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Ward 4

Northeast London: Carling · most of Stoneybrook · the Huron Heights core

ALL-CANDIDATE MEETING
Wednesday, September 16, 2026 · 7:00-8:00pm
Beacock Library (1280 Huron St.)
Urban League of London ↗Organized by a third party, not London Decides. Dates and locations can change.
ON THE BALLOTBALECKBIRINDWACULLDAAMENJOZICLIEKNINSORSERPRUNNERWRIGHT
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THE SHORT VERSION

Your ward at a glance

Ward 4 is an open seat: Susan Stevenson is running for mayor, not re-election, and nine candidates are on the register after one withdrawal (Alicia Caskey withdrew before nominations closed). Nominations closed August 21, 2026; the City certified the list on August 24. With the map redrawn, the race turns on the northeast's own files: sidewalks, tree canopy, student rentals, safety. Old East Village is now in Ward 1.

Four candidates carry a prior election record. Ray Daamen ran for Ward 4 council in 2022, receiving 63 votes (1.68%), per the City's certified results. Mario Jozic ran for Ward 9 council in 2022, finishing second with 1,569 votes (22.75%) of five candidates, per the City's certified results. Stephen Orser served as Ward 4 councillor from 2006 to 2014; he ran for Ward 4 council again in 2022, finishing fifth with 365 votes (9.72%) of seven candidates, per the City's certified results. Bob Wright ran for Ward 3 council in 2022, finishing second with 1,026 votes (25.90%) of five candidates, per the City's certified results.

The rest of the field, in alphabetical order: Bonnie Baleck, Elivis Birindwa, Tom Cull, Alan Lieknins, and Randi Prunner.

THE FIELD

Who's running

Listed alphabetically. Identical treatment for every candidate. That's the deal.

BALECKBIRINDWACULLDAAMENJOZICLIEKNINSORSERPRUNNERWRIGHT

Bonnie Baleck

Our questionnaire ◌ GOES OUT AFTER AUG 24

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

Elivis Birindwa

Our questionnaire ◌ GOES OUT AFTER AUG 24

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

Tom Cull

Our questionnaire ◌ GOES OUT AFTER AUG 24

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

Ray Daamen

Ran for Ward 4 council in 2022: 63 votes (1.68%), per the City's certified results.

Our questionnaire ◌ GOES OUT AFTER AUG 24

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

Mario Jozic

Ran for Ward 9 council in 2022: finished second with 1,569 votes (22.75%) of five candidates, per the City's certified results.

Our questionnaire ◌ GOES OUT AFTER AUG 24

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

Alan Lieknins

Our questionnaire ◌ GOES OUT AFTER AUG 24

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

Stephen Orser

Ran for Ward 4 council in 2022: finished fifth with 365 votes (9.72%) of seven candidates, per the City's certified results.

Our questionnaire ◌ GOES OUT AFTER AUG 24

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

Randi Prunner

Our questionnaire ◌ GOES OUT AFTER AUG 24

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

Bob Wright

Ran for Ward 3 council in 2022: finished second with 1,026 votes (25.90%) of five candidates, per the City's certified results.

Our questionnaire ◌ GOES OUT AFTER AUG 24

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

No endorsements · Same rules for every candidate · Sources linked · Answers published word for word · How we research →

WHAT'S AT STAKE

What Ward 4 is wrestling with

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

■ CITY DECIDES

The northeast gets skipped for city money

When core-area money is handed out, this ward isn't on the list. The Core Area Action Plan formally covers Downtown, Richmond Row, Midtown, and Old East Village, not Huron Heights, so core-revitalization, safety, and homelessness budget lines flow to Old East Village (now in Ward 1) rather than the northeast. Old North East Neighbourhood Association co-founder Jacqueline Fraser has put the grievance directly: "Northeast London is often looked down upon by the decision-makers and influencers." There is also no BIA covering the Highbury Avenue commercial strip in the new ward.

Put them on the record

Which capital project in the northeast would you fight to get into the next budget?

■ CITY DECIDES

Violent crime is above where 2019 left it

London is paying more for policing than it ever has, and violent crime severity is still about 24% above 2019, with the citywide index rising in 2025 for the first time since 2021. The concern lands hardest in this ward's Highbury corridor and student-rental zones, where neighbourhood-level risk is cited as above city averages; residents felt it directly in the October 15, 2025 linked shootings on Huron Street and Homestead Crescent (a major-crime response, no injuries reported). Because no neighbourhood-level severity index is published, the ward-level picture rests on incidents rather than an official number — which is exactly why the ask below demands a measurable answer.

The honest numbers ▾

Statistics Canada's official measure puts London CMA's Crime Severity Index at 66.0 in 2025, up 8% from 2024 and its first rise since 2021, though still 12% below 2019 (national index: 75.0, down 5%). The rise came on both lines: violent crime severity (79.6 in 2025) is about 24% above 2019, while non-violent severity is still 23% below it. That is against a $672-million four-year police budget under which 69 officers were hired in 2024, 35 of them growth positions. No neighbourhood-level severity index is published. StatCan — Crime Severity Index by CMA, 2025 ↗

Put them on the record

What would you vote to fund for safety in the Highbury corridor, and what number would tell us it worked?

