Thomas Desormeaux

In a year of government transition and unprecedented tensions along our southern border, Ontario’s mayors have gained a new prominence, often stepping up to protect the interests of their communities.

Whether it’s working with companies to shore up domestic industry, coordinating with jurisdictions to strategize or taking advantage of new measures enhancing mayoral powers, these politicians have been busy over the past 365+ days.

 asked its readers to narrow the list of effective municipal leaders down to a chosen few, deliberating on which mayors have been most influential within their communities, and which had the biggest impact on public safety. In a unique year, we’ll end up seeing some familiar faces. Let’s get to it.

Most influential and effective within their communities

First elected in 2022, Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall filed his papers to run for a second term earlier this month.

Nuttall has made headlines over the past few years for his response to homelessness and problem substance use is the central Ontario city of close to 200,000 people. He has also focused his tenure on dealing with affordable housing and bringing jobs to his city.

Barrie kicked off 2026 with the annexation of thousands of hectares from the surrounding townships of Springwater and Oro-Medonte, a move Nuttall has said will centralize infrastructure management and lead to more jobs for people in the area. City council also recently adopted a “zero-tolerance” policy for illegal drug activity in public spaces, reflecting Nuttall’s commitment to what he calls “restoring order” in Barrie.

This strong hand, as well as new programming and funding for affordable housing, is doubtless what convinced respondents that the mayor is having such an impact on the city he governs, despite recent upticks in the unemployment rate amid a contentious U.S. trade war.

Barrie’s next city election is in October. 

Helming the government of Brampton, a major city sometimes forgotten in discussions of the GTA, is no easy task. Mayor Patrick Brown’s almost eight years in office have proven he can run a government with impact from northeast of Toronto.

Dealing with issues like healthcare capacity, extortion crime and post-secondary education, Brown has managed to consistently keep Brampton, which just surpassed Mississauga in population size, in the public eye.

Brown says that his political experience in three levels of government, as an MP, as the leader of the Opposition at Queen’s Park and now, as mayor, is what makes his administration so effective.

“Any influence or effectiveness I may have in Brampton comes down to collaboration, persistence and clear focus on results for residents,” Mayor Brown told 

Brown has said that Brampton’s rapid population growth was fueled, in part, by high numbers of international students living in Barrie and that this has strained municipal services like housing and healthcare. He has been pushing for a second major hospital in the city of roughly 800,000 people for years. Early construction on the new Peel Memorial hospital began last year.

Brown has held his position since 2018 and he too is running for re-election, confirming in recent months that he will be on the ballot yet again this October.

Another perennial name in Ontario politics, former provincial Liberal leader Steven Del Duca has been seeing more success municipally as the mayor of Vaughan.

Mayor since 2022, Del Duca helped spearhead the movement to remove speeding cameras while also prioritizing public safety by expanding CCTV cameras across the city of more than 350,000 people.

Vaughan passed a bylaw in 2024 to create zones around schools, places of worship and similar locations, in which there would be increased punishments for intimidation and other crimes, which Del Duca billed as a move to fight hate and extremism. Shortly after Prime Minister Mark Carney’s election last year, the mayor wrote him a letter asking the Liberal government to pursue similar legislation. Ottawa later introduced the controversial combatting hate bill, Bill C-9, in September.

Last month, the city government temporarily eliminated residential development charges in an attempt to speed up construction projects.

Del Duca announced in early May that he will be running for mayor again in this year’s October elections. Reflecting on a potential second term in office, Del Duca has said crime prevention and public safety would remain the primary objective.

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown has become a leading national figure in the fight against organized crime in big cities.

In January, Brown penned an editorial for 

 in which he argued that Canadian cities are mired in a crisis of extortion-related crimes due to organizations like the Bishnoi gang. Over the past year, the mayor has asked for federally funded task forces to combat the crimes and hosted cabinet officials from the Ontario and federal governments at an anti-extortion summit in Brampton.

“Since being elected Mayor in 2018, community safety has consistently been my top priority,” Brown said. “Residents expect to feel safe in their homes, on their streets, and across their city, and that expectation continues to guide every decision we make.”

The push seems to have led to some results. Just last week, Peel Regional Police announced it had arrested 17 men and laid more than 100 criminal charges in an international investigation into extortion crime.

It’s therefore no surprise that our readers selected him as the number one Ontario mayor for increasing public safety in their city.

 that his government has focused on supporting law enforcement groups by enhancing technological tools, bettering federal oversight, increasing police force capacity and pushing legislative changes like bail reform.

Grappling with public safety has been a central tenet of Alex Nuttall’s time as mayor of Barrie. In past years, he has considered using “strong mayor powers” to have the city dismantle local encampments and signed onto a letter with 11 other Ontario mayors asking Premier Doug Ford to implement legislation to ease the process for dealing with said encampments, including through involuntary mental health treatment.

This throughline continued over the past year. Last month, Barrie’s council adopted a new policy on drug use in the city, which would facilitate shutting down illicit dispensaries, enhancing penalties for criminals and a commitment to treating addiction as a health issue through things like mandated rehab measures.

 respondents recognize Nuttall’s focused vision for what security and peace of mind should look like in his city.

After spending years with the Ontario Liberal Party, within and outside government, Vaughan Mayor Steven Del Duca has settled into a successful term as the leader of one of the fastest-growing cities in the province.

October polling from Liaison Strategies found that most Vaughan voters, 63 per cent in fact, approved of the job Del Duca has been doing. A plurality of 26 per cent of those respondents said that crime was their top issue.

With the plethora of announcements aimed at fighting crime in Vaughan, it’s clear why Del Duca earned his spot on this list.

Ten new CCTV cameras for use by the York Regional Police have something called “spot-shatter technology,” which authorities say will help determine the location of gunshots. The city also planned to open a new fire station this year to bolster emergency response abilities.

Speaking to media in February following a shooting at a residential house, Del Duca said he shared his constituents’ frustrations with crime and will continue lobbying the federal government to expedite the passing of bail reform legislation.

 asked its readers to narrow the list of effective municipal leaders down to a chosen few, deliberating on which mayors have been most influential within their communities, and which had the biggest impact on public safety.

Queen’s Park Survey 2026: Most influential and safety-minded mayors

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