Marchand reaches out to community in mayoral bid
He’s met with business owners, labour and poverty activists, cyclists and millennials. He’s eaten honey balls at the Carousel of the Nations and shopped at the Downtown Windsor Farmers Market while talking to people about the city. Less than two weeks ago, Matt Marchand was forced to give up a high-profile job as CEO of the Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce because he wanted to run for mayor on Oct. 22. He’s not looking back.
“Hey brother, good luck!” a passerby called to him downtown on Monday.
A core of 20 volunteers, from professionals to labour, youth and Windsor Pride representatives, make up his campaign team. There have been dozens more offers to help as they recruit canvassers and people to put up signs. Campaign literature and an office are being finalized. The first two donations came the day he launched his campaign June 19. The campaign bank account wasn’t even open. Focus groups that began meeting late last year said they’re looking for more innovative thinking, said campaign team leader Katie Derbyshire, a longtime friend and daughter of Hospice executive director Carol Derbyshire. Marchand plans to roll out a new plank every week to 10 days.
A big task now, said Derbyshire, is how to get his name out to average voters.
“His calendar is pretty booked,” she said.
Marchand read restaurant owner Mark Boscariol’s Facebook posts about downtown and asked to meet him. They talked about everything from drug addicts to dirty sidewalks and micro grants to driving residential development and what other downtowns are doing. “He’s invested down here,” Marchand said of Boscariol, who owns two restaurants in the core. “He’s got a lot of experience. He’s got a lot of ideas. He’s got high energy. He’s passionate.
“You want to talk with people actually on the ground, doing the work,” he said. “They’ve got the best perspectives and ideas.”
Said Boscariol, who has clashed with current Mayor Drew Dilkens, “It’s so nice to have someone listening to me.”
They didn’t always agree. Boscariol likes that, too.
“I think he’ll bring about debate,” he said.
Katie Stokes, a 30-year-old downtown resident and owner of Blab Media, asked her friends on social media what they think would make downtown better and was surprised to get a message to contact Marchand.
They walked Ouellette Avenue, and she showed him the vacant lot in the 400 block and told him that she’d started a group called Windsor Blight Club to address vacant lots and neglected buildings. She said the market is where people gather, and there should be one all year. She said there should be fun uses for public space on the riverfront, like volleyball courts. Bike Windsor Essex invited Marchand, a frequent cyclist, for a ride around the city. They talked about gaps in bike lanes, protected bike lanes, trying to get from South Windsor to downtown and the need to connect the planned new Gordie Howe International Bridge, which will have bike lanes, to downtown. “He’s not just paying lip service,” said Newton. “It’s clearly an interest for him.”
Marchand has also met with some United Way officials and read the organization’s 2016 report Taking Back Our Neighbourhoods, about the need to invest in struggling core neighbourhoods.
He cited poverty, low education — “there’s a lot of work to do,” he said. Major planks in his campaign are expected to include fixing key infrastructure like roads and sewers, cleaning up downtown, bolstering vulnerable neighbourhoods, attracting higher-quality jobs, keeping young people here, developing an emerging tech sector and improving council transparency. And education, usually the purview of school boards and the provincial government.
He cited statistics showing Windsor has Canada’s highest rate of children, almost one in four, growing up in low-income families. “How do we get our young people off the cycle and in a position to make a positive contribution to the community?” he asked. “Education — that’s really a key piece. There’s a link between educational attainment and poverty.”
It’s not a municipal responsibility, he acknowledged, but “they are members of the community. When you’re the mayor, you’re the mayor for everyone.” Marchand touts his collaboration with labour and has asked the Windsor and District Labour Council for support. But as chamber president, he called the increase in the minimum wage and other labour reforms too much too fast.
“We’ve got concerns,” said council president Brian Hogan.
But many in labour remember Dilkens’ support for contracting out janitors at Huron Lodge. Hogan also believes the city has not been aggressive enough in addressing poverty. Union leaders are concerned, too, about the divide on council and the perceived favouritism for some councillors. “There’s a very high probability we’ll look very hard at endorsing Matt,” Hogan said.
The campaign released its first plank last week: holding one council meeting per quarter outside city hall. It drew blanks from some observers. The city just spent $43.9 million building a new city hall with a council chamber more than double the size of the old one. Meetings are now live-streamed. Dilkens also attended every ward meeting last year. Nevertheless, some people see this as the first real choice for mayor since then-councillors Eddie Francis and Bill Marra ran in 2003. The two highest profile candidates to challenge the incumbent since then were former mayor John Millson in 2014 and former Windsor- St. Clair MP Rick Limoges in 2010. Many felt their hearts weren’t in it.
And appealing to younger, more progressive voters on issues like poverty, core neighbourhoods, cycling and more collaboration with the community could separate him from Dilkens, who is expected to run for re-election.