BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is from former Barrie resident Devin Scully, who ran in the 2020 byelection for city councillor in Ward 3.
*************************
If you’ve complained online about the way things are in the past few years, now is your chance to do something about it.
While the attention right now is on the provincial election, there’s another election getting underway, one that will have a bigger impact on your day-to-day life than what happens at Queen's Park.
Every municipality in Ontario will hold its local elections on Oct. 24, and the decisions that are made at city hall are the ones you feel every day. The stuff people complain about on Facebook the most – traffic, potholes, garbage removal, and zoning – all fall under municipal jurisdiction, but municipal elections often have the lowest turnout and the least interest.
I’ve put my name on the ballot, and while it turns out I’m a better organizer than candidate, the experience was rewarding.
While I campaigned, I got to meet thousands of my neighbours at their doors. I learned what they cared about, what concerns they had with their government, and I was able to share with them the concerns I had discovered.
I didn’t win, but a lot of what I talked about wanting to do ended up getting done anyway, because having those conversations is how you move the needle.
For $100 and a couple pages of signatures, you can do your part to make the change you want to see.
Knock on doors, meet your neighbours and see your community get better. And if you don’t want to run for local office, reach out to someone running who shares your concerns and offer to volunteer.
This is an opportunity that comes every four years, so if you spent the past four yelling into the void on social media, it’s time to put up or shut up, and do something about it.
Devin Scully
Halifax, N.S.
*************************
