October 14, 2022

The municipal elections are coming, and candidates want your vote. Almost every day, you hear from them. They send you emails, leave telephone messages, and fill your mailbox with flyers. But it’s not enough to ask for your vote. They have to earn it. You need to know what they will do to make your city a place you want to live.

A healthy community must meet the needs of older adults. Care Watch advocates for the policies and services that keep older Ontarians in their homes and communities and out of institutions. So we began our municipal election campaign by writing to candidates for mayor in cities throughout Ontario. We wanted to know about their vision for a healthy community and how they would work toward that vision.

What will a candidate do to make your city a place you want to live?

How will a candidate promote the services that keep older adults at home and out of institutions?

We asked them:

• What will you do to help older adults remain safe, independent, and productive?
• How will you support public health, particularly for older residents?
• How will you promote affordable housing?
• How will you promote high quality home and community care delivered by not-for-profit community-based organizations?
• How will you advocate to the provincial government for wage equality so that workers providing home care and community supports are paid as much as those in hospitals and long-term care homes?

We have received some thoughtful replies, which you can read here.

These questions are a beginning. You can use them to learn which candidates will foster healthy communities for older adults and for all Ontarians. You can ask them of local candidates for city councillor as well as for mayor.

What can you do?

• Get ready to vote. You can find more information from Settlement.Org’s “Guide to Voting in your Municipal Election“
• Think about what you need to know before you decide. Add your questions to ours and ask them whenever you can
• Check our website for some information about the elections and for what candidates have been telling us.

Ask, think, and then vote!