OPEN SEAT

Ward 14

Southeast London — the city's southeast corner, much of it south of Highway 401 (London's largest ward by land area)

Researched July 2, 2026 · updated July 3, 2026 · 2 candidates registered

Your ward at a glance

Ward 14 is an open seat: two-term incumbent Steven Hillier isn't running again, and two candidates have filed so far, Jason King and Sarah Lehman. King, a first-timer, runs against blanket tax increases with a detailed southeast platform; Lehman, second here in 2022, runs on better transit and services for the southeast. The redrawn ward is by far London's largest by area, mostly south of the 401 — check whether it now includes you.

What Ward 14 is wrestling with

Honestly told: the situation, the numbers, and what to ask the people who want your vote.

■ CITY DECIDES

Getting a bus south of the 401

Both candidates now name southeast transit gaps. Sarah Lehman's campaign, per CBC coverage, centres on better transit and other services for the southeast ward, including how the area's businesses are served by transit. Jason King's platform says only one bus route serves Summerside, and proposes a new express route to the Veterans Memorial industrial park, which he says the Mobility Master Plan leaves without transit service.

Ask your candidates

What bus service south of the 401 would you push for in the next LTC budget?

■ CITY DECIDES

Property taxes and city spending

Jason King's campaign centres on opposing "blanket property tax increases," framing them as inflationary and a burden on both renters and owners, and on reducing city spending growth; his site characterizes the current multi-year budget as a 24.3% cumulative increase.

Ask your candidates

What tax increase, if any, is acceptable to you over the next term, and what would you cut or defer to hit it?

■ CITY DECIDES

Growth in the rural south

The boundary review, driven by London's growth, pulled rural areas once split across three wards into one to rebalance populations while keeping rural communities together — so managing growth in the rural south is likely to be a live issue for the new Ward 14. King's platform touches it from two angles: rezoning industrial land near Bradley/Highbury for retail, and protecting the ward's Environmentally Significant Areas. Lehman points to "so many new communities being built in Ward 14" (per CBC).

Ask your candidates

Where exactly should development stop south of the 401?

□ SHARED — CITY + PROVINCE

The big three: homelessness, safety, roads

A CBC-reported survey found London voters citywide rank homelessness, drugs and roads as top election issues heading into 2026. This is citywide backdrop, not a measured Ward 14 finding.

Ask your candidates

Which citywide issue matters most south of the 401, and what would you actually vote for on it?

Who’s running

Listed alphabetically. Identical treatment for every candidate — that’s the deal.

KING LEHMAN

Jason King

Intelligence analyst, former private investigator and part-time Fanshawe College instructor who has lived in London since 1995 and now lives in Summerside; self-disclosed president of the London-Fanshawe Conservative Association, making his first run for city council.

