People are asking me what perspective and priorities I would bring to an elected position. Here are some thoughts.

The relationship between the city and small business needs a revision. There should be stronger accountability structures – both carrots and sticks. People should be rewarded for engagement with their community, for getting involved and contributing. But there should also be enforceable penalties for anti-social and anti-community actions and choices.

We should take a hard look at anti-vacancy legislation and consider applying it to commercial as well as residential properties. I picture a future with an interface for advocacy between commercial tenants and owners.

We should revisit our civic sanitation policies, and shift the responsibility for garbage and recycling to the city or the BIA in commercial areas. We can really up our game and have positive public health and environmental gains with some changes.

There should be access to public washrooms across the city.

I believe this is cornerstone to protecting human dignity. We should invest more intention in that goal through housing, transportation, access to medicinal cannabis and other natural/therapeutic alternatives to pharmaceuticals, access to grooming, free or low cost ID clinics and more. Making this a priority will significantly change outcomes in our quality of life and notably in sight of the opiate epidemic.

Perhaps our biggest opportunity is electoral reform. Including our permanent residents in the voting community is key. We need to find a version of proportional representation that encourages civic participation in voting and more fairly represents the sentiments and priorities of our citizens.

These are my priorities – what are yours?