Engineer, entrepreneur, and equity advocate — running for Parkdale–High Park.
Vanessa Raponi, P.Eng., PMP brings a unique mix of technical expertise, national non-profit leadership, and deep community commitment to this race.
Her Story
Vanessa Raponi, P.Eng., PMP, is a professional engineer and sustainability leader with over a decade of experience in manufacturing operations. She earned her Bachelor of Engineering Management (B.Eng.Mgt.) from McMaster University in 2018, graduating with the Engineers Canada Gold Medal Student Award. In her role as an engineering leader, she oversaw worldwide manufacturing operations and chaired committees on product sustainability — bringing a systems-thinking lens to climate challenges and product design.
But Vanessa's proudest achievement isn't on a factory floor or in a boardroom — it's the organization she built from scratch as a student. In 2013, she founded the McMaster EngiQueers. What started as a small campus club grew into EngiQueers Canada (EQ): a national non-profit now serving over 30 universities coast to coast, with three core pillars — Social Connection, Education & Advocacy, and Professional Development — all in service of intersectional queer inclusion in the engineering profession.
EQ has taken Vanessa across Canada for over a decade as a speaker and recognized expert in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion — discussing the intersection of personal and professional identity, the story of building a national non-profit, and her lived experience as a queer woman of colour in STEM. She has also brought that energy online through a vlog sharing life, stories, and advice from her unique perspective.
With a lifelong dream of becoming an elected official, Vanessa has spent the last year preparing for this career pivot. She completed 2 continuous education courses at the Toronto Metropolitan University - one in Homelessness in Canadian Society, the other in Local Politics & Government, receiving top marks in both. She spent time working frontline at the Parkdale Community Food Bank, and Daily Bread Food Bank, where she was the Project Manager of the 2026 Who's Hungry Report data collection. Her documentary titled Doorway Sleeper is also in production, telling the story of her father's decade long journey with Homelessness in Toronto.
Now, as a renter in Parkdale-High Park, she's ready to lead a campaign focused on Affordability, Community and Safety, and bring her unique perspective to council.
Four personal values that guide everything she does.
Community & Collaboration
Togetherness, wide-scale inclusion, and working as a team to solve problems.
Authenticity & Respect
Integrity, doing what is right, and being genuine in your intentions.
Resilience & Perseverance
Pushing through barriers, not giving up, and doing what it takes to get to the other side.
Obligation to Society
Giving back, volunteering, and making the world a better place for those who follow in your footsteps.
A life woven into the fabric of this city.
Vanessa's Early Days in Toronto
From the very beginning, Vanessa has called Toronto home.
Two Families, One City
The Italian side of her family immigrated to Toronto in the 1950s, seeking opportunities for a better future. The Sri Lankan side of her family came to Toronto for safety — fleeing the Tamil genocide — with her immediate family among the earliest Sri Lankan arrivals in Canada in the early 1970s. The Italians settled in the East End, and the Sri Lankans settled in the West End. Her parents married in 1993 at The Old Mill.
A Toronto Childhood
Vanessa grows up immersed in Toronto — in addition to growing up on the Danforth and Leaside, she spent much of her time with her family in the streets, parks, and communities that make up Parkdale–High Park. This ward isn't just a constituency to her; it's a place that shaped her.
McMaster — and Back Again
Vanessa heads to Hamilton to study Engineering at McMaster University, graduating in 2018 with all the top awards for graduating students, including: The Image of an Engineer Award, the President's Award of Student Excellence, and an award given to a single engineering student in the entire country: the Engineers Canada Gold Medal Student Award. She returns to Toronto with a sharpened sense of purpose — and a national non-profit in her pocket.
A Canadian Toy Story
Following her internships at Bombardier Aerospace (Downsview location), PepsiCo Food & Beverages Canada, and an internship in France, Vanessa spent 8 years of her engineering career working at Canadian-founded, international children's toy company Spin Master. Working directly downtown, Vanessa led a global team of engineers, and facilitated the offset of 3 million pounds of plastic through her sustainability work, including making a 100% recycled Rubik's cube, Gund teddy bears made out of water bottles, and converting the Etch A Sketch to be over 75% recycled plastic forevermore.
Volunteering on the Front Lines
As a frontline volunteer at the Parkdale Community Food Bank, and a contract staffer at Daily Bread Food Bank facilitating the 2026 Who's Hungry report data collection, Vanessa sees the crisis of food insecurity up close. One in ten Torontonians visited a food bank this year. That number moved her from witness to candidate.
Running for Parkdale–High Park
Vanessa enters the race for Toronto City Council — armed with a lifetime of community ties, a decade of national non-profit leadership, and a deep conviction that her ward deserves a councillor who actually lives its values.
Over a decade of impact — in engineering and in the community.
- 2026–PresentFrontline volunteer, Daily Bread Food Bank, Toronto — including participation in the Who's Hungry report
- 2024–PresentProtagonist, Doorway Sleeper — documentary on her father's decade-long homelessness journey in Toronto
- 2013–PresentFounder, EngiQueers Canada — national non-profit serving 30+ universities across the country
- 2013–PresentSpeaker & EDI expert — over a decade of panels, conferences, and talks from coast to coast
- 2018Engineers Canada Gold Medal Student Award, McMaster University
Ready to help Vanessa win?
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