#474 Busy parent/renter’s lived experience?

 

I know you don’t have time to read committee minutes. 

You’re trying to get dinner on the table, help with homework, and figure out how to absorb the latest rent increase notice that showed up in your inbox. Maybe you’re watching the OC Transpo tracker, praying the bus isn’t 15 minutes late *again* because you have to pick up your child from daycare before the late fees kick in.

When I talk about "municipal accountability," I know it sounds like wonk-speak. But here is the blunt truth: **Your rising rent and your chaotic commute are symptoms of the exact same disease—a City Hall that is financially sloppy and structurally complacent.**

Let me connect the dots for you, because your incumbent King won't.

**1. The Rent Connection (It’s not just landlords)**

When the City blows its budget on cost overruns (think LRT maintenance, endless consultant reports, and deferred infrastructure fixes), they don't absorb that loss. They raise property taxes. And when property taxes go up, your landlord’s operating costs go up. Guess who pays for that? **You do.** 

I have poured over the Auditor General’s findings and the committee votes that your current councillor has missed or waved through. When we fail to scrutinize city liabilities—when we wave through bloated contracts without real oversight—we are signing a permission slip for your landlord to hike your rent again next year. I am running to stop the financial bleeding at the source, so we aren't squeezing tenants to pay for administrative failures.

**2. The Parent’s Time Crunch (The "Lost Hour")**

I wrote recently about the Manor Park sidewalk deferral—a classic example of a local fix being delayed by endless bureaucratic ping-pong. But let’s talk about transit, because that’s where parents feel it most acutely.

We have a city council that treats transit oversight as a chore. Committee attendance slips, and nobody demands real accountability from OC Transpo management. The result? Unreliable headways, phantom buses, and commutes that take twice as long. For a busy parent, that "lost hour" isn't just annoying—it’s the hour you lost with your toddler, or the hour that forced you to pay for an extra hour of after-school care. 

**What I would do differently (immediately):**

I am not a career politician. I have zero interest in protecting the status quo to keep my seat. Here is my promise to the parents and renters of this ward:

- **I will use my one-term commitment to audit the fat.** I will vote against budget items that don't directly improve daily livability. If it doesn't get your bus moving or your pothole filled, it doesn't get my vote.

- **I will make oversight my primary job.** Not photo-ops. I will be the thorn in the side of city staff who think they can slide cost overruns past council without a fight. Every dollar slaved in bureaucratic waste is a dollar we don't have to extract from tenants.

- **I will prioritize 'reliability' over 'ribbon-cuttings'.** We don't need flashy new studies; we need the buses to show up on time so you can get home to your family.

I know you are exhausted. I know you don't have the spare 45 minutes to read the agendas I read. 

But here is my ask: **Vote like your time and your money matter—because they do.** If you are tired of paying more and getting less, I am your candidate. Not because I have all the answers, but because I am the only one willing to admit the system is rigged for incumbents—and I refuse to play that game.

Let’s stop the waste. Let’s get you home on time.