
The recipient of the 2025 Agnes Macphail Award, Jason Ash, is very invested in his Thorncliffe Park community, but he is also a bit of an anomaly, as he attended Bessborough from JK on, and then graduated from Leaside High School.
It might well be that he became interested in public transportation issues from years racing for the bus to Thorncliffe at the corner of Rumsey and McRae. Early on, the bus didn’t loop through Thorncliffe. Once it did, it made that “last mile” much easier for students and other commuters. More recently, he advocated through the late Councillor Jaye Robinson to have the 81 and 88 bus routes extended to meet the Eglinton Crosstown so there is “one seat” access from Thorncliffe to Flemingdon and the ongoing connections to Etobicoke or Scarborough. He also became involved early in the various committees dealing with how the Metrolinx Ontario Line is to cut through Thorncliffe, working to see where there were possible wins for Thorncliffe. Jason is also involved with TTC service plan stakeholder meetings.
Jason might well have become a journalist. He particularly enjoyed English class at Leaside High with “Ms. Fertuck,” whom you will recognize as Leaside Life writer Janis Fertuck. Jason spearheaded a group to both write and produce a new version of the student newspaper The Chronicle – including going up and down Bayview soliciting ads to pay for it. “His” version of The Chronicle continues to this day. Maybe it was the financial aspects of producing the paper that led to his taking the B. Comm program at U of T after leaving Leaside in 1999, followed by a U of T Rotman School MBA and his subsequent work in retail finance planning.
In 2018, Jason was elected to the board of The Neighbourhood Organization and served there until 2023. He describes being on the board as “a wonderful experience, to see the way people can become involved in their neighbourhood, to work with elected officials, and have a greater appreciation of the work that not-for-profits can accomplish.”
His heart really is in more grassroots initiatives, working directly with neighbours. In 2019, he and several others started Friends of Thorncliffe Park. If you look towards Thorncliffe as you cross the Leaside Bridge, you’ll see the result of one of their projects – four giant Muskoka chairs on the top of the rise. The chairs are even labelled on Google Maps. Another is the painting of control boxes along Overlea Boulevard, which they arranged through StreetART Toronto.
Closer to his own home, he is now co-chair of the Leaside Towers Tenants’ Association – for residents of the 85 and 95 Thorncliffe Park Dr. towers – who hold regular information meetings with invited guests ranging from City of Toronto officials to police and various agencies. The group’s aim is to make residents proud to live in their building and know how to bring issues to the attention of management.
When the announcement was made by the Premier of Ontario in the spring of 2023 that the Ontario Science Centre was to be closed immediately, there was “a limited level of attention initially, especially with mainstream media,” says Jason. In July 2023, his Agnes Macphail nominator, Floyd Ruskin, and Jason decided that more had to be done, and founded “Save Ontario’s Science Centre,” which has since held many rallies, brought motions to the City of Toronto, delivered an astounding 93,000 letters from all across Ontario to both the province and the city, all to put the issue on the political radar. On many of these efforts, Jason has been the spokesperson. The committee’s aim is “to reopen, renew and reinvest.”
Jason has chosen another grassroots organization, Thorncliffe Park Urban Farmers (TPUF), as the beneficiary for donations made through The East York Foundation towards the 2025 award. “TPUF is an amazing local group doing impactful work in our neighbourhood with food security, pollinator habitats, arts and more, all of which build community.”
Please mark your calendar – Sun., March 23 at 2 p.m., at the East York Civic Centre, 650 Coxwell Ave., where Jason Ash will officially be named as the recipient of the 2025 Agnes Macphail Award. All are welcome to attend. Congratulations, Jason!