Earl Taylor lost out by the slimmest of margins in the 2022 municipal vote. Tara McCaulley won the final seat on council by five votes over Taylor.
After McCaulley stepped away from council early last year, Taylor was appointed to fill the vacant seat.
So this time around he is seeking to win a seat in the council chamber, and his campaign team so far has knocked on thousands of doors.
“Going door to door was very, very interesting. I talked to as many people as I could. Of course, you don’t get to talk to everybody, and you don’t get to every door in the city, but I did a fairly substantial mailing and then hit about 4,000 doors to try to get people to understand who I was, who I am, what I’m running for.”
We asked Taylor for the takeaways from that effort.
However, Taylor feels there are no outstanding major issues, as has been the case in several elections going back 20 years.
Taylor stressed, “We need to support them. So that was definitely an issue.”
As for his priority considerations, Taylor notes that this is where he is a little bit different.
Taylor continued, “So I have nothing in my books that I am going to raise as a personal issue. I’m not running for me. I’m running for you. I’m running for the constituents, for the electors.”
He adds, “My wife Nancy and I have travelled to many other towns and villages and cities, just to look at what they’re doing and how they’re making things work. But, of course, as you’re driving around the city, you say, oh, my gosh, they’ve done speed bumps on this road. Maybe that’s not a bad idea that we should be thinking about on some of the roads, like Southgate Parkway was a concern that was brought up to me.”
Which looped the conversation around to roundabouts.
“I don’t know what the official count now is, but there are a lot of roundabouts for sure. And the people actually did tell me while I was out and about that they like roundabouts. Keep them going. They’d rather keep moving, like going through a drive-thru. You don’t stop at just one window and order and pick up your food. You stop at like three windows by the time you’re going around just to keep yourself moving. And that’s what roundabouts are meant to do. Keep the flow going, keep people happy.”
While in some past municipal elections, there was a strong desire to clean house and start with a fresh look on council, Taylor is not of that opinion.
Taylor continued with that thought.
“We get our council agendas on the Wednesday before the Monday meeting, and people think, okay, you just show up. But I was also a member of the London St. Thomas Association of Realtors and president in 2019. And our feeling was, you never want to show up and open your brown envelope at the table. So there’s a lot of work that goes on.
“You just don’t understand how many hours you’re working Friday night, Saturday, Sundays, whatever, trying to go through the paperwork and understanding what the concerns are, talking to some of the managers in the departments if you’ve got questions for them. And it is a lot of work.
“I think it’s more than what I anticipated. I never really understood the intricacies of what it takes to get something from point A to point B. It’s a lot of work and a lot of people are involved. And we got some phenomenal staff at city hall that I’ve had the chance to work with. You need the experience. You need somebody that understands what’s going on, jumping into it with both feet and not knowing.”
With the assumption the majority of councillors will return following Monday’s vote, Taylor feels the new council needs to continue to follow the city’s Strategic Plan.
“The city is moving along quite smoothly as far as I’m concerned. Yeah, there are things that can be changed for sure, but we need to continue what we’re doing. Continue to attract businesses, continue to build houses that are affordable, continue to find ways to move people throughout the city. The transit system needs an upgrade. And I’m not sure if you have heard, but just comparing us to Woodstock, for example, Woodstock spends a million dollars more on public transit than we do. So those things are very important.”
As is casting your vote, stressed Taylor.
He concluded on this encouraging note.
“Plus there are online voting assistance centres where, if you don’t have a computer, or are having trouble getting online, go to those locations. There’s one at the mall on Saturday, and then, of course, at the library on voting day, the 26th. And somebody is there to help you. Sit down at a laptop or a computer and boom, done.”
Written by Ian McCallum
