Hamilton candidates set a new bar for community engagement. I hope that's a sign of what's to come

This column is an opinion by Rain Hye, a former student trustee. It is part of a special municipal election project by CBC Hamilton, featuring voices from the community. Find all our election coverage here. 

I can't remember the last time this many activists, community organizers and changemakers were running in an election. 

Unlike several other municipalities in Ontario, where some candidates have no competition whatsoever, this year Hamilton has seen many new candidates sign up for the task of running for office, giving the city the chance it deserves to have truly representational elected leadership. 

It's no secret that the past couple years have been hard on all of us. The pandemic has only intensified Hamilton's issues, from the housing crisis that has kept upwards of 6,000 people on the waitlist for affordable housing and seen hundreds of people displaced during violent encampment teardowns, to growing food insecurity during the pandemic, to the recent shortage of accessible cabs and transport, to hospital and ER staff shortages. The list goes on. 

The majority of our councillors are not rooted in communities that have borne the brunt of the multiple crises this city is facing. Hamilton has also had a problem of representation in leadership for its entire history — every single one of its mayors has been a white man.

And the issue isn't only one of diverse representation, it's that we haven't had much community-oriented leadership. In my 18 years of being a Hamiltonian, very few elected leaders have taken the time to engage with the communities I am a part of meaningfully. 

Now, with six councillors and the mayor retiring, we know change is inevitable.

The trustee example

The level of creativity, community engagement and commitment used to reach voters this year has been inspiring to watch. 

Several new candidates are trying to engage their communities in ways that haven't been done before. Ward 14 council candidate Kojo Damptey organized neighbourhood "jams," where he set up in different parks across the ward to engage residents in their neighbourhoods, AMAs (Ask Me Anythings) on Reddit, where he answers constituents' questions live, community bike rides to show Ward 14 residents safe cycling paths, and the list continues. 

Municipal elections perpetually see low voter turnout, in part due to the lack of awareness and education around the roles and responsibilities carried out by councillors and, especially, school board trustees. New candidates have been leading the way in terms of educating the public about the importance of municipal politics and the trustee role in particular.

For instance, trustee candidates Sabreina Dahab (Ward 2) and Ahona Mehdi (wards 8 & 14) released a series of live streams called "Dream. Inform. Reimagine.," where they talked with each other, other candidates and community builders about what trustees do, how their roles are connected to councillors, and resisting privatization in education. In Hamilton, we don't usually see lawn signs for trustee candidates. This year, they can be seen across many wards. 

These candidates are setting a new standard for how the community can expect to engage with trustees. Despite not yet being elected, these two have also shown up for parents and students in meetings with the board and schools, where currently elected trustees have not, such as in meetings to address racism. And because they themselves are young people, they've been centring youth voices in their policy-making — something that seems like it would be common practice for a school board trustee, and yet is not. 

New to political office but not to leadership

There are people running who have never been elected officials before. That doesn't mean they don't understand the political game, though. These are young people, civic leaders and activists across a range of issues, who have all dealt with the politics of this city in one way or another. Many have been outspoken on issues that have been overlooked by many current councillors, from the environmental crisis, housing, anti-racism, policing, queer/trans resources, youth programming, public space and parks, accessibility, and so on, long before their campaigns began. 

Council candidates Cameron Kroetsch (Ward 2), Craig Cassar (Ward 12), Alex Wilson (Ward 13), and school board candidate Graeme Noble (Ward 15) are among those with histories of community advocacy. All of them (as well as Mehdi, Dahab, Damptey and several others) were involved in the Arts for All: Artasia Town Hall event, run by the charitable arm of the Hamilton Conservatory for the Arts. The town halls were held during the Supercrawl street festival in September, where candidates engaged with youth in Hamilton about a variety of issues. 

For as long as I've been an active political citizen (which is more than five years), Hamilton's council has had limits to how it engaged with the community.

Remember when Mayor Fred Eisenberger wouldn't come talk to the activists who were sitting outside city hall calling for free housing for two weeks? Or when now-outgoing Coun. Lloyd Ferguson derailed a conversation about bike infrastructure and gender disparities amongst Hamilton cyclists by suggesting that women don't bike as much as men because they wear sundresses in the summer? Or when outgoing school trustee Carole Paikin Miller was sanctioned and asked to resign by a third-party investigator due to allegations of rampant racism and instead claimed she was the "least racist person" she knew? 

Those examples paint the picture of leaders who are not willing to engage with residents respectfully, or with the integrity that we should all expect from elected officials. 

Many of the new candidates are not only deeply embedded in their communities, they are leaders within them. They are people who are changing what it means and looks like to run an electoral campaign. 

If we want meaningful change in this city, maybe it's time we elected people who have been pushing for it for years and whose ways of engaging with their communities already tell us they represent something new.