■ CITY DECIDES

Where the sidewalks still don't go

Which streets get sidewalks is still an open file. The Huron Heights Neighbourhood Connectivity Plan led to a November 2023 council decision approving most proposed sidewalk locations while exempting dozens of crescents and courts from the city's Mobility Policy 349. Building them carries into the new term.

The honest numbers ▾

Council approved 17 of 20 proposed sidewalk locations, exempted 24 crescents and 14 courts, and deferred four streets.

Put them on the record

Will you keep the Connectivity Plan sidewalks on schedule, and do the exempted streets stay exempt?

■ CITY DECIDES

The bike routes council cut

The ward lost planned bike routes last year. The Old North East Neighbourhood Association wrote a March 31, 2025 letter opposing the removal of Mobility Master Plan cycling additions on Huron, Taylor, McNay, and Gammage streets. Council split the difference on April 1, 2025: Huron survived as a medium-term cycling project, but the Taylor, McNay and Gammage routes were removed from the cycling network maps.

The honest numbers ▾

Per the April 1, 2025 council minutes: the motion to remove Huron Street from the cycling network failed 5–10, and Huron was instead moved to a medium-term cycling project (14–1); the Taylor, McNay and Gammage routes were removed 10–5 (opposed: Peloza, McAlister, Trosow, Franke, Ferreira). Council then approved the final Mobility Master Plan on July 22, 2025. council minutes, April 1, 2025 ↗

Put them on the record

Would you move to restore the cycling routes cut from Taylor, McNay and Gammage, and would you speed up Huron's?

■ CITY DECIDES

Student rentals are changing the neighbourhood

Post-war bungalows here keep converting to student rentals, driven by Fanshawe College next door, a housing-character and affordability issue distinct from the downtown/Old East Village housing debate.

Put them on the record

What specific rule or licensing change, if any, would you support for student rentals in this ward?

■ CITY DECIDES

Not enough trees, hotter streets

Old Northeast London sits well below the city's recommended tree canopy target, with the heat-island risk that comes with bare streets. The Old North East Neighbourhood Association's "Tree Canopy for All" initiative partnered with Reforest London, Nature Canada, and Nature London on a tree planting at Huron Heights Park in September 2025.

The honest numbers ▾

Roughly 30% of the city's recommended tree canopy target; the September 27, 2025 planting added 50–80 trees at Huron Heights Park.

Put them on the record

Name one funded step you'd take at council to close the northeast's tree-canopy gap, beyond volunteer plantings.

YOU DON’T HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL OCTOBER

Change can start now, at any point

The ballot is one tool, not the only one. Between elections, the people who show up are the ones who get heard, and you can start today, not next fall.

  • Email or call your councillor. Every office lists a phone number and address, and a single resident's message still lands. City of London ↗
  • Speak at a committee. Any resident can register as a delegation and take five minutes to address a Standing Committee on an item that's on its agenda. City of London ↗
  • Read the record. Agendas, staff reports, and every recorded vote are posted publicly on the city's meeting portal. City meetings ↗

None of it waits four years. The people already in the room are the ones who asked to be.

DON'T STOP AT ONE RACE

Also on your ballot

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.

BEFORE OCT 26

How to vote in Ward 4

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 ▾
  • August 8, 2026 region audit: “East London” removed as a listed neighbourhood (that district is 71% Ward 1) and “Huron Heights” qualified to its core — the district as a whole is 73% Ward 3, 27% Ward 4, consistent with the boundary note that only the core moved; checked with the City’s Planning Districts layer sampled against the official 2026 ward polygons (scripts/check-ward-regions.mjs).
  • August 8, 2026: most of Stoneybrook (61% of the planning district) confirmed as Ward 4 territory when checked with the City’s Planning Districts layer (Open Data, Community MapServer layer 18) sampled against the official 2026 ward polygons (the same Open Data file the site’s ward maps are built from); its western part is Ward 5. It was previously mislisted on the Ward 5 page. The region line now names it.
  • Ward 4 population (current or post-redraw) was not found; only 2011 Huron Heights neighbourhood-level figures were available, which pre-date current boundaries and are not presented as ward population.
  • RESOLVED July 4: The April 1, 2025 council minutes answer the cycling question. The motion to remove Huron Street failed 5–10 and Huron was moved to a medium-term cycling project (14–1), while the Taylor, McNay and Gammage routes were removed 10–5. The cycling issue card above now carries the minutes as its source.
  • A few honest-numbers items on this page (sidewalk gaps, tree canopy) don't yet link to a primary source; we're still tracking those down.
  • August 7, 2026: the safety issue card was reframed to lead with the StatCan trend (violent crime severity ~24% above 2019; first citywide index rise since 2021) rather than the October 2025 Huron Street shootings, which stay as the local example. A fresh search found no new ward safety developments; the only new material was unsourced aggregator blogs whose figures conflict with StatCan's official index, and none of it was used.
  • An August 2, 2026 re-check found no new Ward 4-relevant developments since the July 19 update. Specifically searched with no results: progress on the Huron Heights / Highbury sidewalk and tree-canopy files, any follow-up on the October 15, 2025 Huron Street shootings (no charges reported), any city response to the "northeast gets skipped for city money" grievance, and any mayoral-race coverage that touched Ward 4 substance. Nothing on this page changed as a result, and the open questions listed here still stand.