I learned ALOT from my campaign: about running a campaign but also about the community. Knocking on doors and meeting people you’d otherwise never have occasion to meet really gets one in tune with their neighbourhood. Here are some of the lessons I learned, split into community and personal:

Community lessons:

– the Beach is an affordable food desert. We have TCHC buildings scattered throughout the Beach but residents have to take multiple transit routes to hit either Price Chopper on Lakeshore or Fresh Co at Vic Park and Gerrard to find any affordable groceries. Not only does this mean more time lost travelling via transit but also the cost of TTC fare, double if you weren’t able to do it in less than 2 hours to enjoy the 2 hour transfer. If we’re putting in affordable housing we need to match it with other affordable necessities of life.

– they need to lift the ridiculous moratorium on front lawn parking pads (albeit with a green standard that sees just two strips of permeable material tire width apart) if for no other reason than there are residents who want to buy electric cars but can’t plug them in with only street parking

– Vic Park south of Kingston is still considered a major connector route, even though it’s entirely wall-to-wall residential, mostly detached homes. Heavy trucks frequently use it illegally.

– someone needs to question the cost-benefit analysis of the new wooden hydro poles replacing concrete ones in the Triangle and other areas

– for some unknown reason the TTC moved the stop at Kingston and Malvern to the former Sundays-only stop in front of the church, causing all the seniors in 828 to walk an extra block to catch the TTC

– RC Harris is a bit out of control with illegal parking and dogs offleash

– the party machine is alive and well at the municipal level in our ward. I spoke of this already, but I really did not expect partisan politics to have been such a crucial element to this election.

Personal lessons:

– years of encouraging words from friends and family does not necessarily translate into boots on the ground come campaign time. And even when willing to help, most people would rather not canvas. Most of my friends are not nearly as political or activist as I am, and I realized quite soon that the people who were more willing to step up are the people I know through politics or activism. And I did have non-political friends step up, but not in the numbers I had hoped.

– the environment is not a very high concern for the majority of people (I’m not saying that just because I was the most environmental candidate and still lost). While there were some VERY environmental people, most did not ask about it or talk about it and of the hundreds of doors I personally hit, only one mentioned climate change.  Also, the VAST majority of people leave many lights on in their house when not home, creating what I call “false demand”.

– I need to learn to recruit and delegate more. I have trouble asking for help, preferring to handle things on my own, so my campaign was very DIY. Designed my own flyers and ads, did all my own video work (except for holding the camera), spent a long time perfecting my website, did all my own data entry and responding to emails and phone calls. In the process I learned Paypal and Mail Chimp and some new WordPress skills, but all at the expense of getting out on the streets more.

– canvassing is KEY. I had such great responses at the door, I’d say 80% of people I got face time with loved what I had to say. But I didn’t get to nearly enough doors, not by a long shot. Part of that blame lies with Ford doubling the ward, but I didn’t have enough canvassers, and spent time on other things that in the end may have been less worthwhile.

– someone helping full-time is pretty much a necessity. To seriously campaign someone dedicated needs to be by your side 24-7 until the campaign is over. If for no other reason than it gets very tough to keep track of all the moving parts. I made the decision not to hire anyone, in keeping with my grassroots campaign that kept costs down, but it lost alot of efficiency.

– you can do without a campaign office, but then you’d best have some other space in which to meet and eat. Eating out too much at restaurants (instead of buying groceries and having a variety available at your house) cost quite a bit more money than anticipated. It’s hard though when your house is occupied by a very precocious toddler who wants to get into EVERYTHING.

And of course there’s a bunch of minute detail lessons I won’t bother to go into, but these are the major ones. I still feel satisfied by the process and all I have gained, especially a deeper more intimate knowledge of my ward. This will only serve to better inform my actions moving forward, and has given me new things to strive for to improve our area.

As I clean up and sort out the mess in my office post-campaign I am appalled by all the waste. Hundreds of unused flyers, dozens of unused window signs, leftover buttons, stacks of paper from canvassing. So much paper and ink for such short use to be disposed of.

