Dear Neighbours,
It was important for me to have a platform that has room to grow and evolve as I learn from people in this ward, but also have some firm positions that could house the best of these growing priorities. I knew a four-pillar approach could be the solid foundation that I could stand on.
The word COMMUNITY is, quite frankly, overused in campaigns. But the fact is it is truly the best all-encompassing word to use. It can be an easy euphemism or platitude for an inauthentic candidate to coming along and use. It is important for me to define this word clearly as it pertains to my heart and mind.
Community for me is that welcoming place where people come together and live our day to day lives. Our shared interests keep us in proximity to each other, and one person's struggle can easily be the next if we aren't cohesive in our relationship to each other. A great example would be Home security. We used to have a thing called friends and neighbours that could house sit or routinely check our doors and windows. They would keep a presence on our homes to deter people from exploiting its temporary vacancy. There is still massive utility in things like alarms and surveillance system in high traffic areas. Yet surveillance and alarms work even better in conjunction with reliable people you can count on. You can't expect the person next door to watch your property day and night, but if they hear your alarm tripped, then they may see something above and beyond what the camera catches, and can act quicker to get the authorities involved in a verified break and enter. Yet today I see communities paying extra for security companies to patrol.
I don't want to live in a place where if someone sees something wrong happening they go about their day because it's someone's "job" to address it. We can all come together and do an infinitely more thorough job on watching out for each other than an outsourced patrol could do.
Back in my day (excuse me while I adjust my seating position to accommodate some back pain) children used to play outside. Not groups of one or two, but large unorganized flocks of friends. There are likely many reasons this has changed for my children, and primarily those reasons would be related to safety. I don't begrudge any parent for having helicopter tendencies when the current day dangers are what they are. The issues stem from the dangers around kids getting hurt, going missing, or worse, are exacerbated by the fact that there are less people outside enjoying unstructured leisure together. More kids outside meant more messengers should someone fall off their bike. It meant more parents checking in at the playground, and more people knowing each other through the social connection that the kids shared. When I was young I knew my friends parents and they knew me. And they were everywhere. I could walk down any block and knew the houses I could run to in a pinch. Today most kids at the social age have cell phones and only will call their parents.
As city councillor I won't be able to bring those days back. Those days are long gone, and it isn't a councillor's job to make nostalgia ideals viable in modern times. My hope and purpose in this ward is to find ways to bridge our communities together by making sure there is space for young people to come together beyond the structured activities. Helping promote vacancies in community centers, working with them to find creative ways to host events, and protecting funding for important activities that keep young people busy.
Community is where we come together, where we live, where we go, and where we see ourselves in others. We are all breathing the same air, and as human beings want the same things for the ones we love. I love that our land is rich with history, though I don't love all the history we've been a part of. We can learn to all come together. Whether your family has been the keepers of this land for thousands of years, whether they arrived by boat looking for a new way of life, whether you yourself travelled many miles to join your loved ones who call this home, or need a home because yours is unsafe- we should all be welcome here. Traditions are amazing, but so is progress. The way forward looks like the best parts of what was, and parts we haven't yet seen because we continue to progress and grow.
I love this ward because I see families of all sorts. Before my endeavor to ask for the chance to represent this community I had to be able to humbly ask myself if I could represent such a diverse group of people. And you know what? The answer wasn't an obvious yes. It actually is more complex than that. The purpose of this campaign is not for me to tell each and every person why I am the best fit for the job, it is to have a conversation and learn from each other. We will spend the next few months deciding together if I am the voice for the ward at the council or not. Most of you don't know me yet, but once you do I think you are going to agree that we will work well together.
My name is Randy, what's yours?
