Author archive

Maryem needs 100 Toronto-Danforth voters to request that she appear on the ballot. We’ll be collecting 150 just to be sure.

Come out and say hello! Come out and sign! Come out and help collect signatures!

Update: The core team has 179 signatures, and several satellite volunteers will be adding more. Signature collecting is done!

Maryem and volunteers (not all pictured) collected signatures of electors today so that she can appear on the ballot.

Maryem Tollar, Toronto-Danforth candidate, 2021 election. Photo credit: Cathy Ord.

Maryem Tollar is a renowned Egyptian-Canadian vocalist, known for her world music performances. She has been a public school teacher with the TDSB since 2012. Her music and work have always coincided with her politics. Many projects she is involved with explore different aspects of society. She uses her music as a vehicle for her activism and she has set many poems by Ehab Lotayef to music. Ehab’s poems have many themes including: the Iraq war, issues in Israel/Palestine, human rights issues and freedom and dignity for the oppressed. Maryem believes that there is intersectionality between climate issues and human rights issues. Maryem is a community organizer in the arts and she has used her platform to shine a light on a variety of social justice concerns. In her artistic career, she has received several Juno and Dora nominations and awards for musical projects and theatre productions. In 2019 she won the inaugural Johanna Metcalf Award for Performing Arts. Maryem is married to woodwind player Ernie Tollar and they have 3 children.

Chris Tolley, Toronto-Danforth candidate, 2019 election

Four years ago I stood on stage during an all-candidates debate as Julie Dabrusin, the Liberal candidate for Toronto-Danforth, promised the audience, “If the Liberals win this election, it will be the last first-past-the-post election in Canadian history!”

They won. And what happened?     Read more »

2019 Toronto-Danforth nomination meeting
Sunday, 2019 May 26, 3 pm – 5 pm
Ralph Thornton Community Centre, 765 Queen St E
Our contestants are Rebecca Wood and Chris Tolley.

Toronto-Danforth nomination contestant Rebecca Wood

Rebecca Wood is a fresh and bold voice, fiercely passionate about social justice, the environment and issues of equality. She is a University of Guelph graduate, successful entrepreneur, and mother of two. Wood has called Toronto-Danforth home for fifteen years. She is woven into the community through      Read more »