Hello everyone and thank you for joining us! Please introduce yourself in the chat and tell us where you are joining from. And we would love to hear about a local leader from your community that you admire. Tell us why you think they are making a difference and what the rest of us can learn from them.

Welcome everyone. We look forward to the time with you. Thank you panelists for giving of your time.

The Jean Collective, a women in politics initiative in Lambton County is pleased to be here. Thanks so much for organizing this!

We are recording the session tonight and will have it posted to MunicipalCampaignSchool.ca by this weekend!

Thank you campaign school organizers.

Hello Marva! So glad this is being recorded for future review!

I’m looking into it!

Hello Morgan. Glad you are on.

can you repeat the websites or type them here please

www.municipalcampaignschool.ca

Our panelist bios can be found at MunicipalCampaignSchool.ca

Learn more about the great Marva Wisdom at https://www.marvawisdom.com/

Some of Marva’s great work: https://www.environicsinstitute.org/projects/project-details/black-experience-project-in-the-gta

thank you Curt!

As we start hearing from our panel, feel free to add questions that come to mind in our Q&A

Hi Aisha!!! Thanks for doing this!

I’m totally here for vulnerability and how we normalize that

These are great questions! Keep them coming!!

if you have a question please submit it into the Q&A box. we'll go through those after the moderated portion. thank you!

To Kate- did you use social media to campaign for a local Council?

At a Municipal level, people are actually impressed that you knock on their door.

Hey Leanne!!! Hoping we can connect sometime soon ... very excited for the Race to Zero motion!

this may have been answered but my wifi keeps cutting out on me...what is the time commitment involved in being on town councel?

How can we incite more women to run?

How can people who want to support candidates get involved? Where do we start?

I was a city councillor for 9 years & worked full time. I handled both with 2 sons.

municipalities have very low limits for spending on elections ... I believe I saw Guelph is $5,000 for Councillors

I too worked full time and owned a small business, had a family and was and am still able to manage being a Councillor. It can be done! There is quite a bit of reading and you are also put on committees as well as regular Council meetings.

Posted in the Q&A, but reposting here: Do you think that the culture of door to door canvassing is prohibitive for disabled candidates? What would you recommend for someone who is not going to be able to physically do that?

so you have your counsel meeting once a month and committees, and some reading to do? Is that everything?

During my first Municipal election, I gave businesses that contributed to my campaign, recognition on my brochure that I distributed. The donation rules have changed so be sure you understand them.

2 council meetings per month; 2-3 committee meetings that may meet monthly or less; reading agendas; in small towns there is also supporting the community organizations and their events. If you are Mayor or Deputy Mayor in a lower tier municipality, you will then have County meetings and their committees and agendas

Lisa: talk to current councilors. Every area is different. We have 2 regular Council meetings a month and I personally have 3-4 other committee meetings a month. See Barbaras comments too!

thank you, what is a lower tiered municipality?

I am full-time teacher and a County Councillor, but you MUST have a supportive employer b/c most meetings will take place during the traditional work day.

Re: Volunteers: Reassure them that do not have to speak about policy…they are there, knocking on doors/putting up signs etc. in support of you and your character as a quality choice for elected office.

@Lisa... example of two-tier is Halton Region is upper tier and Burlington, Oakville, Milton and Halton Hills are lower tier

Our township (St. Clair) is a lower tiered municipality in Lambton County which is the upper tier. Different responsibilities for each tier to look after. Google it and there is information about them.

hmm ok thank you

Well said Marva!!!!

Some examples of other community organizations that you might be a City representative on the Boards can be the Police Services Board, Non Profit Housing Corporations, Library Boards, Community Foundations. Lots of opportunities to link with the community and also needs to be acknowledged as a time commitment.

Reading this book right now: Just Not That Likeable, The Price Women Pay for Gender Inequality https://www.madamepremier.com/products/just-not-that-likeable

You have done a great job with this session. I love that more women are interested and Wow! 160 people on line! That is fabulous! It may interest you to know that we have several interviews with former politicians etc and current ones on our website that you may be interested in www.thejeancollective.ca. Look for the video page. The link is also on campaign school.ca

If anyone has experience campaigning with disability, connect. I really want to know more. Kmacnaughton@pecounty.on.ca

Thank you to all the panellists! And thank you Marva and everyone from Municipal School! Looking forward to being able to review the recording as I was working a dispatch job (yeah gig work) and missed so much of the discussion

For francophone women in Ontario who need support and resources to run, contact us https://leadershipfemininpr.ca/politique-au-feminin/

Thank you everyone for joining and participating in this important conversation!The work continues and we look forward to the growth of this movement/campaign school!Thank you to Marva, Karen, Elizabeth, Aisha, and Kate. This has been a dream come true!Kate Leatherabrrow

I agree that the Municipal level is the best level to get introduced to being in politics.

Thanks to everyone for joining us tonight. We will be posting a copy of tonights video at MunicipalCampaignSchool.ca by Friday. Thanks for sharing it with your network and encouraging them to fill in the contact form. We will be back in touch about next steps later in early 2022!

Know a woman who would make a great councillor. Ask her to run and volunteer to help her campaign.

Was asked

was asked

And don't stop asking her to run. Ask again. and again.

My brother asked me to run for School Board Trustee…I thank him!

I was recruited by the MP who was not running in the next election.

I was asked. Over the course of about 5 years. By a variety of people.

@Aisha, did you get your sister involved?

It was my daughter that made the decision on her own after recognizing that her voice “does matter"

NICE!!!

I decided on my own to run as a Municipal Councilor but I was also encouraged by another long standing female Councilor. The Mayor at the time was very supportive too.

I was trying to recruit others to run. It only worked on one or two because it was perceived as a thankless job with garbage pay. When there were only four women running in a field of close to 40, I figured I better try or it would be a council of 13 men and one woman - the one incumbent.

Thank you!

Thank-you! This was wonderful.

Thank you everyone - have a lovely evening!

Thank you!