Former city councillor Mary Fragedakis, who was beaten by current councillor Paula Fletcher in Toronto-Danforth in the 2018 election, is running again in the wake of Fletcher’s retirement announcement this week, while also suing the ward’s largest BIA.
Fragedakis said she believes the last eight years working as the executive director of the CityPlace and Fort York BIA as well as the Lawrence Ingram Keele BIA have taught her how to manage local economies and prepared her to return as a more experienced councillor.
“I see every day what’s working in the city, what isn’t, and where the gap is between city policy and the implementation,” said Fragedakis, in an exclusive interview with the Star on Thursday. She registered Friday morning.
Fragedakis is also in the midst of a lawsuit with the GreekTown BIA, where she was executive director for more than six years before being abruptly fired in 2025. She declined to comment on questions about the Taste of the Danforth festival, which was in a hiatus for several years due to funding shortfalls before it was revived this summer.
Also on Friday, University-Rosedale Coun. Dianne Saxe — who was facing a powerful challenge from progressive former councillor Mike Layton — switched wards. Instead of running against Layton in University-Rosedale, Saxe will also seek the council seat in Toronto-Danforth.
Fragedakis called herself a “progressive,” but also “practical.”
“I’ve lived in Toronto-Danforth my entire life and I’ve had the privilege of representing this community for eight years,” she continued. “But I have never really left public service. And so I have the experience to actually hit the ground running.”
Fragedakis sues GreekTown BIA
According to court documents filed in March, Fragedakis is suing the GreekTown on the Danforth BIA for $115,000 claiming she was fired in 2025 “without just cause,” that she was defamed and that she was “harassed” by the board chair — all of which the BIA denied in its statement of defence.
Last August, Fragedakis was “given a letter stating that her services were being terminated due to underwhelming performance and results in fulfilling the role,” said the statement of claim.
“She was a hardworking, trustworthy, and loyal employee who fully met all expectations of her job duties and responsibilities,” the statement continued. “At no time whatsoever was she ever advised that her performance was lacking in any respect, and in fact GreekTown BIA Board members often praised her for her commitment and high-level executive functioning and results.”
Fragedakis’s claim said the BIA also defamed her to other members with false statements about her work ethic. That was “calculated to bring public humiliation and embarrassment” to Fragedakis’s “esteemed and unsullied reputation,” the claim said.
The BIA’s statement of defence, filed in May, argued the case is a “simple dispute” about whether Fragedakis was an independent contractor supplied through her company, Urbaniciti, and whether she was given reasonable notice.
“This is not a case about termination for cause since the BIA believed it was providing appropriate notice to an independent contractor,” the statement said. “The allegations of (a) poisoned work environment are irrelevant to this dispute as they were alleged after the contract was ended.”
In 2025, the BIA board “became frustrated” with Fragedakis, the defence statement said, and the chair spoke with her “on several occasions about her attitude and her unwillingness to listen and follow their directives.”
The BIA statement called the harassment allegation “vexatious” and denied that it defamed Fragedakis, arguing that Fragedakis only raised these concerns after she was fired.
Another run for council
Fragedakis was elected to city council’s Ward 29 Toronto-Danforth in 2010 with the endorsement of the late NDP leader Jack Layton. She was re-elected in 2014 with a large plurality.
During her council term, Fragedakis was a TTC board member where she advocated for the transit agency’s two-hour transfer policy. She was also on council’s economic and community development committee.
“Transit’s really important to me,” Fragedakis said, adding that fighting for affordability is also a priority. “The economy is really important: small business pressures, downtown recovery, infrastructure, the changing nature of work — those kinds of things are what I would be interested in.”
During the 2018 civic election, Premier Doug Ford cut the number of council seats by almost half, merging city wards to match federal and provincial ridings. The merging of wards 29 and 30 into a single Toronto-Danforth pitted the two incumbents against each other: Fragedakis against fellow progressive Fletcher.
After her defeat, the Ontario Liberal Party named Fragedakis as its official candidate for the Toronto-Danforth riding in the 2022 provincial election.
Fragedakis lost to NDP MPP Peter Tabuns, who told the Star on Thursday he is endorsing former Toronto school trustee Sara Ehrhardt for the ward’s council seat in this fall’s election.
Fletcher stunned city hall on Wednesday with a snap retirement decision, just a couple days after registering for her sixth term, following 23 years at city hall — a change of heart first reported by the Star.
A few hours later, Ehrhardt told the Star she hopes to succeed her mentor and registered to run for Fletcher’s seat on Thursday morning.
Ten other candidates were, as of Friday morning, registered to run in Toronto-Danforth, including: Susan Chapelle, Dennis Corcoran, Jason Stevens, Denise Walcott and Michael Mitchell.
