Joe Cressy


Joseph Cressy is a former Canadian politician and activist who served on the Toronto City Council from 2014 to 2022. Cressy represented Ward 10 Spadina—Fort York, and was the chair of the Toronto Board of Health. On 22 April 2024, Cressy announced on X that he had joined Waterfront Toronto as its chief of staff.

Career

Activism

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, volunteering for an LGBTQ organization while studying abroad in Accra and supporting the New Democratic Party's call for a visa ban against legislators who passed anti-gay laws in Russia.

Federal politics

Cressy ran for the New Democratic Party in a by-election seeking to represent Trinity—Spadina in the House of Commons following former NDP member of Parliament 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 on 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, the board of directors for Toronto Community Housing, the Parks and Environment Committee and the sub-committee on Climate Change and Adaptation.
Cressy ran again in the 2018 municipal election in the newly formed Ward 10 Spadina—Fort York, which his old ward was amalgamated into. He was re-elected by one of the widest victory margins of any councillor in the city with 55.06 per cent of the vote.
Cressy has announced he intends to retire from electoral politics and did not stand in the 2022 Toronto municipal election. He resigned from city council, effective April 30, 2022, to accept an appointment as senior vice president for external relations, communications and real estate development at George Brown College.

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 successful campaign for a city council seat in the 2010 municipal election and NDP MP Olivia Chow's re-election 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

CandidateVotes%
Joe Cressy12,46641.96
Terri Chu3,69312.43
Sarah Thomson2,8089.45
Mike Yen1,4314.81
Philip Morrison1,4074.73
Anshul Kapoor1,0633.57
Charles MacDonald9723.27
Albert Koehl8532.87
Tonny Louie7402.49
Daryl Christoff7052.37
Mike Andreae5901.98
Sam Goldstein5191.74
Nick Wright3951.33
Stephanie Carty-Kegel3761.26
Sam Novak3761.26
Garaham Hollings3071.03
Stella Kargiannakis2860.96
Leanne Hicks2120.71
Susan Tsai1940.65
Michael Monaghan1280.43
Kat Shermack1020.34
Akeem Fasasi860.28
Total29,709100

Unofficial results as of October 27, 2014 10:05 PM