Joseph Cressy (born July 10, 1984)"Meet Joe Cressy: Door-knocking in Trinity Spadina and loving it". iPolitics, April 15, 2014. is a former Canadian politician and activist who served on the Toronto City Council from 2014 to 2022. Cressy represented Ward 10 Spadina—Fort York, and was the chair of the Toronto Board of Health. On 22 April 2024, Cressy announced on X that he had joined Waterfront Toronto as its chief of staff.

Career

Activism Cressy has worked on various social justice issues, which traces back to high school when he spent a year in South Africa."Joe Cressy on Nelson Mandela and Inspiration". "Now Toronto", December 12, 2013. Upon returning to high school in Toronto, he got involved in the anti-Iraq war movement"Protesters in Canada express anger at Bush, Iraq War". "Jamaica Observer", December 1, 2004. and has since worked on anti-poverty campaigns in South Africa, literacy programs with First Nations communities in Northern Ontario, and worked with The Stop Community Food Centre.

Cressy also supports LGBTQ issues,"Former Chow staffer seeks NDP nomination in Trinity-Spadina". "Daily Xtra", March 21, 2014. volunteering for an LGBTQ organization while studying abroad in Accra and supporting the New Democratic Party's (NDP) call for a visa ban against legislators who passed anti-gay laws in Russia.

Federal politics

Cressy ran for the New Democratic Party (NDP) in a by-election seeking to represent Trinity—Spadina in the House of Commons following former NDP member of Parliament (MP) Olivia Chow's resignation to run for mayor of Toronto in the 2014 mayoral election. Cressy placed second, following winner Adam Vaughan who previously represented Ward 20 on Toronto City Council."Joe Cressy wins second time in Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina". Toronto Star, October 27, 2014.

Toronto City Council Following his defeat federally, Cressy ran and was elected in the 2014 municipal election in Ward 20 Trinity—Spadina, succeeding Ceta Ramkhalawansingh, who was appointed interim councillor following Vaughan's resignation to run for MP.

As councillor, Cressy has sat on the Toronto Board of Health (serving as chair), the board of directors for Toronto Community Housing, the Parks and Environment Committee and the sub-committee on Climate Change and Adaptation.

Cressy ran again in the 2018 municipal election in the newly formed Ward 10 Spadina—Fort York, which his old ward was amalgamated into. He was re-elected by one of the widest victory margins of any councillor in the city with 55.06 per cent of the vote.

Cressy has announced he intends to retire from electoral politics and did not stand in the 2022 Toronto municipal election. He resigned from city council, effective April 30, 2022, to accept an appointment as senior vice president for external relations, communications and real estate development at George Brown College.

Personal life Cressy is the son of former Toronto city councillors Gordon Cressy and Joanne Campbell."NDP turns to young activist with deep Chow roots in Trinity-Spadina". Toronto Star, March 17, 2014. His birth in 1984 made Campbell the first woman in Toronto City Council history to give birth to a child while serving as a councillor."City Hall Notebook". The Globe and Mail, July 23, 1984.

He studied public affairs and policy management at Carleton University. Prior to his entry into electoral politics, he worked for the Stephen Lewis Foundation and the Polaris Institute,"Meet Joe Cressy: The man who seeks to replace Olivia Chow in Ottawa". Yahoo! News Canada, April 2, 2014. and was campaign manager for Mike Layton's (son of former federal NDP leader Jack Layton) successful campaign for a city council seat in the 2010 municipal election and NDP MP Olivia Chow's re-election campaign in the 2011 federal election. He was also initially involved in Chow's mayoral campaign in 2014, but withdrew when he decided to run in the Trinity—Spadina by-election.

Election results 2018 Toronto municipal election, Ward 10 Spadina—Fort YorkCandidateVotesVote shareJoe Cressy15,90355.06%April Engelberg3,34611.58%Kevin Vuong3,01810.45%Sabrina Zuniga1,5645.41%John Nguyen1,0323.57%Karlene Nation8602.98%Rick Myers7472.59%Dean Maher6112.12%Al Carbone5191.8%Andrew Massey4731.64%Michael Barcelos4511.56%Edris Zalmai1470.51%Andrei Zodian1330.46%Ahdam Dour800.28%Total28,884Source: City of Toronto +2014 Toronto election, Ward 20 Candidate Votes %Joe Cressy12,466 41.96Terri Chu 3,693 12.43Sarah Thomson 2,808 9.45Mike Yen 1,431 4.81Philip Morrison 1,407 4.73Anshul Kapoor 1,063 3.57Charles MacDonald 972 3.27Albert Koehl 853 2.87Tonny Louie 740 2.49Daryl Christoff 705 2.37Mike Andreae 590 1.98Sam Goldstein 519 1.74Nick Wright 395 1.33Stephanie Carty-Kegel 376 1.26Sam Novak 376 1.26Garaham Hollings 307 1.03Stella Kargiannakis 286 0.96Leanne Hicks 212 0.71Susan Tsai 194 0.65Michael Monaghan 128 0.43Kat Shermack 102 0.34Akeem Fasasi 86 0.28Total 29,709 100 Unofficial results as of October 27, 2014 10:05 PM

References

External links

Official site