When it was announced last week that there would be a By-election to fill Pickering’s Ward 1 vacant seat in City Council— a seat left vacant when Ward 1 Regional Councillor Jennifer O’Connell was elected as Pickering-Uxbridge MP this past October and current City Councillor for the ward, Kevin Ashe, was appointed to replace her— I decided to throw my name in the hat. Now, the hat is getting very crowded, as 10 other candidates are also vying for the position as well. But like I told my Facebook friends: a friendly competition with 10 other worthy candidates, a smack-in-the-middle-of-winter AND Christmas campaign, a January 25th election date…pffttt, bring it on!
Let me clarify: I’m being sarcastic up there ^^. It will be a great challenge, but also one that I welcome with open arms, as I’m sure all the other candidates do as well. We all come from all walks of life, we all have different and varied life and work experiences— some of them with decades-long experience doing the Councillor job that we’re all vying for. Regardless of each individual’s work experience, however, I’m sure that above all, all of us candidates have the integrity, honesty and personal qualities that are needed to run this great city of ours in a suitable fashion. Therefore there’s no doubt in my mind that not only are we all extremely competent to do the job, but my guess is that we are all also motivated and inspired by the great city we live in, the City of Pickering, a great community that I’m personally proud and forever grateful to live in and where we’ve happily raised our family for the past 12 years. Kudos to all the politicians that have come before us, for they’ve done a great job making this city such a great place to live, work and play. Like my husband says when we’re out and about playing tourists and are randomly trying to find a good place to eat, “Let’s just go to the place that has the most people in it because that means it’s probably a good and popular place.” The same can be said of our city, as many people would love to live and grow and raise a family in it. It’s what we did ourselves all those years ago and never looked back.
I should also mention there is a reason why I’m throwing my name in the hat, so-to-speak, for this particular election. I, like many others, could’ve stood as a passive observer on the sidelines, watching the future unfold— maybe mumbling or yelling at the papers or the TV like sports fanatics do when they’re watching their favourite team losing an important game or excitedly if winning one— but I decided this time around I would rather be a more active participant in helping shape the future of the city which hopefully my children and my children’s children will call home. It is a little disheartening to see the poor civic participation of Pickering residents, where only about 30 to 35% of its eligible voters cast their ballots in the last municipal elections. I’m hoping to encourage a more active role on the part of all Pickering residents.
In a country with a political system that includes three levels of government— Federal, Provincial and Municipal— it’s easy to overlook the one literally closest to our hearts and homes. I see the municipal government the way I see my own home: this is where you begin when trying to make the best decisions for your family and your children, at the very start of it all, making sure that the basis are the best they can be so they can go out into a much bigger world— school, university, the workforce— whilst providing them with the right values, principles and tools to be successful out there and also providing them with a good and strong foundation where one makes financially responsible and sound decisions. If we are doing the best we can in our small community, chances are we will do great things as the scope becomes larger.
As a Latin American woman, I have to say that I was also greatly inspired by the last Federal election, in which not only 50% of women became Cabinet ministers, but this diverse group also included a good number of visible minorities who are just as greatly qualified as all the other candidates to do great work representing our country. People such as Afghanistan-born Maryam Monsef, the new MP for Peterborough-Kawartha and Minister of Democratic Institutions, a former refugee and the youngest MP that city has ever had. I’m also inspired by Mississauga’s newly-elected MP, Navdeep Bains, our new Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development as by Jody Wilson-Rayboud, our very first aboriginal person to serve as Justice Minister and Attorney General. But I’m also equally inspired by Pickering’s Jennifer O’Connell, who started her very successful career in municipal and regional politics here in Durham Region as a very young woman, and had an incredibly successful career for 10 years, before venturing out into Federal Politics, and by Celina Caesar-Chevennes, another strong female elected as a Member of Parliament for the Whitby-Oshawa riding. There is certainly a lot of inspiration to be drawn from these and many other great role models in the political arena right now.
I’ve already started campaigning, as my first flyers were delivered a couple of days ago and I started distributing them this week. It is a really exciting first step for me. And like I said to my friends, it may be that by the end of the campaign there is no other outcome than getting some exercise, enjoying the outdoors and getting to chat with the people of Pickering’s Ward 1 as we distribute these flyers around for the next couple of months, but it is a process that I welcome with open arms and hopefully (fingers crossed) one that is only the beginning of a great relationship with Ward 1 and Pickering residents for the next few years, if I were to get elected. Here’s to hoping!
