WARD 9 BEARS WATCHING ON OCT. 22
Kieran McKenzie came within 177 votes of defeating incumbent Windsor city councillor Hilary Payne in Ward 9 in the last municipal election.
On Friday, McKenzie, Windsor West MP Brian Masse’s longtime assistant and a veteran NDP campaigner, announced he’s running again.
At stake is the ward that is poised to host not only the planned new hospital but massive new development.
Ward 9 is one of the areas where the original city expanded, McKenzie said at his campaign launch in Roseland Park, attended by about 50 people ranging from a neighbour he grew up with to furniture store owner Noah Tepperman, labour council president Brian Hogan, local MPs Brian Masse and Tracey Ramsey and MPP Lisa Gretzky. But city services didn’t expand with it, he said. He cited an “island subdivision” squeezed between Division and Provincial roads. It’s a “daily struggle” to get in and out of the subdivision on the two busy routes.
He cited narrow Sixth Concession. You can’t walk or bike along it. “That’s not how you build neighbourhoods,” he said. Cabana Road is being widened, but families who live across from Roseland Public School are complaining their children can’t cross the new road, he said. Basements in many houses in the ward also flood during storms. “I want to focus on essential services,” McKenzie said.
But that might not be enough for residents in the only ward in the city without a library or community centre.
Ward 9 has the third-highest median income after taxes, according to the blog Ginger Politics by researcher Frazier Fathers. It also has the most young people — 28 per cent of the population is under age 19. With fewer of the social issues found in core neighbourhoods, amenities may drive the agenda.
“There’s a huge need for social facilities, such as a library and community centre,” said Payne, who said he is “certainly leaning toward” running for a third term and will decide by the middle of this month.
He pushed for a library and didn’t get it. He hopes a new master plan for recreation currently underway will include a community centre for the ward. Ward 9 is hosting not only the new hospital, to be built on County Road 42, but another major city expansion — the Sandwich South land between the airport and Highway 401, annexed from Tecumseh. Council will debate in August not only rezoning for the hospital but the secondary plan for the land around and west of the proposed site for the new hospital. The secondary plan lays out where residential, commercial, industrial and institutional development as well as roads will be.
Now, it’s 6,251 acres of largely farmland. But 4,978 new houses with a population of 13,243 are planned by 2036. It’s such a large influx that the city might have to adjust the ward’s boundaries. “It’s a blank canvas to develop,” said council observer Daniel Ableser. “That’s going to be a lot of work for the councillor and a lot of excitement.”
And a lot of controversy. Should the city even develop the land? Many see it as sprawl that will hollow out core neighbourhoods and cost hundreds of millions of dollars in roads, sewers and other services despite development charges to help pay the cost. Others argue that if the city doesn’t open it up, developers will build in the surrounding county municipalities. Payne, a civil engineer and former city manager, is fiscally conservative. He also generally — but not always — votes with Mayor Drew Dilkens. He voted against the Christmas lights in Jackson Park, saying they were “not justifiable.”
He’s 86 now and will be 90 by the end of the next term. He’s concerned that people are focusing on that.
“It shouldn’t be an issue,” he said. “The only negative is if my faculties are affected, and they’re simply not.”
McKenzie is more progressive and is expected to vote less with the mayor, which could alter the dynamic on council, where votes are often split 7-4. He’s one of the most experienced campaigners in the city. He ran both of Gretzky’s winning campaigns, including defeating cabinet minister Teresa Piruzza. He has a base in the NDP and presumably a list of volunteers he can tap.
But do people want change? And how many candidates will run? Including McKenzie, three have already registered to run in Ward 9. The other two are information technology expert Alex Aggarwal and Xavier Gonzalez, a property manager with a PhD in economics. Six ran last time. That many candidates could split the vote.
Watch this ward on election night Oct. 22.