Yesterday was quite the busy day for many of the candidates for Milton Town Council.
In the first meeting, 32 candidates lined up along several tables to speak about seniors issues in the Town of Milton and what can be done by council to help improve the quality of life for what I called the ‘builders” of our community.
As many candidates have stated over the course of the campaign, my wife and I were first drawn to Milton by its sense of community spirit, openness and warmth from the people in town. That doesn’t happen by accident or overnight.
That sense of community is built by the people who have lived here long before we were Miltonians and many of those people are the seniors in town. They may not have built the town in a bricks and roads sense, but they are the ones who have and continue to bring that sense of community spirit.
A lot of ideas were shared and there was almost unanimous agreement from everyone around the table that our seniors need to be heard and action taken on a lot of their concerns. From the Bruce Street Library to what we can do about long term care and hospital services topped the agenda.
Then after a quick dinner break with the family, I headed back to the seniors activity centre for another all candidates meeting, this time specifically for wards 1, 6, 7 & 8. The turnout was lower than expected but from some of the comments I heard, they liked our “informal” style of speeches. Each candidate was given 10 minutes to talk about themselves, their platform and other issues raised by posters on the Hawthorne Villager forum.
It was great to meet some new people and get an idea of other issues they face outside of the “top” ones most candidates talk about.
I spoke about my platform of responsible financial management, neighbourhood safety and accountability. Other topics discussed ranged from hospital expansion, infrastructure development, Milton Education Village as well as the Derry Green Corporate Business Park.
One of the funniest stories came from Brian Penman, candidate for Regional Council Wards 1, 6, 7 & 8 back when he was first elected as councillor. He got a call from a constituent who reported a horse running around the intersection of Derry Road and 9th Line (you have to imagine what that area looked like 30 years ago…nothing like it is now.) He jumped in his truck and headed down to “solve the problem”.
When he got there he spoke with a police officer who asked “Who are you?” With pride and chest puffed out, Brian mentioned that he was the councillor for the area. The officer then smacked the horse and moved it over to the Milton town limits and said, “Well, now its your problem!” and drove off. LOTS of laughter in the crowd with that story.
All in all, it was a good meeting with some interesting discussion afterwards with voters from all wards and we did get a chance to clarify our stance on certain issues. Many thanks to Steve and Kelly who organized the event, brought snacks for everyone and accepted Food Bank donations as well. My donations went to the Food Bank the day before through Miranda’s daycare so it all went to the same place.
I have some new brochures made and I will be sending them out to as many homes as possible over the next 3 weeks as the election day approaches. Remember that there are also a number of opportunities to vote, if you cant make it on election day so keep that in mind and get out to vote.
I look forward to speaking with more of you and I invite you to ask me any questions at all through this site, or my email mike@mikecluett.ca
Until then, I’ll see you at the doors.