It was tough running an environmental campaign while still being a serious contender. I may have had the most eco-friendly 100% reclaimed wood lawn signs, but I still felt guilty with every can of spray paint I had to use (thankfully I only went through about 4 or 5 total). I said it many times throughout the campaign, I could not live with myself printing hundreds of plastic signs just to dispose of them three weeks later. Reusing them another election does not negate the new plastic created, nor the energy and emissions expended to produce and distribute the signs, nor that it will still end up disposed of eventually.

Toronto as a whole has created millions of pounds of waste from this election, I feel a bit ill when I think of it. Other candidates had ongoing releases of newer bigger versions of their flyers as the campaign went on, none of which were on recycled paper. For my part I printed exactly 30,500 flyers on 4×6 100% recycled paper, and was loathe to print that last 500 but was worried about running out (in the end I should have stuck with 30K).

And the lawn signs, so much new plastic, and candidates order more than they need and litter the excess along right-of-ways, in some kind of ironically colourful plastic waste parade. Worst part is, empirically speaking, there is ZERO evidence having more lawn signs means you will fare better at the polls. It’s just the way things are done.

Well it’s time we start questioning the way things are done, and asking ourselves if we are serious about the environment or not? It is unacceptable to me that every election that comes along we are creating massive amounts of waste from short-use election items that will be tossed soon after issuance.

For one, we should ban plastic lawn signs, if not all lawn signs. The city does not allow advertising in many public spaces, why should we be subjected to it just because it’s an election? Especially considering every candidate could have the same number of signs visible and yet will not garner the same number of votes and so clearly signs are not the deciding factor in people’s minds. If people are eager to show their support visually they can put up a window sign or some other overt symbol of their candidate other than a plastic lawn sign. They can wear a headband or plastic-free button and show their support everywhere they go.

Any candidate in this city who followed the classic campaign playbook and does not feel incredibly guilty about the amount of waste created either doesn’t really understand the environmental impacts, or is simply a political psychopath more interested in power than the health of the planet.

We must do better, and we must start throwing out obsolete anachronistic unquestioned evidence-less methods built entirely on unproven assumptions that are destroying the planet. This goes for many things beyond just elections, but elections are an easy one to regulate and change.

Come next year’s federal election, I urge everyone to demand your chosen candidate forgo plastic lawn signs and show their true mettle as an unironic champion of the environment.

First of all, congrats to all the candidates, for having the courage to put themselves out there and making an effort to reach out to the community. We had a slate of incredible and dedicated people, the ward was going to be in good hands no matter what.

And kudos to Brad Bradford, he certainly worked hard for it. I told more than a few of my friends and family throughout the election I would feel kinda bad if Brad didn’t win considering the herculean effort and amount of money spent. As stated, my ONLY beef with Brad’s campaign was the hypocrisy of calling for getting rid of single-use plastics and then printing hundreds of plastic signs (and using them twice doesn’t count because it was still producing new plastic that will never biodegrade, they will still be disposed of eventually, and can’t be recycled into what they once were).

Now, all that said, while no one could have predicted Ford’s meddling throwing a monkey wrench into everyone’s plans, I also did not expect the level of hyper-partisanship that came out. I knew Kellway would have the might of a party machine behind him, but I did not expect the anti-NDP to come out in force to thwart Kellway. Both Councillor McMahon and former MPP Arthur Potts were super invested in ensuring Kellway didn’t win, and I’d bet any money they helped convince Tory to back Brad to clinch the win. Which was a bit odd considering the conflict between Brad having both an endorsement from Keesmat earlier in his run, to be backed by Tory later. Strange politics indeed. It is my suspicion that in his heart of hearts Brad would love to have supported his former boss, but politically the way forward was to accept Tory’s support. I hope this does not mean he will become a yes man on Tory’s executive committee, and that he will stand for the ward’s residents.

