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Published on February 27, 2015 | by Kirk Jennings Photography by Courtesy: City of Toronto website

Name your councillor – if you can

Students at Humber College and the University of Guelph-Humber do not know enough about the councilors in their respective wards or the councillor of the ward in which they study, after an informal survey of about 20 students.

The Canadian government, a democracy, only works if the public remains informed. The issue comes down to whether it is our responsibility as citizens to follow our elected representatives or for them to communicate with those that they represent.

Although many of the students at Guelph-Humber do not live in Ward 1 – Etobicoke North, they do spend a significant portion of their time there. Media Studies student Kylie-Marie Frech said that Vincent Crisanti, councillor of Ward 1, should be reaching out to the Guelph-Humber student body.

“We’re going to be the next generation of voters and we’re really educated so he’s probably going to want to get our attention if he wants our vote,” Frech said.

She also said the votes of our student body are important. The City of Toronto election rules state that you are eligible to vote in the municipality in which you rent property to attend school.

According to the 2011 Census of Etobicoke North, there are over 61-thousand residents in Ward 1, and 15 per cent of them are between the ages of 15 and 24. This is a demographic that is worth tapping into, said Mojib Kazimi, a Business Administration student at Guelph-Humber.

“I guess using different methods of advertising to get to our generation because it’s mostly focused towards the older generation and it’s not really effective for us,” Kazimi said. “They have to come up with different methods in order to reach us. It would be a lot easier and would help them out at the same time too.”

Humber student Conner Scime has lived within five minutes of campus for the last three years.

“I literally could not tell you who the councillor is or anything he has done,” Scime said. “It’s not that I’m out of touch, it has just never been brought up to me.”

Vincent Crisanti was unavailable for an interview at the time of publication.

Tags: Etobicoke, Vincent Crisanti