SPECIFICITY6 concrete proposals · 4 aspirational themes

PLATFORM, RECORD & CONTACT▾

Platform — WHAT THEY SAY

Opposes "blanket property tax increases," framing them as inflationary and a burden on both renters and owners; wants tax hikes "under control" and, over time, reduced, with revenue growth coming from reassessments and new industrial tenants instead. — clear directional stance; no tax-rate target named. The "24.3% cumulative increase" figure he cites for the multi-year budget is the campaign's own characterization Campaign site — issues ↗
A city-run community centre for southeast London — with city services, a library, fitness centre and community meeting spaces — which he calls a top priority to fund, site and break ground on "as soon as possible." — named facility commitment; no cost figure or site proposed
A "Bradley Rapid-Flow Corridor": widen Bradley Avenue to four lanes from Wharncliffe through to Veterans Memorial Parkway with timed lights, plus a dedicated express bus route between Bostwick and the Veterans industrial park — going beyond the current London Plan, which he says widens only sections and nothing east of Highbury.
Rezone the areas south of Bradley and east of Highbury from heavy industrial to retail and commercial to end what he calls food-desert conditions in Summerside, Jackson and Bradley — whose closest grocery access is the Pond Mills Food Basics — then lobby grocers and retailers to locate there.
A landlord incentive he would explore: a three-year property-tax freeze on registered rental properties for owners who commit to freezing tenants' rents for the same period, surviving tenant turnover. — specific mechanism and term, but framed as "explore the possibility"
Timed green lights on London's east–west arteries (Bradley, Southdale, Commissioners, Oxford, Fanshawe Park) and north–south arteries (Hyde Park, Wonderland, Wellington, Highbury, Clarke, Veterans) to create "rapid-flow corridors," with express shuttles along them.
End the "harm reduction" model — no taxpayer-funded drug supply, use materials or consumption sites — and back a province-wide adoption of the Alberta Recovery Model of addiction treatment. — names a specific provincial model; no local implementation mechanism or costing published
Homelessness: focus on prevention — identifying elderly and pre-elderly residents at greatest risk of losing housing — partner with community organizations and charities for overnight accommodation spaces, and petition the province to restore institutionalized mental-health care facilities. — argues the city cannot solve homelessness itself and calls micro-shelter spending unsustainable
Public safety: ensure London Police have "the staff and resources they need" while staying "diligent and responsible" on spending, and push the federal government on bail reform and mandatory sentencing for repeat and violent offenders.
Protect the ward's natural spaces and Environmentally Significant Areas — Westminster Ponds, Pond Mills, Meadowlily, Tenants Pond, Kirk Cousins Wetlands, Glanworth and White's Wetlands.

NOTES

His claim of managing Kurt Holman's successful campaign is corroborated by CBC's nominations-day coverage, which describes Holman as a Conservative MP elected in London-Fanshawe (a federal race — the July 2 note here had called it provincial, which is corrected). His Conservative-association presidency remains self-reported. CBC News (May 1, 2026) ↗

Municipal elections in Ontario are nonpartisan by ballot; his Conservative-association role is disclosed on his own site, not inferred.

Several figures on his issues page — the 24.3% cumulative tax characterization, crime-trend claims, and statements about what the London Plan and Mobility Master Plan do or don't include — are the campaign's own and were not independently verified in this research.

Our questionnaire QUESTIONS GOING OUT

Identical questions go to every declared candidate. Answers are published verbatim; “no response” is reported plainly.

WEBSITE ↗EMAIL PHONE INSTAGRAM ↗X ↗

Sarah Lehman

Advocacy and social-services professional — with roles at the London Abused Women's Centre, Family Service Thames Valley, Community Living London, Pillar Nonprofit Network and the Alice Saddy Association, plus City of London and provincial constituency-office experience — who moved to London to attend King's University College, making her second run for the Ward 14 seat after finishing second in 2022.

SPECIFICITY0 concrete proposals · 3 aspirational themes

PLATFORM, RECORD & CONTACT▾

Platform — WHAT THEY SAY

Focuses on "rising costs, growing pressures on public services, housing instability," and a sense of disconnection between residents and City Hall. Campaign site ↗
States a goal of a "more connected, transparent, affordable, safe, and responsive" London.
Emphasizes better transit access and services for the southeast ward, including how area businesses are served by transit, and highlights significant development underway in southeast London "that a lot of people don't know about" — saying she wants the ward "counted around the horseshoe this time." — more concrete than the rest of her platform, but no specific routes, funding asks or timelines in the sourcing reviewed CBC News ↗

NOTES

She told CBC News she is "a distant cousin" of sitting Ward 8 Councillor Steve Lehman — correcting the July 2 note here, which had found no confirmed relationship. CBC News (May 1, 2026) ↗

Our questionnaire QUESTIONS GOING OUT

Identical questions go to every declared candidate. Answers are published verbatim; “no response” is reported plainly.

WEBSITE ↗EMAIL PHONE FACEBOOK ↗

Compare side-by-side ▾

	KING	LEHMAN
PROPERTY TAXES	Opposes blanket increases (characterizes the multi-year plan as +24.3% cumulative); wants reassessment-driven revenue and industrial growth instead — no rate target named	Names rising costs and affordability as concerns; no tax position or figure published
TRANSIT	Bradley rapid-flow corridor (4 lanes, Wharncliffe to Veterans) with express service to the industrial park; timed-light arteries citywide; says Summerside has only one bus route	Better transit access for the southeast, including service to area businesses — no routes or funding asks specified
SOUTHEAST SERVICES	City-run community centre for the southeast; rezoning south of Bradley/east of Highbury to end the Summerside–Jackson food desert	Better services for the southeast generally; highlights little-known development underway in the area (per CBC)
EXPERIENCE	First council run; intelligence analyst and Fanshawe instructor; local Conservative-association president; managed Conservative MP Kurt Holman's London-Fanshawe campaign (per CBC); Sea Cadet Corps commanding officer	Second Ward 14 run (second place, 2022); social-services and advocacy career; former City of London and provincial constituency-office staff

Same rows for every candidate. “No position published” is information too.

