INCUMBENT RUNNING

Ward 2

East London — Argyle · Hale–Highbury · former Psychiatric Hospital lands

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

Your ward at a glance

Ward 2 is a two-candidate race so far: two-term incumbent Shawn Lewis, the city's Deputy Mayor, against first-time candidate Zack Ramsey, with nominations open until certification (by August 24, 2026). The race is about who manages a fast-changing east end, headlined by roughly 8,400 homes planned for the old psychiatric hospital lands. And the map moved: Ward 2 now takes in all of Argyle, while Old East Village goes to Ward 1.

What Ward 2 is wrestling with

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

■ CITY DECIDES

One more year of transit construction

The construction isn't over: work continues into 2026 on Highbury Bridge and a final Dundas Street phase, with dedicated bus-lane markings planned for spring/summer 2026. The East London Link runs through and near the ward along Dundas Street and Highbury Avenue, connecting downtown to Fanshawe College; most Dundas construction wrapped in 2025.

The honest numbers ▾

Funded through the roughly $385M 2026 Renew program (about $285M new capital plus ~$100M carried from 2025); target service start is mid-2027. City of London ↗

Ask your candidates

Name one concrete thing you'd do this year for the residents and businesses along the East London Link construction.

■ CITY DECIDES

8,400 homes coming to the hospital lands

The 57-hectare former London Psychiatric Hospital site at 850 Highbury Ave. N., newly pulled into Ward 2, is set to become what the city calls the largest residential development in London's history, with a commercial "village core," parkland, and a planned direct connection to the East London Link. Build-out runs for decades; the next several councils will manage its phasing, infrastructure demand, and community impact.

The honest numbers ▾

Roughly 8,400 housing units across 10 towers, built out in phases over roughly two decades; four heritage-designated structures and a heritage tree allée are being retained. Council approved the enabling amendments in October 2024. City of London ↗

Ask your candidates

What has to be built before the first of the 8,400 homes on the hospital lands, and who pays for it?

■ CITY DECIDES

Will the east end keep catching up?

The incumbent frames his two terms around correcting a "long-neglected" east end, citing roads, sewers, parks, traffic calming at elementary school zones, and the East Lions Community Centre (opened December 2021). The open question for 2026: do the newly added parts of the ward (Hale–Highbury, Culver/Parkhurst, the psychiatric-hospital lands) get the same investment going forward?

The honest numbers ▾

Candidate-stated figures from the incumbent's campaign materials, not independently audited: over $35 million invested, 17 road/sewer projects, 6 major park upgrades, and the $21.5 million East Lions Community Centre. campaign site (candidate-stated) ↗

Ask your candidates

Which newly added Ward 2 neighbourhood needs infrastructure first, and what would you push for there?

■ CITY DECIDES

Who's running our buses now?

Who oversees London Transit is unsettled. After three London Transit Commission board members resigned amid leadership concerns in early 2025, council voted to dissolve the LTC's board and put seven councillors in charge as an interim committee while the oversight model gets reviewed. Incumbent Shawn Lewis co-sponsored the motion that started the change; he was not appointed to the interim committee. The permanent model was not yet settled as of this research.

The honest numbers ▾

The committee motion passed 9–6; full council then voted 10–5 to dissolve the LTC board. CBC News ↗

Ask your candidates

What permanent oversight model for London Transit would you vote for?

■ CITY DECIDES

Your ward lines probably moved

The Ward 2 on this fall's ballot is a different map than the one voted on in 2018 and 2022. It loses Old East Village and gains the Hale-to-Highbury area, several neighbourhoods off First and Second Streets, the Culver Drive/Parkhurst area, and the psychiatric-hospital lands. The change takes legal effect November 15, 2026; check the city's interactive ward map to confirm which ward you now vote in.

Ask your candidates

Name one thing you'll do in your first six months for the neighbourhoods newly added to Ward 2.

Who’s running

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

LEWIS RAMSEY

Shawn Lewis

Ward 2 councillor since 2018 and Deputy Mayor for the 2022–2026 term, chairing the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee; a nearly 30-year Argyle resident and former constituency aide to then-MP Irene Mathyssen, active on the Argyle Community Association and Argyle BIA boards.

