Congratulations to the mayor and our Scarborough councillors.
Greetings, fellow Scarborough residents.
The municipal election is now behind us. SCRO would like to thank all the candidates who put their name forward in our six Scarborough wards to take on the high calling of serving as a city councillor. Scarborough is fortunate to have so many high-calibre, community-minded individuals who answered the call of public service.
SCRO congratulates our returning councillors: Michael Thompson, Paul Ainslie, Nick Mantas, Parthi Kandavel, and Neethan Shan. And SCRO welcomes Shaun Chen to Team Scarborough! We are looking forward to working with all of you to create a more livable, vibrant, and prosperous Scarborough.
SCRO also thanks outgoing councillor Jamaal Myers for his service to Scarborough, not just as a councillor for the past four years, but as a community leader before then. Both SCRO and the Scarborough Business Association had the good fortune to have Jamaal on our leadership teams before 2022. We are grateful for Jamaal’s deep commitment to Scarborough over many years.
And of course, SCRO congratulates Mayor Olivia Chow. We look forward to working with the mayor to advance important Scarborough initiatives during the upcoming term of Council.
In praise of our residents’ associations.
I want to congratulate our residents’ associations for their terrific work during this election season.
Residents’ associations are the glue that binds a community together. They keep their finger on the pulse of local issues. They communicate with our politicians on behalf of their communities. They hold town halls. They can speak truth to power in a way that organizations which are beholden to public funding can’t. They are the town square of local politics. Some host local events that bring neighbours together.
Residents’ associations play an important but understated role in our civic life.
We certainly saw that during this election. All across Scarborough, our residents’ associations hosted all-candidates meetings, giving voters an opportunity to meet with candidates in respectful environments and providing “one-stop-shopping” for our voters. They were good for our candidates too, by providing them with opportunities to meet voters in environments that promote dialogue, civility, and serious engagement. Frankly, there’s no better environment for candidates to connect with civic-minded residents who are highly likely to vote and who are open to persuasion. It’s grassroots democracy at its finest.
We are deeply grateful to our all-volunteer, non-partisan residents’ associations for providing these candidate forums. And our candidates can be grateful that these civic-minded volunteers provide respectful opportunities for candidates to engage with local communities … and with each other.
Elections are rivalries, of course, but they should also be respectful rivalries. We all want a better, more prosperous, and a more livable Scarborough. Our candidates may have different ideas on how we should get there, which is fine. The forums hosted by our residents’ associations provide respectful public squares for our candidates to engage in a contest of ideas and, in so doing, perhaps learn a thing or two from each other. Because no one candidate has a monopoly on the best ideas.
Scarborough is grateful to our residents’ associations for providing these important forums for civic engagement.
Let’s ensure that our residents’ associations continue to thrive.
These days, our residents’ associations operate in more challenging environments than they used to, thanks to social media and changing demographics.
Social media. Online communities create a new kind of public square, but social media often promotes “groupthink” … high social cohesion inside the bubble but intolerance for those outside of it. Residents’ associations, on the other hand, promote social cohesion by bringing together people who share common geography but may not always think alike. Technology has been embraced by our residents’ associations too, of course. But residents’ associations recognize that, ultimately, people need to come together in person to really understand each other and to promote social cohesion at a neighbourhood level.
Changing demographics. We have many different cultures living under our Scarborough roof and it’s human nature for our newcomers to congregate with others from their society of origin for support while they settle into a new life here. Residents’ associations that host community events can help ease that transition by breaking down barriers between cultural communities so we all have an enhanced sense of belonging with each other.
So let’s celebrate the terrific work of our residents’ associations! If you live in a community that is fortunate enough to have one … get involved! Make new friends and feel an enhanced sense of civic pride. You’ll feel more connected to your local community and to Scarborough as a whole, the place we have all chosen to call home.
Larry Whatmore
President
Scarborough Community Renewal Organization https://www.scro.ca
Scarborough Walk of Fame https://scarboroughwalkoffame.com/ president@scro.ca
(416) 562-2101
