Neethan Shan, the Chair of the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), has emerged victorious in a recent byelection to take over the Scarborough-Rouge Park councillor position from Jennifer McKelvie.
Defeating 20 other candidates, Shan secured over 26% of the votes, with Anu Sriskandarajah coming in second with just over 17.5% of the votes.
McKelvie stepped down last year after winning the Liberal MP seat for Ajax earlier in the year, paving the way for Shan’s election.
Shan will now serve as the representative for Ward 25 at Toronto City Council until the next municipal election in Oct. 2026. This marks his second term at City Hall, having previously represented Scarborough-Rouge River in 2017 after winning a byelection.
In the 2018 municipal election, Shan narrowly lost to McKelvie in Ward 25 by less than 200 votes, following the consolidation of Toronto’s wards by Premier Doug Ford.
Having been acclaimed as the TDSB Chair in Nov. 2024, Shan’s political journey began when he was elected as Ward 21 trustee in 2016 and later returned to the board in 2022 representing Ward 17.
The byelection saw a total of 4,376 voters participating in advance voting on Sept. 20 and 21.