For Mayor of Milton · 2026
It's about time we made it one of reality
Join us in person
Two free events, all on us - bring your family and neighbours.
Help us connect with the community and share our vision. Canvassing training and lunch from 12 to 1, then out into the neighbourhood together from 1 to 3. No experience needed - we'll show you everything.
Milton (address sent when you register)
30 seconds - name, email, phone, address
Want to join our campaign? Sign up here.
Orientation for new campaign volunteers. Lunch provided.
Milton (address sent when you register)
Cineplex events brought to you by Zainab Azim for Mayor and Cineplex Milton.
Ten seconds from the night
A free World Cup Final on the big screen at Cineplex Milton - after a free morning screening of The Odyssey down the hall. No tickets sold, no sponsors, nothing to sign up for: just Milton, together, on a Sunday afternoon.
Hundreds
of neighbours came out
Two
screenings, one Sunday
Zero
cost to walk in
The room we filled
July 19, 2026 - a free double-header for Milton: The Odyssey in the morning, the World Cup Final on the big screen in the afternoon.
This is what showing up looks like
July 1, 2026 - serving ice cream, signing up neighbours, and meeting Milton where it celebrates.
Harvard Teaching Fellow · Organizer · Researcher · Author · Miltonian
Zainab Azim - raised in Milton
“What are you gonna do about it? What are we going to do about it?”
Ms. Pauline asked Zainab that question on a Montessori playground right here in Milton, after listening to a student complain about problems that felt too big to fix. She has spent her life trying to answer it ever since.
Milton is where Zainab grew up and was raised by her grandmother - a fellow educator - in a town where neighbours dropped pulao and pineapple cake at the door because it takes a village. She first learned the power of organizing at her Montessori school, and the power of a team on Milton United's soccer pitch - where her coach taught her that the best players don't just see where the ball is now. They see where it's going and work with their team to get it there. In 2022, the town named her Milton Citizen of the Year - and later its youngest-ever Official Bellringer.
Like so many of us, she spent much of her time at the GO station - watching the town empty every morning, believing that to change anything you had to leave. That the power to change the world lived somewhere else. So she went looking for it. In academia, as a researcher in developmental neuroscience. In government, working in the offices of Canada's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, where federal budgets are shaped. In diplomacy, as the youngest ambassador and mentor in the United Nations Space4Women program. In philanthropy, with nonprofits including the Urban Alliance on Race Relations and the National Education Policy Centre. At Harvard, where she earned her Master of Education and now teaches policy analysis, economics, and the practice of organizing people-powered movements as a Teaching Fellow. And most recently in New York, organizing on the Zohran Mamdani mayoral campaign - where she watched everyday people win a city of eight million, one door and neighbour at a time.
What she learned?
“Power is not in some person, position or some place. Power is in our people. And hope is at home.”
We are not running to be something. We are running to do something - with you.
The Record
A Track Record Few Can Match
Harvard, the United Nations, and Virgin Galactic - the proof behind the promise.
Education
Master of Education from Harvard, where she teaches policy, economics, and organizing as a Teaching Fellow. Centre for International Development.
Harvard / CID
Organizing
Organizer and researcher on the people-powered campaign that won New York.
New York City
Government
Policy experience at the federal level. Recognized in the House of Commons.
House of Commons
United Nations
Chosen as the youngest mentor with the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) Space4Women program, promoting women and girls in STEM.
UNOOSA / Space4Women
Nonprofit
The Global Initiative and Vision for Education - equal access to quality education, especially STEM, for women and girls worldwide.
STEM / Worldwide
Author
Three books on education; a fourth on people-based politics forthcoming from the Harvard Kennedy School.
Harvard Kennedy School
Honour
Named 2022 Citizen of the Year, and chosen as the Town's youngest-ever Official Bellringer.
Milton / 2022
In Milton
Founder of Learn to Lead, free leadership workshops rooted in Harvard pedagogy, and Meet Milton, a storytelling project spotlighting local leaders and businesses.
