With just moments to spare, a big switch-up in the councillor races could make for an interesting election come October 26. University-Rosedale incumbent Dianne Saxe is switching wards and will be running in Toronto-Danforth, left without an incumbent when Paula Flecther announced her retirement on Wednesday.The deadline to register as a candidate in the upcoming Ontario municipal elections officially passed at 2 p.m., and the races are locked. In Toronto, 51 people will be vying for the mayoral spot, however, based on recent polling, it’s looking closer to a three-horse race between incumbent Olivia Chow, Beaches-East York Councillor Brad Bradford, and former Conservative cabinet member Chris Alexander.Chow holds an 11-point lead over Bradford among decided voters with Alexander just cracking double digits with 11 per cent support. Meanwhile, here are the ward races to watch: Ward 4: Parkdale-High Park The Parkdale-High Park race will be without long-time incumbent Gord Perks. Perks has held the ward for two decades but announced he wouldn’t be seeking re-election earlier this year. Some notable candidates looking to replace him are Nadia Guerrera, Debbie King, and Diana Chan McNally. Guerrera ran for the Ontario Liberals in the 2025 election but lost to the NDP candidate. She has lived in Parkdale-High Park for over 20 years and has worked as a teacher and community leader, launching Centre for Healthy Communities, an applied research centre focused on social innovation. King has been a Toronto District School Board Trustee since 2022 but is looking to move up to a seat on council. She describes herself as a community organizer and communications professional. Meanwhile, Chan McNally is taking her first steps into elected politics but is a well-known advocate and community and crisis worker Ward 5: York South-Weston Another close race is expected in York-South Weston where long-time incumbent Frances Nunziata is facing off again against Chiara Padovani, who she only beat by 94 votes in the last election. Nunziata has been on City Council since 1997, previously serving as the Mayor of York before the amalgamation of Toronto and has been in public service since she was elected as a school board trustee in 1985. She is the longest-serving member of council and has been the Speaker of Toronto City Council since 2010. Padovani, a human rights advocate and social worker who works with the North York Harvest Food Bank, is hoping to close that 94-vote gap in the 2026 election and is calling for change in the long-held ward. Ward 11: University-Rosedale Incumbent Dianne Saxe was expected to be facing off against former councillor Mike Layton, who held the seat until 2022 when he decided not to run again, leaving it open for Saxe. However, just before the deadline, she switched up and will instead be running to represent Toronto-Danforth.The race is now left wide open for the son of former NDP leader Jack Layton and stepson of current Mayor Olivia Chow. Layton said he is looking to return to City Hall to address issues like affordable housing. He originally left city council to focus on his family. Ward 13: Toronto Centre The race for Toronto Centre got interesting this week when NDP MPP and former city councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam threw their support behind Curran Stikuts and not incumbent councillor Chris Moise. Moise, who received Wong-Tam’s endorsement in the last election, won handedly in 2022. Prior to becoming a city councillor, he worked as a police officer and in health care. He also served as a school trustee and vice-chair. Stikuts has worked at The 519 Community Centre for over a decade, most recently as the Director of Advocacy. During their endorsement, Wong-Tam said they have worked with Stikuts and have seen him do the “heavy lifting.” Ward 14: Toronto-Danforth Toronto-Danforth was left wide open when incumbent Paula Fletcher announced just days before the deadline that she would be withdrawing her candidacy and retirement from council. Her retirment caused a ripple effect as Dianne Saxe made the decision to switch from being the incumbent in University-Rosedale to run in Ward 14. Saxe, an environmental and energy lawyer, previously served as Deputy Leader of the Green Party of Ontario and was the last Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. She beat the second-place candidate in University-Rosedale in the 2022 election by just 123 votes. Former city councillor Mary Fragedakis, who was defeated by Fletcher in the 2018 election after their two wards were combined, has now decided to run again. She registered just a few hours before the deadline on Friday as well. Fragedakis has spent the last seven years as the executive director of the GreekTown on the Danforth Business Improvement Area. She also ran for MPP in Toronto-Danforth in 2022 as the Liberal candidate but lost to Peter Taubans. They’ll be facing off against school board trustee Sara Ehrhardt, who also only threw her hat in the ring after Fletcher’s announcement. Ehrhardt is a local parent and previously worked as a public policy professional. Ward 19: Beaches-East York With Brad Bradford running for mayor, Beaches-East York is one of the three ridings without an incumbent. Former federal Beaches-East York MP Nate Erskine-Smith is one of the more prominent names running to represent his former constituency. The former lawyer was first elected to the House of Commons in 2015 and was reelected in the following three elections. Former broadcast journalist Natalie Johnson is also running in Beaches-East York along with arts and community activist Jennie Worden and former bureaucrat James Dann. Ward 23: Scarborough North Similar to the mayor’s match-up, Scarborough North is shaping up to be a three-horse race. Incumbent Jamaal Myers is looking for a second term but is up against two opponents with political backgrounds. Shaun Chen, who stepped down as MP for Scarborough North this month due to injuries sustained in a car accident that made it harder to travel to Ottawa, is now looking to represent the ward locally. He spent a decade in the House of Commons as a part of the Liberal party and was a school board trustee prior to joining federal politics. Meanwhile, former MPP and MP Han Dong is also looking for a spot on Toronto City Council. Dong spent four years as an MPP for Trinity-Spadina before making the jump to federal politics for Don Valley North.