I met Sean a week or so ago to talk about issues in Ward 19, and why he decided to run for office in this area. If you are a sports fan you’ve probably heard his name as he was a broadcaster for Rogers Sportsnet for 15 years and host of a program called Connected.
While in that career Sean got connected to a bunch of charities including Right to Play, as well as the St. Joseph’s Health Centre, which is the benefactor of the fundraising from Queen Street Music Festival, so giving back to the community is part of Sean’s life in Toronto.
After recently leaving leaving Rogers Sportsnet, Sean told me he was looking for something new to do which would make an impact on his neighbourhood, where he’s lived since moving from Vancouver about 8 years ago. Sean lives on Queen St and has seen the great change that has happened to the area and wanted to keep that change moving in the right direction as well as impact larger issues such as improving the TTC and cleaning up parks in the city.
His background also contains a number of entrepreneurial ventures when he was younger, which seemed to be much of the basis for his platform – which is focused less on environmental and transit issues, and more on ensuring accountability in spending and reducing taxes for homeowners. His discussion on issues revolved a lot on making sure money is spent correctly in the city so that local homeowners can have their taxes reduced. His approach to most issues is very practical and business oriented, and the lack of his connection to the more political approach to issues may prove a great advantage in getting things done, but also will be a challenge.
Like the other candidates in the race, Sean is obviously well connected. The Queen West Music festival, which he organized, had a number of high profile sponsors including Rogers, TD and Molson, and it takes some influence to get them involved in a local music show. It shows a determination to make things happen and change the community, which the music festival does.
The Ward 19 race involves a lot of young candidates, and some names we know. Sean is a welcome addition and is going to provide more visibility to the issues of the neighbourhood. Let us know what you think of how the Ward’s election is shaping up.
Ward 19 is definitely going to get a young and enthusiastic councilor, based on those running for the job. Mike Layton is no exception.
I finally got to meet with Mike Layton, both over a coffee at I Deal and drink at Reposado. We talked about many of the issues of the neighbourhood, which, from his canvassing, he is learning quickly.
He’s a resident of the area, and obviously, through his father, he’s well connected. His clear passion is the environment, and he knows a lot about the politics of it, which is obviously a good skill and passion to have in this city. He currently works for an environmental organization doing research and communications work on issues related to renewable energy.
One of the great characteristics I thought he brought to the table was the ability to listen. He is very personable and friendly, and will lend an ear to all the local residents. People talk about the characteristic of “a politician you’d want to have a drink with” – and Mike fits right in that category.
His endorsement by Joe Pantalone, who we’re not a fan of on this blog, may help him, and may hinder him. In our conversations he was careful not to criticize his potential predecessor but stressed the importance of good communication within the community, something that didn’t happen with the restaurant moratorium.
We are happy that there will be a new and eager councilor for our ward, whoever is chosen. We encourage you to stay informed about who is running, we have been interviewing the candidates, and plan to do more in the next few weeks.
Karen comes from a ‘green’ background, having a Bachelors degree in environmental science, and then a Masters in urban planning – both quite useful skills in a city councillor. She worked, earlier in her career, for the City of Toronto’s forestry department and then moved on to working on other issues.
It was hard to find some part of municipal life she hadn’t worked in as she mentioned topic after topic that she’s had some interest or been a part of including Heritage Toronto, Good Jobs for All Coalition, the Toronto Open Budget Initiative and many others. Most recently she’s been the Executive Director of the Toronto branch of a non-profit human rights organization, Chinese Canadian National Council which helps build links between the Chinese community and others within the City of Toronto.
Her interest definitely was in parks as the topic came up numerous times, including discussions about Trinity Bellwoods, and some ideas on revitalizing the stretch of Bloor Street around Christie Pits. Outside of this particular Ward, she discussed working on a city-wide parks plan.
We talked quite a bit about last year’s restaurant moratorium, pushed through without debate by our current councilman and Mayoral candidate, Joe Pantalone. In her walks through the community and door-knocking, she says the topic comes up regularly, and many didn’t know what had happened, but knew that something had. She expressed to me that there were many ways to have solved the problem, and the outright ban, without community consultation, wasn’t the right approach. It also didn’t address the specific issue – which was the noise being created on the side streets to Ossington by people leaving bars at closing time and she presented some excellent ideas, some more challenging to implement than others, to address this. It was clear she had been talking to the residents in the neighbourhood, and had a pretty good grasp of this particular challenge.
I also learned a good deal about how the local election process works, and the party politics which are inevitably involved in these type of races.
As the campaign progresses I’m certain Karen will keep us updated on her positions on local issues, and we’ll pass along key information as it comes. If you want to follow what she’s doing, keep an eye on her FaceBook page and her Twitter account, or if you’re old school just sign up for her email newsletter.
It’s exciting that Ward 19 has some young and energetic candidates looking to change the community. Keep an eye here for more candidate profiles to come.
I received a greeting note on the site from another Ward 19 Candidate – Joshua Shang. He attached a link to a website still under construction, but then, upon request redirected me to his facebook page which is now active.
It looks like he’s just getting his campaign going and he doesn’t have much online, but here’s what we know now:
Joshua works as a business analyst for a wealth management software company and grew up on College Street where his parents owned and operated a restaurant. So he’s a local guy.
For high-school he went to Jarvis Collegiate and then took economics at the University of Toronto.
After spending some time in Pennsylvania as a consultant for Vanguard – a U.S investment and pension company – he returned to Canada and now lives close to Ossington on Strachan Ave.
He outlined in an email his first platform planks, clearly focussed on his specialty, economics:
Closing the fiscal gap between spending and revenue.
Raising property taxes annually by approximately 3 % (which essentially has happened over the last 4 years) is not a sustainable model.
Moderate spending. There are expenses that this city has taken on that aren’t immediate or necessary.
Joshua says:
“I believe in bringing people together and helping them understand both sides.”
“In terms of the ossington strip, I’m sure we can come to a better resolution than the status quo (which I’ve read, and experienced first hand) that both sides are not happy with.”
Amen to that!
Joshua promises to continue to expand his platform in the next little while, and we’ll keep you up to date.
A recent Toronto Star article has also mentioned a few other candidates who have thrown their hat in the ring including Jack Layton’s son, Mike Layton, bike shop owner Derek Chadbourne, Karen Sun, executive director of the Chinese Canadian National Council Toronto Chapter, local activist and repeat candidate Himy Syed, and recently profiled Jim Likourezos. We’ll try and have some profiles of the other candidates up soon.
Who’s up for a candidate’s debate in the Ossington Village?
I received a note the other day through this blog from Jim Likourezos, who is running in Ward 19 (ours) now that Joe Pants is running for Mayor (god help us if he wins) as well as a flyer in my mailbox. It’s the first candidate we’ve seen so far.
His webpage says he’s for “responsible government”, which really doesn’t help us out much. (not that we don’t like responsible government, but give us some more!).
So, to help us get to know him he’s holding a couple of meet and greets in the area, although unfortunately none on Ossington… yet.
The first of his meetups is at Victory Cafe on Monday the 22nd at 7pm
The second meeting takes place at one of my faves, the Wheat Sheaf Tavern the next night at 7pm also.
I’m sure he’ll be heading and meeting up with us here on Ossington soon. Reposado, Sweaty Betty’s and The Painted Lady make for good meet-up locales, and the local business owners would love to find out more about him.
If you were in the Trinity Bellwoods area on Saturday you probably would have heard the sounds of Queen West Music Festival, a local event put on by Ward 19 candidate Sean McCormick.
