Jon Burnside is a Canadian politician and former police officer who was elected to represent Ward 16 Don Valley East on Toronto City Council following the 2022 municipal election. Burnside was the chair of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) from 2022 to 2023. He previously represented Ward 26 Don Valley West from 2014 to 2018.
Background Burnside attended Leaside High School and the University of Western Ontario. He has two siblings, and his mother originated from England. He was previously married to Carla Collins and is currently married to Charlene Quesnelle Kew.
Prior to his election to council, Burnside worked as a Toronto Police officer from 1991 to 2001https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonburnside?originalSubdomain=ca and later launched his own meal delivery company.
Political career
Burnside first ran for city council in Ward 26 in the 2010 election, losing narrowly to incumbent councillor John Parker. He defeated Parker in the 2014 election.
He ran unsuccessfully for re-election as councillor in the 2018 election in the newly constituted Ward 15 Don Valley West against fellow incumbent councillor Jaye Robinson. The new ward has the same boundaries as the provincial and federal riding with the same name.
In the 2022 Toronto municipal election, Burnside ran for election as councillor in the neighbouring Ward 16 Don Valley East. Based on preliminary results, CP24 and the Toronto Star, among others, projected that Burnside would win the ward shortly after polls closed on October 24. Burnside was appointed by Mayor John Tory as the chair of the TTC on November 24, 2022.
Electoral history 2018 Toronto municipal election, Ward 15 Don Valley WestCandidateVotesVote shareJaye Robinson16,21949.22%Jon Burnside14,44043.82%Tanweer Khan1,3093.97%Nikola Streker5831.77%Minh Le4041.23%Total32,955Source: City of Toronto 2014 Toronto election, Ward 26 Candidate Votes % Jon Burnside9,41542.73% John Parker 6,16727.99% Ishrath Velshi3,05513.86% David Sparrow1,7868.11% Wasim Vania1,0334.69% Dimitre Popov5782.62% Total 22,034 100.00%
2010 Toronto election, Ward 26City of Toronto elections page Candidate Votes %John Parker 6,203 31.3Jon Burnside 5,788 29.2Mohamed Dhanani 5,627 28.4Yunus Pandor 1,452 7.3Tanvir Ahmed 377 1.9Shaukat Malik 216 1.1Nawab Salim Khan 169 0.9Total 19,832 100
References