With October's municipal elections roughly 100 days away, a Toronto-based non-profit news outlet is expanding its fact-checked election coverage into Mississauga and Brampton for the first time.
The Local announced this week that its Candidate Tracker — a resource offering vetted biographies and platform summaries for every candidate on the ballot — will return for the 2026 general municipal election and, for the first time, will include candidates in Mississauga and Brampton alongside Toronto.
The outlet said it is assembling a civic newsroom of more than 20 staff and freelance journalists reporting from across the three cities, with coverage beginning in August. The nomination period does not close for another month, according to The Local.
The project is being funded in part by the Toronto Foundation, which is supporting the salaries of the reporting and fact-checking team behind the tracker, while United Way Greater Toronto is backing the expansion into Mississauga and Brampton.
A gap in local coverage
The expansion is aimed at addressing what the outlet describes as a shortage of local news in two of the GTA's largest cities. According to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives' News Deprivation Index, Brampton and Mississauga rank third and fourth respectively among the 45 most news-deprived cities in Canada.
The Local noted that gaps in local news tend to be felt most sharply during elections, and that studies link a deficit of local coverage to lower voter participation. In the 2022 municipal election, turnout was 25 per cent in Brampton and 22 per cent in Mississauga — well below the provincial average of 33 per cent.
The tracker first ran during the 2020-cycle Toronto election in 2022, when The Local says the equivalent of one in five Toronto voters used it before election day. It has since covered every Toronto city council by-election.
"In terms of finding accurate and even frequently updated information about the election, it wasn't the Toronto Star, it wasn't CBC, it was a news outlet I'd never heard of before called The Local," one caller said on CBC Radio in October 2022.
Races to watch
The Local says October's vote could have lasting implications for local democracy across the GTA. Among the contests it highlighted: Bonnie Crombie's campaign to reclaim the Mississauga mayoralty from Carolyn Parrish, a crowded race for Gord Perks' vacated council seat in Parkdale-High Park, and the uncertain state of school trustee positions following the Ford government's recent governance overhaul.
Beyond the tracker, the outlet plans long-form profiles, deep dives into individual wards and key election issues, analysis and photography. Mississauga residents will be able to find candidate information for all 11 of the city's wards, covering mayor and council races as well as school trustee contests.
Municipal elections across Ontario are scheduled for October, with voters choosing mayors, city councillors and school trustees for four-year terms.
