CAMPAIGN NEWS

Written by: Dakota Cherry, Candidate for Ward 5, Guelph City Council Reconciliation in Guelph means telling the truth about this City’s past and present. Many people do not fully know or understand the extent of violence, displacement and dispossession that Indigenous Peoples have suffered and how it continues to impact people and families today: While Indigenous People’s have a relatively small population in Guelph, they are disproportionately represented among people experi

By: Dakota Cherry At the door, when folks read “food security” on my platform leaflet, they’re immediately drawn into conversations about food banks, soup kitchens, and food drives. While these are fantastic initiatives, they are not necessarily food security. Food security is about building more resilient, self-sustaining food systems that are less dependent on volatile world markets... and volatile political leaders. As we’re now seeing with increasing tariffs on billions o

In the 2022 election, Guelph saw only 28% of eligible voters cast their ballots, according to guelph.ca. This means that some candidates were elected with support from just 14% + 1 of the population. Voter turnout, and democratic engagement as a whole, is therefore deeply suffering and in need of reform. My original stance was that we need to reduce our two part-time councillor model per ward to one full-time councillor. But after spending the last 6 months knocking on doors

The federal government recently announced its first National Food Security Strategy (the "Strategy"), backed by more than $3 billion in investments as well as clear metrics to measure its impact. Municipalities have an important role to play in this plan and, as a result, significant opportunities to benefit. For example, through the Strategy's proposed establishment of 10 regional food hubs by 2028, municipalities will have the opportunity to consolidate harvests from small

Written by: Dakota Cherry, Candidate for Ward 5, Guelph City Council It is painfully clear that the current "build-more" approach to the housing crisis alone has not made housing more affordable in Guelph - or at least not at the pace that is needed. We cannot wait for the market to fix this problem but instead need immediate government supports. Young people continue to be priced out of the housing market, while many existing homeowners struggle with rising property taxes an

By: Dakota Cherry Non-profit, community-run grocery stores are not a "socialist concept", but rather a proven and effective way that municipalities can tackle rising food prices and reclaim some control over our local food system. In fact, Guelph has had a non-profit grocery store for 10 years now, called The Seed, which has operated without any stable, long-term funding from the City it feeds. If looking for larger-scale, long-standing examples, one of the best can be found