Markham Has Had the Same Mayor for 20 Years. Is That Still an Advantage?

Frank Scarpitti is seeking a sixth consecutive term as Markham enters another major period of growth. His challengers are asking voters whether experience is still the city’s greatest strength, or whether two decades under the same mayor is reason enough to consider a change.

Frank Scarpitti has been mayor of Markham since 2006. He won again in 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022, making him the longest-serving mayor in the city’s history. Before that, he had already spent years on Markham and York Region councils. In total, Markham voters have elected him 10 times.

That record gives Scarpitti an incumbency advantage few municipal politicians in Canada can match. He enters the 2026 election able to argue that Markham has grown rapidly without losing control of its finances, while continuing to invest in transit, infrastructure, parks, recreation and major civic projects. The city’s 2026 budget totals $677.9 million, including $160.4 million for 233 capital projects. Markham says it has maintained the lowest average property tax rate increase in the GTA over 21 consecutive years.

Scarpitti has also made growth part of his case for continuity. When presenting the 2026 budget, he said Markham was “moving forward” with major investments in both new and aging infrastructure for a growing community.

That growth is substantial. The City of Markham says provincial projections point to a population increase of about 35 per cent over the next 16 years. Markham is also under pressure to accommodate tens of thousands of additional homes while expanding roads, transit, water systems, parks and other services to support them.

The scale of development can already be seen in planning decisions moving through City Hall. One recently approved project at 455 Ferrier Street alone is expected to accommodate approximately 3,250 residential units, along with a school, park space, commercial uses and supporting infrastructure.

That is where the 2026 mayoral race begins to become more interesting than a simple question of incumbency.

Scarpitti’s experience gives him the strongest argument for stability during a period of enormous change. His challengers can make the opposite case: if Markham is entering one of the most consequential growth periods in its history, should the city continue under the same leadership it has had for two decades?

Martin Ross is the most visible challenger so far. A first-time candidate, Ross enters municipal politics after a long and highly public dispute with the city over a backyard hockey rink at his Unionville property. The dispute eventually went through the courts and ended with Ross agreeing to dismantle the rink.

Ross has framed that experience as part of the reason he decided to run. Markham Review reported that he is using his own dealings with City Hall to connect with residents who feel frustrated by municipal bureaucracy and decision-making.

That gives Ross a very different political story from Scarpitti. Scarpitti is asking voters to judge him on what the city has built and managed over 20 years. Ross is asking them to consider whether a government that has been in place that long has become too comfortable with its own way of doing things.

Stephen Edgell is the third certified candidate for mayor. His campaign presence remains limited at this stage. The City of Markham lists him as a certified candidate, while his campaign website currently contains little beyond his name, contact information and a notice that a fuller site is coming soon.

That means much of the early race is developing around a familiar municipal tension: experience against change.

Scarpitti can point to Markham’s financial record, its development pipeline, major infrastructure investments and decades of relationships at both the city and regional levels. He also holds significant mayoral authority under Ontario’s strong-mayor framework, which gives the office additional powers over budgets, appointments and certain provincial priorities. Markham’s own public records show Scarpitti exercised those powers several times in 2026, including a March veto involving housing-related planning amendments.

For challengers, the length of that record is itself part of the argument.

Twenty years is enough time for an incumbent to become closely identified with nearly every major success and every major frustration at City Hall. Development, traffic, housing, taxes, heritage disputes and the pace of change are no longer issues that can easily be separated from the mayor who has occupied the office throughout most of Markham’s transformation.

The electorate has shown little appetite for changing that leadership in the past. In 2022, Scarpitti won 44,172 votes compared with 24,469 for Don Hamilton.

This year, he faces Ross and Edgell. Candidate registration has closed, and all three have been certified by the City Clerk. Voting will take place online from October 16 through October 26.

For Scarpitti, the argument is that Markham is entering a difficult period of growth and this is precisely when experience matters most.

For his challengers, the question is whether a city changing this quickly should automatically keep the leadership it has known for the last 20 years.

Markham voters will decide whether longevity remains one of Scarpitti’s greatest assets, or whether it has finally become the strongest argument for someone else.