I love my City, especially the Flamborough and Dundas communities our family has called home for the last 42 years.
Ted’s priorities as Councillor:
Truth, Trust and Transparency
When you fail, out of fear, to share an inconvenient truth, you destroy trust, feed cynicism and deny the opportunity to celebrate things that are positive about our city. No single issue highlights this more forcefully than the spill of over 24 billion liters of untreated human waste into Chedoke Creek. There was nothing deliberate about the spill but there was about the coverup. Simply put, the Council's silence undermined their credibility and shattered pubic trust.
Agro-food Industry
Hamilton’s Agri-food industry is worth more than $2 billion. Across Ontario, agriculture is the largest single contributor to Ontario’s GDP, employing more than 814,000 people. The ability of Ontario farmers to consistently produce the most nutritious, best tasting and safest to consume food in the world is a major blessing. We must create conditions that help local farms and agribusiness thrive, meet local food needs and grow. We’ll do this by protecting farmland, source water, green space, heritage lands and our farms
Transit
Hamilton’s Light Rail Transit (LRT) will drive significant long-term change to the city. The $3.4 billion in federal/provincial funding, with protection against cost over-runs will simultaneously enhance transit, while facilitating the replacement of millions of dollars in city infrastructure during construction. The quest for safer streets couples nicely with the desire of cyclists to access a web of protected, continuous bike lanes safely linked together. The city needs to requires a comprehensive cycling policy and physical barriers protecting bike lanes.
Infrastructure
Many issues facing municipalities have to do with the limited financial capacity to meet current and emerging local needs. We need to work smartly and together with our Federal and Provincial governments to develop a more reasonable set of financial arrangements, in order to meet our growing infrastructure needs.
Public Service Enhancements
The creation of a joint Police & Fire compound in Waterdown is essential. Our community deserves more fulsome police and public safety services. This is a project that will remain a priority for me throughout my term as Councillor, as the residents of Ward 15 deserve more robust public service delivery.
Affordable Housing
In Hamilton, many have difficulty accessing decent housing at an affordable cost. Our city’s well documented ‘Code Red’ challenge clearly highlights the debilitating impact on health, education and income for those inadequately housed. The lack of decent, affordable housing is a major contributor to systemic inequity.
Ted was born and raised in Hamilton. In the early 80's, Ted and his wife Dr. Barb, a Carlisle family physician, made the decision to live, work and raise their family in Flamborough-Waterdown-Carlisle. Ted served two terms as Mayor of the Town of Flamborough before completing five terms as MPP.
Ted served in four Ontario Cabinet portfolios as Minister of Government and Consumer Services, Agriculture, Food & Rural Affairs, Community & Social Services, and Municipal Affairs and Housing.
A lifetime community volunteer, Ted is a past President of both the Hamilton-Burlington YMCA and the Hamilton Wentworth Lung Association. He chaired the Mental Health Association's Education Committee and sat on the Joseph Brant Hospital Board, the Art Gallery of Hamilton Council of Governors and the Routes Youth Services Board.
A graduate of Mohawk College, McMaster and Wilfrid Laurier Universities, Ted has received Lifetime Achievement recognition from all three institutions. He's also received the Queen's Silver and Gold medals for community service. Ted worked as Executive Director of the Burlington Social Planning Council, as Chair of Part-time Studies at Mohawk College and as the Mission and Stewardship Officer for the United Church - Hamilton Conference. Later as a local business leader, Ted owned and operated the award-winning CHAPTERS Bookstore in Waterdown, served as Vice President of the Flamborough Chamber of Commerce and Chair of the Waterdown BIA.