Two questions I’ve been getting at the door recently are, 1) Do you live in the ward? and 2) Why run now? These are great questions, and they are interrelated. I’ve captured my answers in a short post.
Two questions I’ve been getting at the door recently are, 1) Do you live in the ward? and 2) Why run now? These are great questions, and they are interrelated. I’ve captured my answers in a short post.
Do I live in the ward?
I value this question because I think by asking it, people are raising a set of valid concerns: Are you part of our community? Whose interest do you represent? Do you understand and know the neighbourhoods that make-up the ward? Do you and your family feel a sense of belonging and responsibility to the ward?
For me, it has always been Ward 4. The day that registration opened, I lined up at City Hall to register to run here. And I have always been upfront about the fact that, while I currently live in Ward 4, I will be living a stone’s throw (three blocks) from the Ward’s southern boundary when the new municipal ward boundaries come into effect on November 15, 2026.
I chose Ward 4 because I feel a deep connection and belonging to the people, places, and spaces of Ward 4. And no arbitrary redrawing of the boundary change will change that fact. Through my job in partnerships at the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority, I have been involved in ecological education programs in many of the schools and communities in the Ward. Through my volunteer work with Antler River Rally, I spent countless hours (for over 15 years) working with Ward 4 residents and community groups to pull garbage out of the parks, greenspaces, and waterways (especially in Killaly Environmentally Significant Area). As a parent of a teenager playing in the London Ramblers Basketball organization, my family and I spend a lot of time at Carling Heights Optimist Community Centre and school gymnasiums across London’s east end. The Oxford/Highbury/Adelaide business corridors are, furthermore, where we as a family often eat, hang out, spend our time, and spend our income. In short, I’m a proud Ward 4 candidate. It's where I live.
Why am I running now?
By example, my parents taught me and my brothers that you get out of the community what you put into it – and this community has given me so much. My decision to run now arises out of many years of serving London at the community and grassroots level. My wife and I built a river cleanup organization from the ground up. I have also served on many boards and steering committees working to make London a more dynamic, enriching, and healthy place to live.
Now, I’m at a place and time in my life where I want to take what I have learned and contribute to change on a larger policy level--- a larger policy level that helps communities, neighborhoods, families, and business.
I have, for example, returned with volunteers to the same parks across the city again and again (often in the same year) to clean up overflowing garbage cans, household waste and litter, and abandoned encampments. In Ward 4 alone, we’ve held many clean ups in McCormick Park, Wells Park, McNay Drain, and multiple garbage hotspots in Killaly Meadows. I now want to work on upstream policies that will improve waste management in the city and get people housed and cared for. I want to bring motions to council that will build stronger bridges between City Hall and the community organizations, volunteer groups, and frontline organizations that work tirelessly to improve their neighborhoods and make Londoner a more vibrant city.
I want a city that works for people, and where people see themselves as participants in, and contributors to, a shared sense of identity, and increased quality of life. I chose to run now because now is the time to start building our shared future together.
Photo credit: Natasha Roberts