Arlene Vanderbeek is our new Councillor, again, in something of a landslide. She picked up around 44% of the vote for which 44% of Dundas turned out. That works out to roughly 19% of all eligible voters.
Greg Van Geffen is our new public trustee and I am very glad. He seems like a great guy. At least one of my votes stuck!
Me? I came in fifth with almost 400 votes or 5% of votes cast which means the City will refund my nomination money. Sweet!
It was a tremendous amount of work and I don't have a single regret. I got to see Dundas from a completely new perspective and I made a ton of friends that I wouldn't have otherwise. I made a plan and stuck to it. I raised a lot of important issues along the way and I know people were listening.
It takes a lot of guts to put yourself out there and people really do recognize the effort. Just today I walked down to the Metro and had people congratulate me in the street for running. That sort of thing really puts a spring in your step.
Would I do anything differently next time? Absolutely! Clearly signs are now a thing in Dundas so that needs budgeting. I would also need to budget for a mail drop or two. Delivering my cards by hand was a lot of fun but it does limit coverage.
Would either of those things have made a difference this time around? Nope! I'm pretty pleased with what an unknown guy was able to achieve with unpopular ideas and a relatively tiny budget!
My campaign has lit a fire in me that won't soon be extinguished. I'm really excited to get involved at Central once the boy starts there next year and I am really looking forward to working with (and hopefully on) the new Community Council.
Remember those new shoes from my first post? They're absolutely done.
Poor things |