When I filed my nomination papers, I filed them with the Clerk’s office on the 11th of May. This was a special day. One I picked deliberately as it has a special significance in my life. It’s my mother’s birthday. On May 11th, 2022, the day I filed, it would have been her 64th. Sadly, in 2007, my mother passed away from breast cancer after a long battle with the disease.

It was important to me that I honour her in this way because she was the one who got me into politics at an early age. Before I could even vote, she was dragging me around the city and region from one event to another. Later in life, it was her hard work with the Canadian Cancer Society that served as an inspiration for me to get involved in community service. For these reasons and more, this campaign needed to be run in a way that would make my mother proud of me and what I was doing.

Having decided to put my gender identity (and struggles) with accessibility and institutional barriers, employment, housing, and healthcare, meant that I also was representing an entire community. Because of this and my mother’s memory, if I was going to succeed, I needed to do so with honour and integrity; but if I was going to fail, I needed to fail with dignity. 

In the end, I think I conducted myself, and ran my campaign, with transparency, accessibility, and grace. I think my mother would have been proud. 

The failure to win a seat at the Region is rightfully placed at my feet. I decided to refrain from engaging in retail politics and this may have hurt my reachability and messaging. Besides not wanting to buy votes – and spending tens of thousands of dollars, I simply didn’t have the financial means to compete in that manner. As a recent graduate, as someone that only recently began working (post-graduation), and as a trans woman that struggled to find work for many years – a not-uncommon experience for many trans and genderqueer persons, I had to find other ways to reach the people of St. Catharines.

All in all, I spent approximately two cents per vote for this campaign. That is orders of magnitude less than the top five candidates. This tells me that, had I spent more to get my progressive message of positivity, diversity, inclusivity, and hope out to more people, I might have done even better. Based on just how many amazing people voted for this inclusive message, it’s also reasonable to deduce that there is an absolute appetite for this kind of optimism and acceptance of candidates from marginalized and equity-seeking communities within St. Catharines. 

Despite some people going negative, I have experienced so much love and encouragement over the last 167 days. I really hope new, unique, and beautiful voices from the trans, genderqueer, and gay community consider running in the future. There is absolutely a place for our 2SLGBTQQIA+ community in the City and at the Region. I hope that my failure won’t deter others from running. I hope that from the ashes of my campaign, others will pick up the torch and run – where I fell short.

It’s been a marathon; a long, tough campaign, but an absolute pleasure and honour to address and spotlight some of the really important issues facing our community; from fighting on behalf of unhoused individuals and other equity-seeking people across the city (and region). 

I didn’t quite make it past the finish line, but it has been an experience of a lifetime. I want to thank everyone that worked so hard to get my message of inclusivity and compassion out to the residents of our great community and to everyone that voted for change. 

And while this election may close out this particular chapter of my life, my work is only just beginning. Even in defeat, I plan to earn each one of those 4,994 votes in service to my community, just in another way.

And on a closing note, let’s encourage those that won tonight and ask them to represent every resident and to recognize the many institutional barriers and limitations to accessibility that gender, sexual diverse persons, BIPOC, and those individuals with visible and hidden disabilities face every day. 

Let’s keep our message positive; let’s ask our representatives to be progressive, compassionate, open-minded, and collaborative. 

Someone gave me some really good advice once, unless you have a clever closing, end on a quote. Here’s one from Jodi Picoult: “Heroes didn’t leap tall buildings or stop bullets with an outstretched hand; they didn’t wear boots and capes. They bled, and they bruised, and their superpowers were as simple as listening, or loving. Heroes were ordinary people who knew that even if their own lives were impossibly knotted, they could untangle someone else’s. And maybe that one act could lead someone to rescue you right back.”

A lot can be done when we work together as a community and exercise humility, empathy, and generosity. 

Thank you, St. Catharines.