Perennial Sarnia and London mayoral candidate Carlos Murray dies at 64

Carlos Murray, a busker who ran for mayor in Sarnia six times before moving to London and running for mayor of that city, has died. He was 64.

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Murray died Jan. 3 in London, the city he moved to about 10 years ago, said an obituary on the website of Smith Funeral home in Sarnia.

Born in Sarnia, he attended High Park public school and the former Central Collegiate.

“His passion was this music, and he was often found with his guitar at various events,” said the obituary.

“I don’t call it busking,” then 49-year-old Murray told The Observer in 2010. “I call it exercising my right to freedom of expression.

“I do it so well that people give me tips.”

Murray had his best result in his sixth run for Sarnia mayor that year when he received 390 votes.

A year later, Murray was stabbed while visiting a rooming house in Sarnia.

“I’m not moving around very well but I get lots of sherbet and ice cream in here,” Murray told The Observer from his hospital bed.

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Following a trial, a 34-year-old Sarnia man was sentenced in 2012 to nine months in jail for the attack.

In 2013, at 52, Murray was sentenced in a Sarnia court to 39 days in jail for modifying his prescription medication for improper use.

Murray told Radio Western six years ago, while running for mayor of London, “I want to change the way decisions are being made.”

His call for allowing citizens to vote on major city issues was also part of Murray’s campaigns in his hometown.

“Let it be that citizens make the decisions and then it’s city hall’s job to do what the people thing,” he told Radio Western.

Murray received 0.5 per cent of the vote in the 2022 London mayor’s race.

Murray told The Observer in 2010 he came from a politically active family and did well in school until things changed at the age of eight because of the death of a close friend.

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“I didn’t take it well,” he says. “It left emotional scars.”

Murray said he worked for a short time in real estate after high school but otherwise collected long-term disability and played guitar.

“OK, I’ll tell you the truth,” he said in 2010. “If people really want me to stop running for mayor, they’d support my music more.”

Murray said he also busked in Toronto in the late 1980s, and around Ontario on a journey following the death of his mother in 2006.

Survived by a sister and brother, Murray was the “proud uncle” of four nephews, the obituary said.

With files from Cathy Dobson of The Observer

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