Markham Votes 2026: Three Candidates Compete to Lead a City Facing Enormous Growth

The Canadianist | North of the City

Markham voters will choose between three candidates for mayor this October, with longtime incumbent Frank Scarpitti seeking another term against Martin Ross and Stephen Edgell.

The City Clerk certified the three-candidate field on August 24 following the close of nominations. Voting begins October 16 and continues through October 26.

Scarpitti enters the campaign with one of the strongest incumbency advantages anywhere in Ontario municipal politics.

He was first elected mayor in 2006 and has subsequently won elections in 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022. He is Markham’s longest-serving mayor and was first elected to Markham council as a regional councillor in 1985.

In 2022, Scarpitti defeated then-deputy mayor Don Hamilton by 44,172 votes to 24,469, taking 64.35 per cent of the mayoral vote.

Only 32.15 per cent of Markham’s registered voters cast a ballot.

Frank Scarpitti

Frank Scarpitti is seeking another term after two decades as Markham’s elected mayor and more than 30 years serving on Markham and York Region councils.

His tenure has coincided with Markham’s transformation into one of the GTA’s largest and fastest-growing municipalities. Scarpitti also sits on York Regional Council and currently chairs the York Region Rapid Transit Corporation while serving as vice-chair of the region’s Transportation Services.

Growth remains central to the next term. Markham has committed to working toward a provincial target of 44,000 new homes by 2031, while the city’s population is projected to rise dramatically over the coming decades.

Scarpitti enters the campaign able to point to Markham’s comparatively strong fiscal record. The city’s 2026 budget increased the Markham portion of property taxes by 3.9 per cent, which the city says represents about $55 for the average home. Markham says it has maintained the lowest average tax-rate increase in the GTA over the past 21 years.

The question for voters is whether that record warrants another four years under the same leadership as the pressures created by Markham’s growth become considerably larger.

Martin Ross

Martin Ross enters the mayoral race from outside elected politics with a campaign built largely around his own prolonged dispute with Markham City Hall.

Ross is a Unionville resident, father of two, hockey coach and founder of the Toronto Professional Hockey School.

His campaign says his decision to run grew from a four-year legal battle involving a hockey rink he constructed on his property. Ross presents the experience as evidence of a City Hall that became more interested in enforcing its position than helping a resident resolve a problem.

That experience has shaped much of his platform.

Ross is campaigning on public safety, municipal spending, consistent enforcement of city rules, greater transparency at City Hall and community facilities. He promises to freeze council compensation, publish the mayor’s office budget quarterly, provide greater public disclosure of major city contracts and make municipal information easier for residents to obtain.

He also promises not to use Ontario’s strong-mayor powers against a majority of council without publicly explaining what he considers an extraordinary justification.

Ross isn’t campaigning against growth itself. His platform describes his approach as “pro-resident development,” arguing that infrastructure should accompany growth and that residents and developers should face the same municipal rules.

His candidacy gives the race its clearest argument for changing the way City Hall operates rather than simply changing particular policies.

Stephen Edgell

Stephen Edgell is the third certified candidate for mayor.

Unlike Scarpitti and Ross, Edgell entered the certified race without a mayoral campaign website or substantial publicly available platform that The Canadianist could locate at the time of publication.

Markham’s official candidate registry lists Edgell as a certified mayoral candidate and provides a campaign email address, but no website, social-media account or telephone number.

Edgell has previously presented himself publicly as a candidate for Ward 4 councillor, but there is currently insufficient reliable public information about his 2026 mayoral platform to provide voters with the same level of detail available for Scarpitti and Ross.

The Canadianist will update his profile as additional campaign information becomes available.

The Issue: How Does Markham Grow Without Losing What Already Works?

Markham isn’t facing the question of whether it will grow.

It is already growing.

The city currently has roughly 370,000 residents. Markham’s population is projected to reach more than 600,000 by 2051.

That scale of growth changes almost everything a municipal government has to plan for.

Markham has pledged to work toward the construction of 44,000 new homes by 2031 as part of Ontario’s broader housing strategy. New housing requires roads, water and sewer infrastructure, parks, recreation, transit and other services.

Markham’s own asset-management planning anticipates enormous pressure. Population projections used by the city show growth of approximately 75 per cent over 30 years, while employment is projected to grow by almost 60 per cent.

The infrastructure required to serve that population could expand almost as dramatically.

The city’s 2026 budget provides $160.4 million in capital funding for 233 projects. Of that, $71.1 million is directed toward new infrastructure required by growing communities, including roads, watermains, storm sewers, parks, pedestrian crossings and traffic signals. Another $89.3 million is allocated to maintaining existing infrastructure.

Transportation will be part of the equation.

Markham’s own road-safety planning acknowledges that continued population growth will place increasing pressure on the transportation network. Housing can be approved considerably faster than a transportation system can be rebuilt around it.

The next mayor and council will therefore face a balancing act that extends beyond simply meeting a housing target.

They’ll have to accommodate hundreds of thousands of additional residents while maintaining the services, neighbourhoods and infrastructure relied upon by the people already living there.

A Twenty-Year Incumbent

Markham’s election also presents voters with a question that doesn’t exist in most of the other mayoral races across the GTA.

Scarpitti has been elected mayor five consecutive times.

Someone who voted for him in his first successful mayoral campaign in 2006 and was 25 years old at the time is now 45.

His longevity provides experience, relationships with other levels of government and an extensive record on which voters can judge him. It also gives challengers a straightforward argument that Markham has been governed by the same mayor for long enough.

Ross is making that argument directly through transparency, accountability and his criticism of how City Hall deals with individual residents.

Edgell’s case for replacing the incumbent remains less clear until he releases a substantial public platform.

The 2022 result provides little evidence that Markham was then ready to replace Scarpitti. He defeated his only challenger by almost 20,000 votes.

The more striking number may have been the number of people who didn’t vote at all.

Almost 68 per cent of registered Markham voters stayed home.

Election Information

Markham’s municipal election runs from October 16 to October 26, 2026.

Online voting will be available throughout that period.

In-person voting will be available from October 23 through October 26, with special ballots available by appointment at Elections Markham headquarters from September 28 through October 22.

Markham voters will elect one mayor, four regional councillors, eight ward councillors and school board trustees.

Voting concludes on Monday, October 26, 2026.