Who Is Susan Chapelle

Susan Chapelle is a candidate for Toronto City Council in Ward 14, Toronto-Danforth, in the 2026 municipal election. She is a former two-term municipal councillor, healthcare executive, researcher on the mechanisms of pain, small-business owner, and longtime Ward 14 resident.

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My career has taken me through healthcare, research, small business, municipal government, technology, the arts, construction, and the trades. I was the first female rigger and audio technician to become a member of the Toronto stagehands union, IATSE Local 58. That experience stayed with me. It taught me the dignity of skilled work, the importance of unions, and the need to protect people whose labour too often goes unseen. I learned early that strong communities depend on workers, tradespeople, artists, caregivers, drivers, technicians, cleaners, builders, public servants, and small business owners. People who make the city work deserve a city that works for them.

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The arts have also shaped my life. I play the violin and banjo, have performed in a community orchestra, and have been part of the Toronto arts scene since I was 17. I know how much culture matters to a city. Local venues are not just entertainment spaces. They are gathering places, training grounds, community anchors, and part of the living memory of a neighbourhood. My work in the arts taught me that cities need room for creativity, not just condos. We need policies that protect the cultural spaces, rehearsal rooms, small stages, studios, and independent venues that make Toronto feel alive.

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Breaking the mold of what women are expected to do has been a journey. I work on engines, love dirt biking, climbing, and building homes. Those experiences taught me confidence, resilience, and deep respect for the people who build, repair, move, and maintain our city. I bring that same practical, hands-on perspective to municipal politics.

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I have spent my life asking how things work and how they can work better. As a researcher, I studied pain, scars, adhesions, and the mechanisms that shape human recovery. I have published peer-reviewed research, worked in clinical science, and built programs that connect evidence with practical care. My advocacy for women’s health has grown out of that same commitment: listen carefully, take people’s pain seriously, ask better questions, and build systems that do not dismiss, delay, or ignore the people who need care.

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I am curious by nature, data-informed to a fault, and never satisfied with vague answers when people’s lives are affected by policy, infrastructure, healthcare, housing, transit, culture, or public services.

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That same curiosity is what drew me to municipal politics.

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Municipal government is where decisions become visible. A zoning change becomes a street. A transit decision becomes someone’s commute. A park investment becomes a child’s place to play. A venue closure changes the cultural life of a neighbourhood. A permit delay affects a worker, a builder, a tenant, and a small business. Waste collection, public washrooms, sidewalks, housing approvals, business permits, tree canopy, traffic safety, snow clearing, community centres, libraries, and local health partnerships all shape daily life.

 

Listening only matters if it leads to action. When residents raise concerns, the work is to connect what we hear to the tools City Hall actually has: budgets, bylaws, zoning, service standards, infrastructure planning, public health, procurement, and accountability. Real change means identifying the pattern behind the problem, bringing the right people to the table, and turning community experience into motions, policy, funding priorities, and measurable results.

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As a two-term municipal councillor in Squamish, BC, I saw how local government can improve lives when we listen, measure what matters, and work across sectors. I helped build partnerships between public health and municipal planning because I believe zoning is not separate from health.

Housing, transportation, green space, economic opportunity, climate resilience, access to care, and community safety are all public health issues. 

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I love municipal politics because it is practical, human, and close to the ground. It is where big values become everyday services. It is where we can protect workers, support small businesses, defend cultural spaces, build safer streets, plan for growth, and make sure people are not pushed out of the communities they helped create.

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For years, I have documented change in Toronto-Danforth through photographs: storefronts opening and closing, construction fences going up, public spaces shifting, local venues holding the community together, signs of neglect and renewal, gatherings in parks and streets, and small details that reveal larger systems. Together, these images tell a story about who we are, how quickly the ward is changing, and what we risk losing if we do not plan carefully.

These images are not just memories. They are evidence. They show a ward that is changing quickly, and a community that deserves leadership rooted in lived experience, respect for workers, love of culture, practical knowledge, public service, and a deep belief that every neighbourhood should be healthy, affordable, connected, creative, and full of possibility.