Repeat candidate and consultant running for Mayor on affordability and new leadership.
Habiba Desai is on the City of Toronto’s list of certified candidates for Mayor, with a nomination filed on August 21, 2026. She ran for Mayor in 2023 and received 196 votes, 50th of 102 candidates in the City’s results. In a statement to Daily Bread Food Bank she says she is running to bring a new generation of leadership focused on affordability, food security, housing, jobs and opportunity.
Researched by voche.me · Not a campaign-authored page
Habiba Desai appears on the City of Toronto’s list of certified candidates for Mayor. A certified candidate is one whose nomination the City Clerk has accepted. The list shows the nomination date as August 21, 2026 and gives a YouTube channel as the campaign website.
The YouTube channel she gave the City showed only its title when voche.me opened it. The Local reports that on LinkedIn she is the sole employee of B-Love Consulting. In 2023 she told The CJN that she works as a technical writer and designs projects through her consulting business. The Local says she reports volunteering at Michael Garron Hospital and Kids Help Phone, and advocating for a community benefits agreement between Metrolinx and Thorncliffe Park residents.
The Local lists her earlier candidacies as the 2021 federal election in Toronto-Danforth, the 2022 municipal election in Scarborough-Guildwood, the 2023 mayoral by-election and the 2024 Don Valley West by-election. The CJN reported in 2023 that she ran as an independent in Danforth in 2021 and in Scarborough-Guildwood in 2022. The City’s declaration of results for the 2023 by-election lists Habiba Desai with 196 votes, 50th of 102 candidates. voche.me did not open the results of the other races.
In the CJN interview she described earlier political work: a student government slate at the University of Toronto Scarborough, a 2015 federal campaign in Etobicoke Centre and work as a constituency assistant for two Don Valley West MPs. These are her own accounts as reported by the column, and voche.me did not confirm them. That interview also carried her 2023 policy statements, which are not treated as her 2026 platform.
For 2026, her written statement to Daily Bread Food Bank cites Zohran Mamdani, the mayor of New York City, and says a young mayor can bring bold new ideas to Toronto. The Local reports that on Instagram she mentions free school meals, strengthening Toronto as a trade city, and housing as a human right. voche.me did not read her Instagram page.
Summarized from the campaign’s published profile. These are stated positions, not an assessment of results or a complete platform.
In her written statement to Daily Bread Food Bank, she says she is running to bring a new generation of leadership to Toronto focused on these five areas.
Daily Bread Food Bank · Toronto Mayoral Candidates’ Written Statements, 2026In the same statement she says she learned from New York’s approach, which she lists as city-owned grocery stores, stronger childcare and rent protection, and that Toronto should try ideas that work elsewhere.
Daily Bread Food Bank · Toronto Mayoral Candidates’ Written Statements, 2026The Local reports that she mentions these three topics on her Instagram account. voche.me did not read the posts.
The Local · Toronto Mayoral Candidates 2026 (updated as of September 21, 2026)Evidence reviewed on October 4, 2026: the City of Toronto’s list of certified candidates, The Local’s candidate page for the 2026 mayoral race, her written statement on the Daily Bread Food Bank page, a 2023 column in The CJN, a CTV News Toronto video page, and the City’s declaration of results for the 2023 by-election. Name, office and nomination date are as the City prints them. Her 2026 priorities come from her own statement and from The Local’s summary of her Instagram account.
Gaps. The YouTube channel and the Instagram page returned no readable posts. The CTV page holds a 30 second video whose words were not available as text. The CJN interview dates from 2023 and its policy statements are not used as her 2026 platform. Her results in the 2021, 2022 and 2024 races were not checked. Empty sections record only that nothing was verified. The questionnaire has not been sent.
The Local reports that on LinkedIn she is the sole employee of B-Love Consulting. In 2023 she told The CJN that she works as a technical writer and designs projects through her consulting business. voche.me did not check a business registry.
The Local · Toronto Mayoral Candidates 2026 (updated as of September 21, 2026)The City’s declaration of results lists Habiba Desai with 196 votes, 50th of 102 candidates. She was not elected.
City of Toronto · Declaration of Results, 2023 By-Election for MayorThe Local lists the 2021 federal election in Toronto-Danforth, the 2022 municipal election in Scarborough-Guildwood and the 2024 Don Valley West by-election. voche.me did not open the results of these races.
The Local · Toronto Mayoral Candidates 2026 (updated as of September 21, 2026)Proposed questions for a future interview. They have not been sent to the candidate, and no answers have been supplied.
No questions and answers have been supplied.
Ask Habiba Desai directly. We send it to the campaign, and publish the reply here if we get one.
Facts voche.me can state about Habiba Desai's page itself, answered directly rather than left blank.
No. This page is researched by voche.me from public sources, listed below, and is separate from Habiba Desai's own campaign.
Not according to this profile. voche.me has not listed a current public office for Habiba Desai.
This profile lists 6 sourced references, each with the date voche.me checked it, in the Sources section below.
The "Questions & answers" section on this page lists questions voche.me would put to Habiba Desai in a future interview. They have not been sent yet, so the page says plainly that no answer has been supplied instead of leaving the section blank.
The 2026 Toronto municipal election, including the Mayor race, is decided on October 26, 2026.
Announcements, event details and messages can be added here, with their source and publication date. No campaign submission has been added.
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