Vail discusses key points of his platform, including avoiding over-intensification, being a collaborative member of the community and building transparency
The Silhouette sat down with Ward 1 city councillor candidate John Vail to reflect on his current campaign and the most pressing issues for the upcoming election.
Vail has previously run for city councillor and for the Hamilton Centre seat in the provincial campaign under the Conservative Party in 2014. He has also been a chartered accountant and is now the small business owner of Real Estate Strategy Ltd.
In the Ward 1 candidate debate on Sept. 13, Vail pledged he would work on measures to avoid congestion from over-intensification, meaning re-developing the ward could only happen at the same residential and business density that currently exists.
“Rapid development [means] that people are up in arms now in Ward 1 that their way of life is being undermined with intensification,” explained Vail.
"Rapid development [means] that people are up in arms now in Ward 1 that their way of life is being undermined with intensification."
John Vail, Ward 1 City Councillor candidate
Vail also spoke about the importance of striking a balance between creating businesses, so students have opportunities to stay in Hamilton and residents can also continue from lifelong learning that he and his family have benefited from at McMaster University.
If elected City Councillor for Ward 1, Vail stated he would be a collaborative member of the community and a liaison between McMaster students and Hamilton residents.
Vail discussed about the importance of transparency and trust and the role these would play in his work, should he be elected. He referenced the 2014 Sewergate incident, where a sewer grate accidentally left open began to leak sewage in the Chedoke Creek for the next four years, and he criticized his opponent, incumbent city councillor Maureen Wilson, on how the issue was handled in terms of public transparency.
Wilson pushed for the issue to go public after learning about the spillage but it was first broken by The Spectator. The sewage gate was mistakenly left open from 2014 to 2018, spilling 24 billion litres of sewage, and was left open before Wilson was elected as Ward 1 city councillor in 2018.
“When we look at the city council right now, the viewpoint of the public that I've talked to is that it is somewhat dysfunctional and part of the reason for being dysfunctional is the existing councillor is seen as seen by some as a disruptive figure. So, we're looking at more of a collaborative approach,” said Vail.
Finally, Vail emphasized the duty he believes each citizen has, including students, to go out and vote.
“Democracy won't work unless people vote. And it’s got to start early in life, and just because they’re students is no excuse not to vote . . . Municipal is closest to the everyday needs of all of us,” said Vail.
"Democracy won't work unless people vote. And it’s got to start early in life, and just because they’re students is no excuse not to vote . . . Municipal is closest to the everyday needs of all of us."
John Vail, Ward 1 City Councillor candidate
Vail pledged to satisfy the current residents of Ward 1 and to continue to participate in the McMaster community.
John Vail is running for city councillor in Ward 1 in the Oct. 2022 municipal election. His candidate profile has be posted as part of a series the Silhouette is running to build student awareness about the municipal election. Candidate profiles will continue to be posted in alphabetical order over the next few weeks. Election Day is Oct. 24 and more details on how to vote can be found here.
By: Sam Marchetti
In the recent municipal election, McMaster University students living in Ward 1 were presented with quite the challenge: 15 candidates for mayor and 13 candidates for Ward 1 councillor. This sums to 28 candidates with 28 different platforms that could potentially affect student voters.
Students make up a substantial fraction of Ward 1 and yet the majority likely did not know all their options when they headed to the polls–that is, if they went to the polls at all. The Oct. 22 election saw one of the worst voter turnouts in the city’s history.
Considering that there were just under 9,000 ballots cast in Ward 1, and McMaster has an undergraduate population of about 27,000, it is safe to say that the majority of students did not cast their ballot.
There must be a reason for low student turnout. A quick poll among classmates revealed that most students did not know enough about the election and the candidates to think it was worth their time to cast a vote. Even among my own housemates, I know they didn’t cast a ballot just because they had no idea who to vote for.
Our new Ward 1 councillor, Maureen Wilson, won by over a 20 per cent margin. It is also interesting to note that Maureen Wilson was one of the most active candidates on social media and out in the community, with a large committee campaigning for her, knocking on doors and putting up signs.
One of the key points she made that attracted lots of attention and approval was her dedication to improving transit and completing the light rail transit system. However, I have serious doubts that most voters knew anything beyond this or even the platform of any other candidate.
It makes sense; who wants research different 28 candidates? That takes a lot of time and effort that most students can’t afford. But if anyone who had voted for Wilson based solely on her transit platform done a little more research, they might have noticed another candidate, Jason Allen.
Allen was also committed to improving our public transit, but had the added benefit of a background working in transit management. This clearly appealed to many voters who did the necessary research, since he was able to secure a second-place spot in the election.
I am not any better. I may have researched four of those 28 candidates, at most.
It is clear that with the sheer number of people running in Hamilton’s municipal elections, the municipal elections office has a responsibility to make every candidate’s platforms and publicized background easier to access.
It is true that newspapers like The Silhouette did offer summarized platforms of each of the 28 candidates. But this is not enough; the responsibility to provide an all-platform resource should not fall solely on external news outlets.
When we lack a system like this, we risk voters missing out on a candidate who may not have had the resources to run the most visible campaign, but could more accurately represent the feelings of our community. The lack of a municipally created and promoted all-platform resource seriously discourages a large number of people from making their voices heard.
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