Founder / Homegrown
Meet Milton · Learn to Lead · Milton Transitional Housing (Coldest Night of the Year) · Milton District Hospital Foundation · Milton Citizen of the Year 2022 · Family contribution to the Milton Hospital and Arts Centre Development
Hope starts right here - built at home, with our neighbours, in our town.
Saving you Time for what matters
forOur platform is about time.
Close to Home
So you don't have to leave to make a living.
So your next opportunity is down the street, not down the 401.
Every Twenty
So you have more time for what matters most.
A bus you can trust, every 20 minutes - so transit becomes something you can build a life around.
After Five
So you don't have to leave to live a life.
A town to live in, not just sleep in.
Clear streets & sidewalks sooner
The plans, the costs, and the receipts - plus snow removal, housing, CN Intermodal, and groceries.
We care about: Education. Taxes. Rural Milton. Waste Management. Safety. And more.
Another local issue on your mind? Talk to us
This platform was built in living rooms, not boardrooms - and it isn't finished, because listening never is. Tell us what's taking your time.
Sunday, August 23 · 12 PM to 3 PM
Help us connect with the community and share our vision. Canvassing training and lunch from 12 to 1, then out into the neighbourhood together from 1 to 3. No experience needed - we'll show you everything.
Newsletter
Campaign updates, free community events, and election-day reminders. A few emails a month, no noise.
In the News
From a hometown citizen of the year to the world's youngest future astronaut - here is where her work has been told.
Zainab Azim launches her campaign for Mayor of Milton, calling for the town to stop being a bedroom community - with real local jobs, better transit, and more to do close to home.
On hope, organizing and people-power: "Hope is built right here - starting at home, in ourselves, with our neighbours, in this town."
At 17, Zainab is recognized by the Italian Prime Minister as a "great ambassador" at the opening of the 83rd Fiera del Levante in Bari, Italy.
A panelist at the inaugural UN World Space Forum before an audience representing 66+ countries, speaking on youth, education and inspiring the next generation.
Zainab's nonprofit work helps bring the international Space for Our Planet exhibit to the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Join Us
We're asking for your voice, your values, your vision. Not just your vote.
Politicians promise that if you elect them, they'll fix everything themselves. That's not true - and you've seen it. Real change takes an organized community that keeps showing up before, during, and after election day. Hope is not something we feel. It's something we build - with our time, our two feet, our tongues, and the many languages we speak.
This is a people-powered campaign - built by and with neighbours. Add your name to volunteer, host a meeting, share whatever gifts you have or just stay in the loop.
Your time
Doorknocking, phone banking, event setup, general volunteering - a few hours whenever you have them. Face to face conversations with neighbours are how this campaign moves.
Your voice and expertise
Share what you know about this town - transit, housing, schools, small business. The experts on Milton are the people who live here.
Your language
Milton speaks dozens of languages. Translate materials, interpret at the doors, welcome neighbours in their own words.
Your skills
Artists at events, small businesses, cooking, photos, design - whatever you're good at, this campaign has a place for it.
Whatever your gift - your time, your language, your cooking, your camera, your Saturday afternoon - we need it.
29%
voter turnout in Milton's last municipal election. We can do better - together.
Check your voter registrationKnock doors, make calls, translate, create. Every canvass includes training - you'll leave with a new skill, a new relationship, and a clearer sense of purpose. New Volunteer Meetings run biweekly on Sundays. There's usually biryani.
Count me inThirty minutes. Your questions, your concerns, your ideas. This is how the platform got built - one conversation at a time.
Book a 1:1Invite five neighbours for chai. We'll bring the conversation. Living rooms are where this campaign was born - and where elections are won.
Host a MeetingSome people have time, some have ideas, some have a few dollars to spare. Every dollar stays in Milton - print, signs, and gas for volunteers who knock doors.
Donate
