During the 2018 campaign and up until the Oct. 22 vote, the Star will speak to longshot mayoral candidates running against incumbent John Tory. This is the first in a series.In 2014, then 19-year-old Jack Weenen finished last in the mayoral race, beat by all 64 other candidates.He vowed to run again.Now 22, Weenen, who is currently living in France and is registered to attend Glendon College to study history in the fall, paid the now $200 nomination fee to get back on the ballot.Below is a condensed-for-length interview with Weenen on why.You hinted at the end of the last election that you would be back. So, what made you want to sign up again?Oh, I’m going to keep running every year until I’m in.And what’s really motivating that?There’s a lot of things. I’m not quite sure what I want to do and I thought maybe politics was a good calling.You mentioned something (in a 2014 Globe & Mail article) about your girlfriend last time?Um, that article was a long time ago. I could pull it up. That’s over. (Laughs.) You said she thought it would be great to be a political wife.Oh, I remember that. I remember that comment. That was a joke and it ended up being the one thing that he definitely ended up publishing.Any idea what issues you think are most important to tackle if you were running the city?Well, you know, definitely housing and transportation are the two biggest issues in the city. I think Toronto’s got a really great transport system that still, realistically, has a long way to go … And even though we’re a grid, it doesn’t work for everyone, especially with the city amalgamated the way it is . . . it’s the horseshoe now. We’ve definitely got to expand it, get it bigger, get more stations in. Which brings it to the housing — I mean, if we keep building condos the way we do, we definitely need social housing within the condo buildings. And I think, more importantly, we need multi-unit, ...
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