new city councillor for Trinity-Spadina, following a second-ballot win at Toronto council’s special meeting to fill that vacant seat and one other July 7.
Ramkhalawansingh received 22 votes on the second ballot over former Edmonton police chief Robert Lunney, who finished with 18 votes.
"I am relieved after a long morning of balloting and listening to everybody’s speeches," said Ramkhalawansingh, who was among 29 hopefuls for the job of interim councillor in Ward 20.
The seat was vacated by Adam Vaughan last month to run – successfully – in the June 30 Trinity-Spadina byelection.
Ramkhalawansingh is a 43-year resident of the ward, having come to Canada in 1967 along with her family.
Until four years ago, she was the city’s diversity manager of community engagement, and since then she’s been doing volunteer work on municipal issues and on ward matters.
She came to the council meeting with endorsements from various community leaders, and an endorsement letter from the Harbord Village Residents Association.
She said her decision to apply for the appointment, which expires after the Oct. 27 election, came from encouragement in the community.
"I was asked by the people that I worked with for the last 20 or 30 years, the other residents group in the ward, I was asked whether I would consider doing this," she said. "I talked to a lot of them and agreed to do it."
She said she intends to work strictly as a caretaker councillor, dealing with the many development issues in the ward. But when asked whether she would stay out of the politics of city hall, she said that wasn’t likely.
"I don’t know how you can avoid it," she said. "This is a political place."
She said she didn’t expect to get involved in the politics surrounding Toronto’s recently returned and highly controversial mayor, however.
"I think there will be other people who have a lot to say about the mayor," she said. "I intend to focus on issues in my ward. As long as the mayor supports the issues in Ward 20, I’ll be satisfied with that."
Prior to the appointment, Ward 19 (Trinity-Spadina) Councillor Mike Layton had been taking on much of the ward work in Ward 20. He said he’ll be glad for the help.
"I don’t know about you, but I only have 24 hours in a day," he said. "Six are spent sleeping and the rest are spent helping the residents of Ward 19. Ward 20 needs a representative and we made the right choice."