A familiar face to municipal political watchers is throwing her name in the race for the Ontario Liberal Party nomination in Toronto-Danforth.
Mary Fragedakis, who served the Toronto-Danforth area as a councillor from 2010 to 2018, announced in a statement on Wednesday that she is running for the Liberal nod “to fight for small business and strong local communities.”
That will come as no surprise to those who know her. Fragedakis originally ran for council on a business background and currently serves as executive director of GreekTown on the Danforth BIA.
But that she is vying for the Liberal nomination will come as a jolt to those who remember Fragedakis as a member of Toronto council’s NDP caucus.
In fact, Fragedakis was brought up through the council ranks under the wing of one of the caucus’s staunchest members, former Toronto-Danforth seatmate Paula Fletcher. She was re-elected in 2014 with the endorsement of the late NDP leader Jack Layton, who held the Toronto-Danforth riding federally. She was matched up and lost to Fletcher in 2018 after Doug Ford cut the number of council seats in half.
Making matters messier is the fact that Toronto-Danforth is currently held provincially by longtime NDP MPP Peter Tabuns.
An email from NOW requesting comment from Fragedakis or a member of her team has yet to receive a response.
But Fragedakis’s statement does make sure to note that, as a city councillor, “she worked with her colleagues across the political spectrum, building consensus around real solutions that helped improve people’s lives.”
It also takes a not-so-veiled swipe at the current NDP incumbent.
“The challenges we face are too serious for us to continue to vote for people who don’t know how to fight and win on behalf of their residents,” Fragedakis says.
