I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to the over 6,500 Oshawa residents who expressed their confidence in me with their votes in this mayoral race.
Although the outcome wasn’t what we hoped for, together we put forward a progressive, people-centred vision for Oshawa that is still worth working for: truly affordable housing for all, financial transparency in your Council’s decisions, a transformed downtown, and real solutions for the challenges of homelessness, mental health and addictions.
I would also like to congratulate all of last night’s winners as well as the many candidates who ran dedicated, clean campaigns that focused on their respective ideas, visions, and commitments to serving the people of Oshawa.
To the next Oshawa City Council, I extend my best wishes and my hope that you will take seriously the very real challenges in front of you: we need to advance our City’s efforts with actions on real housing affordability where we continue to be behind the conversations happening elsewhere, our City has a staggering $1.1 billion infrastructure deficit that will require political leadership to address, and the crisis of homelessness, mental health, and addictions will not solve itself through anything but the humane, evidence-based social and housing services that lift people out of poverty and trauma.
My gratitude also goes out to the residents, organizations, and businesses of Oshawa’s Ward 4, whom I’ve had the deep honour and privilege of representing over the last 8 years. It has been a rollercoaster of a journey, from my time as a new Councillor and stepping into the role as Vice-Chair of the Community Services Committee, through the challenges and uncertainties of the pandemic, and into my last term on Council where I also served as the Chair of the Corporate and Finance Services Committee. I was never able to do every part of the job to perfection, but I believe I served in my decisions and votes on Council with a commitment to the best interests of the many even when it meant swimming against the tide on Council and in the eyes of an influential few.
Finally, my profoundest thanks to the many campaign team members and volunteers who gave your time to be part of this work. From the long-time stalwarts to the ones I met just in the waning days of the election, I hope you know how proud I am to know you and how humbled I am to share this work with you.
Keep up the good fight – a better Oshawa is possible!
Derek