ONE OF THE PEOPLE
Candidate in Toronto’s mayoral race passionate about making streets safe and vibrant.
On May 8, in the midday sunshine in front of the church behind the Eaton Centre, the monthly memorial was being held for the people who have recently died while living on Toronto’s streets. A cluster of 20 or 30 people stood and heard some memories of Seaton House resident Richard Hudkin, who died on Family Day.
“He was always full of laughs, and loved to sit in Allan Gardens near the fountain,” Steven Tooney, a friend of Hudkin’s, said.
In addition to Hudkin, we heard, two others — identified publicly as Jane Doe and John Doe — would have their names added to the Homeless Memorial there in Trinity Square. There was a song. And a rant. And street nurse Cathy Crowe made a short announcement, during which she acknowledged the presence of a mayoral candidate who was there, Sarah Climenhaga.
Political campaign speeches are discouraged at the monthly memorial event, but Climenhaga was there before and afterward, speaking with those in attendance, listening to them, hearing their concerns.
“Most people in Toronto care about the homelessness issue but they don’t always feel like they can do something,” Climenhaga tells me over a cup of tea another day last week, telling me about why she attended to hear from those present who work closely with the homeless or experience homelessness. “I think the mayor can do something about the homelessness issue.”
You may have heard, after the municipal election campaign formally launched earlier this month, that Mayor John Tory is running essentially unopposed. While it is true that so far, no high-profile candidates from among the roster of usual suspects (city councillors, federal and provincial politicians, civil servants or corporate leaders) have emerged, Tory is not the only candidate registered. As of late last week, there were eight candidates in total. Climenhaga may have been the very first to sign up: she showed up at city hall just before registration formally opened on May 1 to submit her paperwork. She has been campaigning full-time ever since, canvassing door-todoor, attending events, meeting with activists, talking to reporters.
“I’m running as a resident who experiences what life in Toronto is like, and who sees what I see as the problems,” she says. The environmental and sustainability advocate who once worked for the World Wildlife Fund but who has spent the past 15 years raising her children full-time — participating in citizen activism along the way on the St. Clair streetcar right-of-way and other projects — may not be a big name, but she sees the city from the street level.
“I experience waiting for the bus and having three go by because they’re overcrowded, I experience dangerous streets with my kids or when I’m cycling. I experience waiting lists for parks and recs programs, and I know for my three children the housing prospects for them, whether that’s buying a house or just renting a place, are troubling to me as a parent. So I’m really running as a resident who wants a better life for residents.”
She has long been passionate about making streets safe and vibrant. Though she and her husband have a two-car garage at their home near St. Clair and Bathurst, they do not own a car. She spent part of her career working for the organization that would become Metrolinx's Smart Commute. Related issues (about the quality of surface transit service, the safety and viability of cycling, the need for complete streets like the one envisioned for the north end of Yonge St. in the Transform Yonge proposal recently postponed by council) emerge as key concerns.
But she sees that as part of a larger vision for how the city should fulfil its potential.
“I want to set a city-building tone, where we are investing in the service the city needs,” she says, rhyming off transit, housing alternatives and affordability, homelessness, and street design as examples. “I think we need a mayor who is committed to taking action on those things, not just talking about it. And I think I’m committed to taking action.”
Much of what we need, she thinks, are things we already know about — the proposals such as the Yonge transformation that become so contentious or stall out or get watered down. “Many of these things are more a matter of will than of just coming up with buckets of cash.”
I ask her, since she has never been elected before and never run a large organization, what qualifies her to run an organization as large and important to people’s lives as Toronto’s government.
“The mayor of the city needs to lead with vision and with communication and with collaboration. The mayor of the city is not building the Gardiner, the mayor of the city is not constructing the subway, the mayor of the city is not even balancing the budget, for that matter. The city needs excellent staff to do those very specific jobs with high qualifications. The mayor needs to be able to listen to people, to be talking to the public, to be observing the problems of the city and then directing action and asking for action.”
She may not be, in polling or punditry, considered a heavyweight. But she is not taking the campaign lightly. The homeless memorial was not the first time I’ve met her. Back in March, when a child was killed by a motorist and the city responded, early one morning, by closing a pedestrian pathway to a school, she was there, talking to people, listening, observing.
That’s her long-shot campaign strategy, she says. To put in work, full-time, for six months or more, to try to earn the job.
“Would you do anything in your life if you had to be guaranteed success? In a democracy we have to have a choice,” she says. “It’s about a better city, a more livable city. And if people want that and need that, that’s where my reach will come from. If people agree with me, then the word will spread that way.”
Edward Keenan is a columnist based in Toronto covering urban affairs. Follow him on Twitter: @thekeenanwire