RECORD · 2022–2026 →

SPECIFICITY3 concrete proposals · 4 aspirational themes

PLATFORM, RECORD & CONTACT▾

Platform — WHAT THEY SAY

Keep east-London infrastructure renewal a priority, naming specific next-term road and water-wastewater targets: Third Street, Whitney Street, and Dundas Street east of Clarke Road. campaign site — My Commitments ↗
Shift park investment to smaller neighbourhood parks — naming Culver Park, Grampian Woods, Admiral, and Nelson parks — after the major Kiwanis (splash pad upgrade slated for summer 2027) and East Lions upgrades.
Pursue infill and redevelopment of named vacant sites in Ward 2: the former St. Roberts school property on Duluth Crescent, the corner of Hale & Dundas, the former Bowlerama property on Dundas, and the new housing lands east of Crumlin Road added to the Urban Growth Boundary.
Community safety: work with police to ensure staffing levels and resources match a city of half a million — for more proactive patrolling, traffic enforcement, and open drug-use enforcement. — direction stated; no staffing number or budget figure attached
Homelessness: keep pressing the Ontario government to fund mental-health and addiction-treatment beds — through direct meetings with ministers rather than protest — while opposing 'tens of millions in new property taxes' for services he argues are provincial jurisdiction. — an advocacy posture rather than a municipal program commitment
Housing affordability: continue nonprofit and private-sector building partnerships and cut planning red tape so the private sector can build faster and cheaper; his page claims average rents dropped 7% in 2026 versus 2024. — the 7% rent-drop figure is candidate-stated and was not verified against rental-market data
A new-term focus on "improved customer service" for Londoners from City Hall (details "to come"), plus tourism growth via the UNESCO City of Music designation and the new London Film Office. — explicitly flagged by the candidate as not yet detailed

Record — WHAT THEY DID

How they voted — the landmark-vote scorecard →

NOTES

His infrastructure figures ($35M+ invested, 17 road/sewer projects, 6 park upgrades — his commitments page separately says "20 different construction priorities dealt with") are candidate-stated on his campaign site and were not cross-checked against city capital-budget records in this research pass.

The July 2 pass characterized his campaign as record-heavy with thin next-term specifics; his "My Commitments" page, read in full on July 3, does contain named forward commitments (specific roads, parks, and infill sites), and his platform entry now reflects that page.

The neighbourhood-level description of the new Ward 2 used here is sourced primarily to his own campaign page; a candidate's boundary description is not a neutral primary source even if likely accurate.

Deputy Mayor in London's council structure is a role assigned by council among sitting councillors, not a separately elected position.

Our questionnaire QUESTIONS GOING OUT

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

WEBSITE ↗EMAIL PHONE

Zack Ramsey

London-born first-time candidate who entered the 2022 Ward 1 race but withdrew during that campaign to support the eventual winner; he states he has spent roughly four years talking with residents in preparation for this run, with no prior elected office found.

SPECIFICITY5 concrete proposals · 5 aspirational themes

PLATFORM, RECORD & CONTACT▾

Platform — WHAT THEY SAY

Grow the city's own trees in park-based tree nurseries and plant them across London — "Reforest the Forest City" — while adding community gardens, fitness equipment, and fruit trees and bushes to parks. campaign site — Policy Ideas ↗
Take residential snow plowing in-house — ending reliance on contractors — and increase plowing frequency on Ward 2 side streets.
Landlord licensing with a public database listing each landlord and all of their properties.
Lower the London police budget to fund his initiatives without raising property taxes, while expanding the COAST crisis-response program — his page cites four teams of two (an officer and a crisis nurse) already answering 25% of 911 calls — and the auxiliary officer program. — COAST figures are as stated on his page and were not independently verified; council approves a global police budget, with line allocation resting with the Police Services Board
Make community-centre spaces free to use for community events, run consistent free events year-round including winter, and build neighbourhood information boards for local news and events.
"Fight against Farhi and the rampant commercial vacancy" — press owners of vacant commercial properties to fill or sell them, while acknowledging London cannot impose a commercial vacancy tax. — pressure campaign without a stated municipal mechanism; his own page notes the vacancy-tax limit
Homelessness: increase funding for supportive housing and public housing, and demand more affordable units from developers. — funding direction without amounts
Launch a citywide initiative to organize tenants and workers to lower rents and increase pay, framed as the city enabling collective organizing rather than setting rents or wages itself.
Reevaluate zoning to promote density — "expand upwards and downwards rather than outwards" — to protect surrounding farmland.
Revitalize the Thames River toward safe swimming (framed as a multi-term project), expand mutual aid (food banks, tool libraries, free stores, skill shares), increase savings for delayed infrastructure projects, and take a community approach to trash with more bylaw enforcement, bins, and organized cleanups. — grouped themes from the same page; directional, without costs or timelines

NOTES

His "Policy Ideas" page returned a 404 in the July 2 pass but loaded normally on July 3; his platform entry now reflects a full read of that page.

