On October 15 we will need to vote. We will need to decide who is going to run our cities for the next 4 years. As usual, our society at the vote is run on issues and of course, they are plenty of them. Housing depending on who you are could be at the top of the list. Housing has varying issues from rent to homeownership from just having a safe place to lay our heads at night to the mental health issues that are attached to how to even define what a home looks like to you. Our elected officials can not just simply pick and choose through these issues and decide who is worthy and who should be left behind. Something like mental health at a Municipal Level may not have a direct effect but could provide the basis for how the Provincial Level handles the issues. Our Municipal Officials can set the tone for funding and programs that will be set up in our community. Transit for and travel through our cities is another issue. We all need to get to work and then find ways to money to bills. Buy groceries fill gas tanks and ride buses. Leaving a lot of talk on the table about Translink, extended transit lines and what communities to give more buses and increase systems. This issue alone has many who want to be Mayor of Surrey BC talking with the current Mayor Doug telling stories about how he has tackled the problem and will extend Skytrain past King George into Langley City BC. Did he really take the Mayor task force to Ottawa to find Federal Funding for the project? Yes, a Mayor for the area did get the project to be seen by the Federal Government and did win support for the Skytrain extension. Doug McCallum was just along for the ride. The Mayor of Langley City who was in her first term spoke the loudest and the strong for the project. She advocated for her because loves her city and wants the best for her people. Jinny Sims on the same issue want to tear up the deal and send Skytrain to south Surrey because that is where the people are who need transit the most. Here is what we need to decide when we go to vote what is the 3rd choice or send them back to the planning board and come up with a plan that will increase transit to South Surrey and increase the Skytrain to Langley City. If we find officials that are willing to take small less grand measures we can find solutions that are sustainable for generations they come. We need to stop voting in “Glory Hounds” and “Big Sponsor Providers.” We need simple workable answers that provide results today.
We have been facing the same issues for years and in some cases for decades with very little progress. We have the power of election on our side and we can use that same power to demand results. Let’s start telling those that we are voting to fix what is broken with slow and sustainable measures. We keep hearing promises to fix the issues with broad stroke programs and Billions of dollars in funding for things that just never get started. Meanwhile, our taxes go up and our bills are becoming more and more inflated with a promise of relief and social issues to be fixed. What we are seeing are Mayors that go out on ego trips with policing experiments that are not needed when training is needed to help people. We see arrests and bulldozers tear apart tents. Let’s provide people with place to live something small that they can call their own a place where their stuff is safe and not just tossed away because someone says it is garbage. Let’s find a real solution so we can go to work in an affordable manner without high parking prices and give our whole pay cheque to the gas station up the street who for the record is not the one banking the high profits. Our local businesses are suffering and no one seems to want to help that. We need to see real education programs that help our children develop and start to think critically about new ideas for our community most of the platforms we see are short-sighted and only look four down until the next election comes. We need the local and municipal governments to start looking for a simple solution that can be built on over the next 100 years.
Housing, food and education are some of the critical issues in our community and should be addressed. Addressing the issues is means bring means turning privileges into rights and limiting new privileges from popping out. We need to ensure equality comes first. When we cast a vote we have to make sure equality comes and that those with privilege share programs that help us find housing and educate our communities.
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