Housing affordability, community consultation, and strengthening relationships with Queen’s students are at the centre of Conny Glenn’s campaign to become Kingston’s next mayor.
Glenn, who has represented Sydenham District on Kingston City Council for three and a half years, announced her candidacy ahead of the 2026 municipal election.
“I really mean it when I say that I want to open City Hall,” Glenn said in an interview with The Journal. “I want people to feel that they can walk through that door and be heard.”
If elected, Glenn said preparing Kingston’s 2027 budget would become her first responsibility after taking office.
Before entering municipal politics, Glenn owned Work Wellness, an ergonomics and disability management consulting company for three decades. She also served on several public boards and committees, including chairing Turning Point Youth Services, and serving on a Legal Aid Area Review Committee.
During her term on council, Glenn said one of her priorities has been improving the City’s relationship with Queen’s students.
She said she established the City’s Post-Secondary Working Group, which brings together representatives from Queen’s, student governments, Kingston Police, bylaw services, landlords, and other city councillors to discuss issues affecting students and surrounding neighbourhoods.
According to Glenn, those discussions shifted away from enforcement alone after students identified housing and food insecurity as their primary concerns.
Glenn credited the collaboration with helping reduce policing costs associated with student events, saying annual costs declined from approximately $1.2 million to $191,000.
Food insecurity has also been a major focus of Glenn’s term.
She pointed to the City’s Fines for Food initiative, which directs revenue from one month of parking fines toward food security programs. The program initially directed all funding to food banks before the City renewed it and allocated approximately $80,000 toward a vertical farming initiative while continuing to support food banks.
According to Glenn, the City now invests approximately $80,000 annually in the project while producing roughly $200,000 worth of food for community organizations each year.
Housing would remain her top priority if elected mayor, she said.
“We are not going to get out of the housing crisis until we recognize we have to invest in non-market housing,” she said.
She also pointed to transitional housing projects currently under development, saying stable housing combined with mental health and addiction supports gives greater opportunity to successfully return to the community.
Beyond housing, Glenn said rebuilding trust between residents and City Hall would shape her approach as mayor.
“We need people who are coming in, who aren’t seeing [municipal issues] the same way,” she said.
She argued the City often consults residents too late in decision-making and said involving communities earlier would lead to stronger policies and greater public confidence.
“I’m an extreme community consensus builder,” Glenn said. “I really believe in the philosophy of going slow to go fast.”
She said leadership also requires a willingness to pursue ideas, even when success is not guaranteed.
“The failure to make an attempt at something incredible — that’s failure in and of itself,” she said.
—With files from Jonathan Reilly
Tags
City Councillor, Conny Glenn, Elections, mayor
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