Five Mayoral Candidates Set Out Rival Plans for Oakville

Anyone still deciding how to vote on October 26 got their clearest look yet at the race for mayor on Tuesday night. All five candidates appeared together at Oakville Trafalgar High School in front of about 350 people, at a meeting organized by the five residents' associations in Ward 3.

Rob Burton, mayor since 2006 and running for a sixth term, made the case for continuity: taxes held down, parks and community facilities built, jobs brought to town. Arvind Choudhary, a newcomer to Oakville politics, took the opposite line, promising a 2027 property tax freeze while town hall spending is audited and saying he would make every Midtown record public within 30 days of taking office.

Julia Hanna, a North Oakville restaurant owner and former Oakville Chamber of Commerce chair who came close to unseating Burton in both 2018 and 2022, pitched a hard look at the budget and what the town spends on consultants, plus a public lobbyist and gift registry. Councillors Jeff Knoll and Sean O'Meara both argued they can offer change without the learning curve. Knoll, first elected in 2000 and chair of the Halton Police Board, talked about managing growth and challenging wasteful spending. O'Meara, first elected in 2014, was blunter about the current mayor's style: "We've spent the last 20 years pushing voices away. We've got to start bringing them back."

Midtown produced the sharpest exchanges

The provincially backed plan for 11 towers and 6,881 condo units around the Oakville GO station is where the candidates split hardest. Burton said the province is preparing a proposal for the incoming council that would cap heights at 38 storeys, an answer that drew soft boos from an otherwise polite room. The other four said they would use the town's votes against the provincial plan, pointing to Oakville's past wins over a proposed power plant and development at Glen Abbey.

The councillors took fire from both directions. Hanna questioned whether Knoll or O'Meara could solve problems they had spent decades creating, and Choudhary described the March decision Knoll voted for as a deal cooked up behind closed doors. O'Meara, who was on the losing side of that 8 to 6 vote, said he wants a plain conversation with Premier Doug Ford about a tower plan he considers outdated given population and market conditions. Candidates also took questions on strong mayor powers, heritage protection, data centres and transparency at town hall.