Two more candidates join race for vacant Ward 7 seat
A long-rumoured NDP candidate-of-choice has jumped into the Ward 7 byelection with a few days to go before nominations close.
Farah El-hajj, 25, who does constituency work in Windsor West for MP Brian Masse as well as MPP Lisa Gretzky, announced her candidacy for the Forest Glade/east Riverside ward at a news conference outside city hall on Tuesday morning. She said helping constituents resolve their federal and provincial issues has been satisfying and reaffirmed her commitment to public service.
“It makes me want to do more of it,” she said.
“I want to continue this work, by being elected as the councilwoman for Ward 7, to ensure residents continue to get the services they need and the improvements they require, while ensuring their taxes are spent on their priorities in an accountable, transparent and responsible way.”
El-hajj, who attended Dougall elementary, Kennedy high school and the University of Windsor where she earned a political science degree and was elected four times to student government, doesn’t live in Ward 7. She lives in Ward 10, but said she worked about three years as a personal banker at a credit union in Ward 7, where she talked with many residents and learned their concerns and issues.
“Many of them are friends and family now.”
Hopefully if she’s elected, she’ll move to Ward 7, she said.
Asked whether she views the Ward 7 seat as a stepping stone to higher political office, she said Ward 7 is where she wants to be right now. “What the future holds I don’t know.”
El-hajj and Albert Saba, a 51-year-old employment counsellor and college professor, are the latest to join the growing field in the ward, which was vacated in late 2019 following the election of Coun. Irek Kusmierczyk to Parliament. Saba ran in the ward in 2018, coming last with six per cent of the vote.
“It was my first time to get out and I got some votes and for me it was a win,” Saba said of his 2018 results. He said he lives in the ward and he’s running again because the issues he campaigned on remain issues in 2020.
He has seven issues he wants to address as a city councillor, including:
■ Making housing more affordable;
■ Creating jobs and diversifying the economy;
■ Improving infrastructure, including roads, parks and anti- flood measures;
■ Addressing safety and security, including reducing crime and curbing bad driving;
■ Improving transit so a student in Ward 7 doesn’t spend three hours a day getting to and from university or college;
■ Improving senior and mental health care;
■ And making libraries more of a community gathering place.
“Some people may say, ‘Oh Albert, the proposals you bring are costly,’ ” said Saba. “Yes, but we have to spend in order to save.”
The byelection is April 27, with advanced voting set for Friday, April 17, and Saturday, April 18, at Forest Glade Arena. Nominations close Friday at 2 p.m. Nine people are running so far.
El-hajj said the local housing shortage is an issue that has personally affected her and her husband Mohamad Mourad. “This issue is very close to my heart,” she said, adding that council must ensure that investment in new sustainable housing developments continue to happen.
“I will be door-knocking and coming to a neighbourhood near you to listen, to understand and hopefully earn your support,” she said in a prepared statement.
Among the issues she wants to address in Ward 7 are:
Protecting homes from flooding; ■ Improving the community’s livability; ■
And enhancing the services and ■ infrastructure people use every day. For example, she said, she’ll push for renewal of the Forest Glade library branch, maintenance of the Blue Heron pedestrian bridge, protecting and expanding Little River Corridor Park, enhancing all Ward 7 parks and traffic calming measures.
“We need to work together to ensure the growth in the ward benefits everyone,” said El-hajj, who said she’s receiving endorsements from individuals and organizations, including labour unions.
The seven previously registered candidates are: Howard Weeks, There se Papineau, Ernie Lamont, Michael Malott, Greg Lemay, Barbara Holland and Igor Dzaic.