The race

This is an open seat: Steven Hillier, who won his second term in 2022, is not running again. As of the June 30, 2026 candidate list it is a two-candidate race, though nominations remain open until August 21, 2026 (certification before August 24).

Sarah Lehman is a repeat candidate. In the 2022 election, under the old boundaries, the Ward 14 result was Steve Hillier 1,766 votes (45.99%), Sarah Lehman 1,538 (40.05%), and Danalynn Williams 536 (13.96%), out of 3,988 ballots cast on 21.16% turnout — Lehman finished roughly 200 votes behind. Ward 14 has been substantially redrawn since, so that result shows prior name recognition and campaign experience in the area, not how the new ward will vote.

Jason King is a first-time council candidate with an active role in the local Conservative political scene: president of the London-Fanshawe Conservative Association (self-reported), and manager of Conservative MP Kurt Holman's successful London-Fanshawe campaign (corroborated by CBC). Municipal elections in Ontario are nonpartisan by ballot.

As of the July 3 re-read of his site, King has published the more detailed platform of the two: named infrastructure, rezoning and facility proposals for the southeast, against Lehman's broader service-and-connection framing.

Before you go

The rest is showing up

You’ve read the ward. Ward races here can come down to a few hundred ballots, sometimes fewer. In a race that close, your vote is one of the ones that decides it. You don’t need to know everything. You just need to show up, informed.

How to vote in Ward 14

ADVANCE

Oct 1

ADVANCE

Oct 3

ADVANCE

Oct 5–10

ELECTION DAY

Oct 26 · 10 am – 8 pm

You’ll need ID with your name and address. Full voting guide — where, what to bring, who can vote →

WHAT WE COULDN’T CONFIRM YET ▾

The new Ward 14 boundary is corroborated but not mapped street-by-street: CBC (May 1, 2026) describes it as "by far London's largest ward by area," covering the city's southeast corner with "much of it south of Hwy. 401," consistent with the councillor-site summary from the July 2 pass. Open the City's interactive ward map or the underlying council report to confirm exact edges and determine what moved out of old Ward 14 (e.g., whether White Oaks stays or moves elsewhere).
The old-vs-new Ward 14 comparison is an inference from consistent but separate sources (old ward = White Oaks/Glanworth; new ward = southeast corner south of the 401), not a confirmed before/after map comparison.
The issues list is stronger than on July 2 but still partly inferential: transit and taxes are directly tied to candidate statements, and King's expanded platform (re-read July 3) adds southeast-specific issues — the community-centre gap, food-desert conditions, industrial-park transit — that are one candidate's framing, not independently reported findings. The rural-growth item remains reasoned from the boundary review's stated rationale.
The candidate list may grow; nominations close August 21, 2026 (per CBC) — re-check the city's list closer to election day.
The Sarah Lehman / Steve Lehman relationship was resolved on July 3: CBC's nominations-day story quotes her describing herself as a distant cousin of the Ward 8 councillor. The July 2 note ('no relationship found') is corrected above.
Jason King's Kurt Holman claim was corroborated on July 3 by the same CBC story, which describes Holman as a Conservative MP elected in London-Fanshawe — a federal race, correcting the July 2 note that had called it provincial. His Conservative-association presidency remains self-reported.
Candidate list reflects the June 30, 2026 snapshot; nominations remained open at research time.
Several figures on King's issues page (24.3% cumulative tax characterization, crime trends, what the Mobility Master Plan includes) are campaign claims not independently verified.
Some cautions and honest-numbers claims on this page are not yet tied to a linked primary source; they are pending primary-link verification before final publish.