My greatest concern after seeing the results however is that with the megaward structure, unless you have Big Money, Big Media, or Big Politics behind you there is little chance of a local grassroots candidate winning. I don’t know if such a consequence was intended by Ford, but it pretty much means municipal politics moved closer to the dynamic of the province and feds and is alot less about local support and more about external supports from politically connected or deep pocketed individuals. I really want to know the legalities of a mayoral candidate spending money on robo calls for their favoured councillor candidates. The huge size of the wards also means if you can’t afford to take the maximum amount of time off you are not likely to win because you will never get around to enough doors.

As for the results, 708 votes for me, I had hoped to do a little better, but knew when the big guns came out I was not a likely winner. I also know my biggest shortcoming was not getting to enough doors. When Ford first made his announcement on July 28 I was supposed to work all weekend on my website but instead took the time off to wrap my head around what I wanted to do, putting me behind right from the start. And then I got a throat infection a couple weeks ago whereby I had completely lost my voice for two days, and was out of commission for almost 4 days, which translates to a couple hundred doors I never got around to seeing. Really though, I just needed to start the whole process at least a month earlier.

All in all it was a very positive experience from which I learned alot. And not just about running a campaign, but about the neighbourhood. Talking to people you would not have met otherwise, learning their stories and struggles. I will follow-up this post with some of those lessons learned. And my community work will continue unabated, however I will likely alter my focus a bit, shifting towards more green and environmental initiatives.

This page and my website will continue to exist, mainly as a blog of sorts, detailing my various works in the community and calling on people to do the same. Thank you Ward 19, I look forward to doing my best for all of us.

For years people have been talking about the state of Queen St in the Beach, with our empty storefronts looking derelict and decrepit and dragging down the whole strip.  But this is not unique to Queen, it’s a problem across the city.  Danforth was very lucky to have DECA, who made a concerted effort to fill their stores.  We can do better for our small businesses, and I have a plan.

1. Keep empty storefronts to a minimum standard of upkeep.  We all know there are bylaws about keeping your lawn too long or full of weeds, but there is no equivalent for empty storefronts.  We need to create a minimum standard that does not allow facades to appear crumbling and derelict, forces building owners to sweep away trash that has collected, and requires a more presentable window covering than craft paper or newsprint.  Perhaps it should even go so far as to require old signs and obsolete awnings to be covered in some way until a new business moves in.

2.  Gather economic information about businesses.  Information is power, and without it we cannot tell exactly what the problem is or where we have levers to relieve pressure.  For example, we should know what is base rent, vs property taxes, vs utilities, vs maintenance, vs the BIA levy for our businesses so we can properly identify where the burden is greatest and where it can be relieved.  Many businesses on Queen don’t even know they’re part of a BIA because the levy is not broken down on their lease.

3.  Survey residents to find out what the gaps in business are.  If we want retail strips that truly serve the community and thrive, we need to ensure they are filled with the kind of businesses residents want to see.  With surveying of shoppers we can identify these gaps and encourage certain desired businesses to fill them.

4.  Advertise vacant spaces.  Along with knowing what types of businesses are missing from the mix, we should be advertising all our empty spaces to attract new business thinking of moving to the area.  Combine this information with the economic information and a possible business will have alot of insight into the business dynamic of an area to really make an informed decision on whether or not to open a business there.

Big thanks to Denise Angus for hosting the candidates and taking the time to do these thorough and in-depth interviews. It was a rare chance in this campaign to have the time to speak comfortably at-length about certain local issues.

The Heartwood development at Queen and Woodbine (the old Shell Station) violates our urban design guidelines as it will block the view of our historical heritage fire hall clock tower.

I try to beautify our neighbourhood any chance I get. Programs like StreetARToronto are important in covering all our grey concrete, and Community Centre 55 has been doing great work with young artists.

Too many of our streets lack proper ground markings and curb cuts to direct pedestrians and warn cars where there are pedestrian spaces.