Pa-rum-pa-pum-pum: WinterFest at Canada's Wonderland is back

Yorkregion.com
Dec. 3, 2021

Richmond Hill residents have launched a new group called A Better Richmond Hill (ABRH) to ensure a community-minded candidate becomes the new mayor of Richmond Hill in January 2022.

Disgusted with getting the lowest "democracy score" of Ontario municipalities by the Municipal Democracy Index, ABRH became a reality this November.

"We, as residents, need to be proactive on a variety of issues in our city, starting with endorsing a mayoral candidate or candidates that share our values of common-sense growth, accountability, integrity and transparency," said Pat Pollock, a board member and head of the Mayvern Area Residents Association.

The group has drafted a declaration of principles and a set of FAQs found on their website to help inform fellow residents of ABRH's goals, encourage participation in and education about the city's issues and, most importantly, foster high voter turnout for the mayoral byelection on Jan. 24, 2022.

To accomplish this, the directors of ABRH have taken the bold step to incorporate in order to be a third-party advertiser in the byelection.

"We are a residents' group and welcome fellow residents to join us; only by working together can we affect positive change in our city," said John Li, a board director and president of the Yonge-Bernard Residents Association.

Among its core priorities, ABRH wants to shift the balance of decisions away from developers and their various plan amendments for greater densities and higher towers.

"It is time for our municipal councillors to realize that their electorate, not developers, are their constituents. We will oppose any politician who fails to significantly curtail monster-home residential infilling," said Arnold Schwisberg, a lawyer and a board director.

"Transparency is crucial for a trustworthy council. Nothing is worse than seeing developers ask for exemptions to the Official Plan to increase the occupation density and double the building height, then see certain councillors pass the exemption, only to find out that various family members of that developer each paid the maximum for that councillor's past election campaigns. At minimum, we expect a councillor to declare a conflict of interest and recuse themselves. But that is not happening. No wonder the city is at the bottom of the barrel in the Municipal Democracy Index," said Mike Gurski, chair of ABRH.

With regard to transparency, the group practices what it preaches and has bios on each of its board members working to make Richmond Hill a healthy community on all levels.

Related content
'It is in our hands': Public participation in demand as Richmond Hill hits bottom on democracy ranking

'The position of mayor is not a commodity': Richmond Hill residents urging mayoral byelection

"Focusing on this byelection is only our first step. We intend to be involved with future elections and represent community issues to our council and staff. To do that, we need to hear fellow residents' concerns and priorities for our shared future and to join us," said Li.

For more information about A Better Richmond Hill, visit their website at abetterrichmondhill.ca.