Introduction
Joseph "Joe" Cressy () (born July 10, 1984) is a Canadian politician and activist. He currently serves as a member of Toronto City Council representing Ward 10 Spadina—Fort York, and is chair of the Toronto Board of Health.
Activism and political career
Cressy has worked on various social-justice issues, which traces back to high school when he spent a year in South Africa. Upon returning to high school in Toronto, he got involved in the anti-Iraq war movement 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 at home and abroad, volunteering for an LGBTQ organization while studying abroad in Accra and supporting the NDP’s call for a visa ban against legislators who passed anti-gay laws in Russia.
2014 House of Commons run
Cressy ran for the New Democratic Party (NDP) in a by-election seeking to represent Trinity—Spadina in the House of Commons of Canada 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 in Toronto City Council.
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.
He was reelected in the 2018 municipal election, by one of the widest victory margins of any councillor in the city with 55.06% of the vote.
Personal life
Cressy is the son of former Toronto city councillors Gordon Cressy and Joanne Campbell. 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.
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, 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 reelection 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
| Candidate | Votes | Vote share |
|---|---|---|
| Joe Cressy | 15,903 | 55.06% |
| April Engelberg | 3,346 | 11.58% |
| Kevin Vuong | 3,018 | 10.45% |
| Sabrina Zuniga | 1,564 | 5.41% |
| John Nguyen | 1,032 | 3.57% |
| 9 other candidates | 4,021 | 13.93% |
| Total | 28,884 | 100% |
| Source: City of Toronto | ||
| Candidate | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
| Joe Cressy | 12,466 | 41.96 |
| Terri Chu | 3,693 | 12.43 |
| Sarah Thomson | 2,808 | 9.45 |
| Mike Yen | 1,431 | 4.81 |
| Philip Morrison | 1,407 | 4.73 |
| Anshul Kapoor | 1,063 | 3.57 |
| Charles MacDonald | 972 | 3.27 |
| Albert Koehl | 853 | 2.87 |
| Tonny Louie | 740 | 2.49 |
| Daryl Christoff | 705 | 2.37 |
| Mike Andreae | 590 | 1.98 |
| Sam Goldstein | 519 | 1.74 |
| Nick Wright | 395 | 1.33 |
| Stephanie Carty-Kegel | 376 | 1.26 |
| Sam Novak | 376 | 1.26 |
| Garaham Hollings | 307 | 1.03 |
| Stella Kargiannakis | 286 | 0.96 |
| Leanne Hicks | 212 | 0.71 |
| Susan Tsai | 194 | 0.65 |
| Michael Monaghan | 128 | 0.43 |
| Kat Shermack | 102 | 0.34 |
| Akeem Fasasi | 86 | 0.28 |
| Total | 29,709 | 100 |
Unofficial results as of October 27, 2014 10:05 PM
| Canadian federal by-election, June 30, 2014: Trinity—Spadina Resignation of Olivia Chow | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
| Liberal | Adam Vaughan | 18,547 | 53.66 | +30.27 | ||||
| New Democratic | Joe Cressy | 11,802 | 34.14 | −20.37 | ||||
| Conservative | Benjamin Sharma | 2,022 | 5.85 | −10.96 | ||||
| Green | Camille Labchuk | 1,880 | 5.43 | +1.05 | ||||
| Christian Heritage | Linda Groce-Gibbons | 174 | 0.50 | – | ||||
| Independent | John "The Engineer" Turmel | 141 | 0.41 | – | ||||
| Total valid votes/Expense limit | 34,566 | 100.00 | – | |||||
| Total rejected ballots | 111 | 0.32 | −0.12 | |||||
| Turnout | 34,677 | 31.78 | −37.02 | |||||
| Eligible voters | 110,252 | |||||||
| Liberal gain from New Democratic | Swing | +25.32 | ||||||
| By-election due to the resignation of Olivia Chow to run in the 2014 Toronto mayoral election. | ||||||||
| Source: Elections Canada
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