Glenn De Baeremaeker

Glenn De Baeremaeker is a former city councillor in Toronto, Canada, who represented Ward 38 from 2003-2018. He is now a policy consultant.

Early life and education De Baeremaeker is the son of working-class parents from Scarborough, Ontario. He attended Scarborough College at the University of Toronto and has a master's degree in international development and spent six months in Ethiopia at the height of the 1980s famine.

Career

Environmentalist De Baeremaeker originally rose to prominence for his work with the Save the Rouge group fighting to keep the Rouge Valley area of Scarborough free from development.

Working as an assistant to city councillor Doug Mahood, De Baeremaeker ran for a seat on Scarborough city council in 1994 but lost to David Soknacki. Continuing his environmental work, De Baeremaeker became one of the leaders in the effort to save the Oak Ridges Moraine from development.

City councillor When Brad Duguid left the city council in 2003 to run for the provincial Liberals, De Baeremaeker decided to run for the empty seat and won by a wide margin.

De Baeremaeker was known for his support of former mayor David Miller's policies, in particular his support of the civic workers' deal to end the 2009 Toronto municipal strike. He was also a strong advocate for safer road conditions for cyclists.

In March 2012, Toronto City Council dissolved the Toronto Transit Commission Board and appointed new councillors, including De Baeremaeker, to the Board, a role he continued in during the 2014-2018 council term. In 2014, he was appointed Deputy Mayor East and a member of the Toronto Region Conservation Authority. In 2017, he helped the South Asian Autism Awareness Centre build a permanent home. De Baeremaeker was elected as Deputy Speaker of the Toronto City Council on April 25, 2018 following the resignation of Shelley Carroll.

After changes Toronto ward boundaries resulted in the abolition of Ward 38 Scarborough Centre, De Baeremaeker announced he would not run for re-election in the 2018 Toronto election in the new larger Ward 21 Scarborough Centre in the .

Later career After the 2018 election, Glenn de Baeremaeker joined the Board of Directors on the South Asian Autism Awareness Centre in 2021. De Baeremaeker now runs a policy consultancy agency.

Personal life A strong environmentalist, De Baeremaeker is a vegan. He was also known for cycling to City Hall from his home in Scarborough almost every day year round. He is in a relationship with Ramona Wall. https://www.friendsfs.ca/obituaries/Tina-Wall?obId=34523917 https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/file-under-too-much-information/article1345880/

Election results

2010 Toronto election, Ward 38 Candidate Votes %Glenn De Baeremaeker 11,166 62.44% Glenn Middleton 4,541 25.39% Tushar Shah 824 4.61% Kirk Jensen 708 3.96% Sandip Vora 643 3.60% Total 17,882 100% Unofficial results as of October 26, 2010 03:55 AM

2014 Toronto municipal election Candidate Votes %Glenn De Baeremaeker 13,626 69.54% Theo Kalafatis 483 2.46% John Lewis 642 3.28% Justin Ried 463 2.36% Theodore Rueckert 550 2.81% Ganga Sasthrigal 662 3.38%Rajesh Shah 405 2.07%Tushar Shah 185 0.94%Aysha Sidiq 460 2.35%David Thomas 1552 7.92%Kevin Winson 567 2.89%Total 19,595 100% Official results as of March 3, 2015 14:09 PM

In 2021, Glenn de Baeremaeker was elected to the Board of Directors of the South Asian Autism Awareness Centre, a local charity he supports.