Paul Ainslie

Paul Ainslie ( ; born February 4, 1967) is a Canadian politician who has been a member of Toronto City Council since 2006 and deputy mayor of Toronto for Scarborough since 2025. Ainslie was appointed by council to fill a vacancy in Ward 41 Scarborough—Rouge River in 2006 and was elected as councillor for Ward 43 Scarborough East later that year. He has been the councillor for Ward 24 Scarborough—Guildwood since 2018.

Political career On February 1, 2006, City Council appointed Ainslie to fill the vacancy in Ward 41 that was created when Bas Balkissoon was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in a by-election. A condition of the appointment was that he would not run as a candidate in the 2006 election. However, when Councillor David Soknacki announced his intention not to run in Ward 43, Ainslie put his name forward as a candidate to replace him. Ainslie was an executive assistant to Soknacki, and Soknacki supported Ainslie's candidacy.

During the election campaign in 2006, a video surfaced which showed Ainslie promising to Toronto City Council not to run. "I will not run in Ward 41, or any other ward in the city." His campaign literature urged voters to "return" him to city hall. He said that his campaign team suggested using the word "re-elect". Ainslie said, "I didn't think it was proper." Despite the controversy, he was elected in Ward 43.

In April 2007, he determined that it costs $20,000 annually to provide councillors and staff at City Hall offices with free coffee every day. He moved a motion in committee to remove the expense, but it failed to pass.

During the Rob Ford drug allegation scandal, Ainslie was removed as chair from the city's government management committee and appointed as chair of the parks and environment committee. On October 11, 2013, he resigned from the mayor's executive committee and his role as chair of the parks and environment committee over differences with Ford's longterm strategic direction for the city.

On May 3, 2013, Ainslie was stopped by a RIDE check on Kingston Road and was given a three-day licence suspension.

In 2025, Ainslie came under controversy after his social media account made suggestive comments on posts.

Election results 2018 Toronto election, Ward 24 Candidate Votes %Paul Ainslie 15,131 66.82%Michelle Spencer 1,933 8.54%Priyanth Nallaratnam 1,896 8.38%Reddy Muttukuru 1,323 5.85%Sajid Saleh 841 3.71%Morlan Washington 592 2.62%Keiosha Ross 405 1.79%Emery Warner 393 1.74%Itohan Evbagharu 132 0.58%Total 22,646 100%

2014 Toronto election, Ward 43 Candidate Votes %Paul Ainslie 12,358 74.3%Harris Mark 1,750 10.5%Jason Colterman 1,437 8.6%Bartley Alonzo 799 4.8%Kodanipork Andi 283 1.7%Total 16,627 100%

2010 Toronto election, Ward 43 Candidate Votes %Paul Ainslie 9,334 60.6%John Laforet 4,440 28.8%Bhaskar Sharma 758 4.9%Benjamin Mbaegbu 489 3.18%Samuel Getachew 392 2.5%Total 15,413 100%

2006 Toronto election, Ward 43 Candidate Votes %Paul Ainslie 4,677 38.7%Jim Robb 3,388 28.1%Abdul Patel 1,738 14.4%John Laforet 933 7.7%Mujeeb Khan 495 4.1%Glenn Kitchen 495 4.1%Amarjeet Chhabra 351 2.9%Total 12,077 100%