The Municipal Election is Almost Upon Us. Nathan Caranci and Mike Donachie provide insight about where we are today and what might happen next.

The 2026 Municipal Election that is nearly upon us. Political Organizer, Nathan Caranci & Journalist, Mike Donachie join the show to provide some to provide some analysis about what’s happening right now, and what we can anticipate in the weeks and months ahead. At the beginning of May, candidates, both sitting members and challengers alike, will start registering their campaigns down at City Hall - and then the race is on. Running for a seat on a City Council is not for the faint of heart. It's a grueling, months-long endeavour. Picture knocking on hundreds of doors each day, thousands of doors each month; meeting and speaking with thousands of residents - right up to election day - sharing your message as far and as wide as you possibly can. These days, there is a whole digital element to campaigning too. This means that when serious contenders return home after a long day of knocking on doors, they are likely to fill the rest of their evening and early morning hours answering online surveys for this interest group, or that one, posting key messages on social media, returning residents calls and answering their emails too. After all this work, based on the odds, they are experiencing a months-long interview for a job that they probably won’t get. For successful candidates the reward, in terms of public service, is significant - AND - so is the workload. Most members of a council work impossibly hard - attending meetings during the day and events many evenings during the week. On the weekends? Community events and constituency work. Among all of this busy, they also have to find time to respond to emails and calls from constituents, read hundreds, sometimes thousands, of pages of reports in preparation for upcoming council, committee, board and commission meetings. In short, they make sacrifices to serve their constituents and their community. Keep in mind that these 4 years of hard work are then followed by, you guessed it, another months long, gruelling job interview. It’s democracy, and it’s a beautiful thing. London is on the cusp of the 2026 municipal election. As I said off the top, it also means that it’s time for our political panel to join us to provide insight and analysis to help you understand this process better. Nathan Caranci and Mike Donachie are two London Leaders joining us today. Nathan is a Political Insider who has worked on many Municipal Campaigns as well as many Conservative Campaigns, Provincially and Federally. He is also the newly appointed Executive Director of the London Property Management Association. Mike is Communications leader and journalist, and engaged Londoner for many years. A former City Hall reporter for the Metro London newspaper, he now writes about municipal matters here in London, as a public interest reporting project. Thanks for listening!