In 2018, one of my campaign promises was to work on getting Niagara Region to join the Coalition of Inclusive Municipalities. I accomplished that and advocated for the work to be properly resourced with a staff person and an advisory committee, rather than just being a feel-good publicity stunt.

In September of 2020, Niagara Region, joined by all 12 local area municipalities, signed a declaration to join and support the ten commitments of the Coalition of Inclusive Municipalities.

Continue reading “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility” →

Within months of the 2018 elections of the provincial and municipal/regional governments in Ontario, the provincial government was announcing cuts to local public health programs and services and plans to reduce the number of local public health units. I brought a motion to Council in June 2019 to call on the province to delay changes to funding and to leave the number of local public health units unchanged.

Continue reading “Public Health” →

I’m so not metal…and the soundtrack of my campaign video is 😂
(Sidebar: This is only interesting if you care about ‘behind the scenes’ kind of stuff.)

So, why? And what’s the deal with the title of the song?

Well, I was told that I needed a glitzy campaign video to tell my story, why I should be re-elected, and what I’ve done, but that idea didn’t sit well with me. It’s not who I am. And, when I ran it by (now) 17yo and (now) 15yo, they hated the idea of a glitzy campaign video for me.

And they asked if they could make my campaign video.

Continue reading “The story behind the music” →

On February 20, 2020, I brought a motion to Council for the Regional Chair to be directly elected by Niagara’s electorate. Following a great deal of criticism from colleagues, including that the motion “doesn’t go far enough,” I brought the following motion to the Corporate Services Committee meeting of June 16, 2020, which incorporated much of what my colleagues raised as issues that needed to be addressed and also endeavoured to increase engagement and diversity:

Continue reading “Direct Election of the Regional Chair and Modernizing Niagara Politics” →

Twenty-two years. Five campaigns. That’s how long I’ve either been actively working on an integrated and amalgamated transit system for Niagara or campaigning on it.

I am thrilled that – finally – after more than 20 years of political and community advocacy work, Niagara has agreed to integrate and amalgamate transit throughout Niagara. I was also part of two committees (Linking Niagara Transit Committee and Chair of the Accessibility Advisory Committee) that brought on-demand transit to west Niagara municipalities.

Continue reading “Transit” →