Several planks depend on powers London does not hold alone: his own page acknowledges the city cannot impose a commercial vacancy tax, rent and wage levels are outside municipal authority (his page frames the city's role as organizing support), and police-budget line allocation rests with the Police Services Board. Jurisdictional feasibility was not independently assessed here.

Public search results include other people named "Zack Ramsey" with no evident connection to this campaign, including a 2022 Green Party provincial candidate; this profile draws only on his campaign site, the official City of London candidate listing, and the campaign's own linked social accounts.

Our questionnaire QUESTIONS GOING OUT

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

WEBSITE ↗EMAIL PHONE

Compare side-by-side ▾

	LEWIS	RAMSEY
SPECIFICITY	3 concrete · 4 aspirational	5 concrete · 5 aspirational
HELD OFFICE	Ward 2 councillor since 2018; Deputy Mayor 2022–2026	None
ON EAST-END INFRASTRUCTURE	Runs on record ($35M+ candidate-stated; East Lions Centre) plus named next-term targets: Third St., Whitney St., Dundas east of Clarke, and four smaller neighbourhood parks	Take residential snow plowing in-house; grow city trees in park nurseries; increase savings for delayed infrastructure projects
QUESTIONNAIRE	Not yet sent	Not yet sent

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

The race

This is a two-candidate race as of the June 30, 2026 roster snapshot, pitting a two-term incumbent and sitting Deputy Mayor against a first-time candidate with no prior elected record. Nominations remain open until certification (by August 24, 2026), so the field could still change.

Lewis won big under the old boundaries: 64% in 2018 and 89% in 2022. But the new ward includes several thousand residents from former Ward 4 areas who have never voted for or against him — a genuine variable for 2026 that his past vote share doesn't directly predict. Ramsey's only prior electoral action was entering and then withdrawing from the 2022 Ward 1 race to support the eventual winner. There is no prior vote-share data point for him to run on.

No 2026-cycle endorsements, campaign finance disclosures, or ward-level polling were located for either candidate as of the research date. That is consistent with how early the campaign still is, and the nomination period is still open.

The two platforms clash directly on what a councillor can legally do. Lewis's "My Commitments" page warns, without naming anyone, against candidates promising a tax on vacant commercial buildings or line-by-line reallocation of the police budget, arguing councils lack both powers.

Ramsey's "Policy Ideas" page proposes pressing vacant-property owners (while itself acknowledging London cannot levy a vacancy tax) and lowering the overall police budget while expanding the COAST crisis program. Voters can read both pages directly: shawnlewis.ca/my_commitments and zackramsey.ca/policy-ideas.

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 2

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 ▾

No ward-specific population figure for the new Ward 2 was located; the per-ward population/deviation table sits inside the city's Ward Boundary Review Final Report PDF, which was too large to extract in this research pass.
The reported 2011–2021 population decline in the old Ward 2 is sourced to a CBC search-result summary, not a directly fetched article.
CBC and CTV direct article fetches largely failed (403) in the July 2 pass; on July 3 the CBC transit-governance article URL cited on this page was re-verified as loading (HTTP 200).
shawnlewis.ca has a TLS certificate covering only the www hostname — the bare domain fails HTTPS; links on this page use https://www.shawnlewis.ca, which loads normally.
Shawn Lewis's infrastructure dollar figures ($35M+, 17 road/sewer projects, 6 park upgrades) are candidate-stated and were not cross-checked against city capital-budget or public-works records.
RESOLVED July 3: Zack Ramsey's "Policy Ideas" page (zackramsey.ca/policy-ideas) now loads; his platform entry reflects a full read of it. His counted platform replaces the earlier "no platform published" status.
At least one other, unrelated "Zack Ramsey" appears in search results; reconfirm no biographical detail has been cross-contaminated between the two.
No 2026 endorsements or campaign-finance filings were found for either candidate; recheck closer to the election.
The neighbourhood-level description of new Ward 2 is sourced primarily to the incumbent's own campaign page; cross-check against the city's official interactive ward map or the Final Report before treating it as definitive.
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.