On my website, www.joshmorgan.ca I recently announced that I had filed papers to run for Ward 7 Councillor in the City of London. I am reposting that announcement here for the followers of this blog, however the main campaign content will continue to be at www.joshmorgan.ca
Please have a look at the site and let me know what you think.
I want to thank everyone for all their support and encouragement over the past few months. Now the real work begins and with your continued support I have no doubt we will be successful on October 27th, 2014.
Please consider a small donation to help get the campaign started. You can make one here: www.joshmorgan.ca/get-involved/
Sincerely,
Josh Morgan
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Josh Morgan Enters Ward 7 Race
Today Josh Morgan filed nomination papers to run for London City Council in Ward 7. A resident of Ward 7, Josh and his family are excited about the opportunity to serve the community they call home as we work towards building a better city for all of us.
Below you will find a personal message from Josh. You can also find a copy of the News Release here.
Why I Am Running
In September of last year several articles were written about the possibility of me running for Mayor of the City of London. At the time I had been approached by a diverse group of political organizers who thought I could bring the kind of change to City Hall that we have been waiting for.
At the time, I was honored and flattered, but not ready to make a decision. It is not a small decision and I thought it was important to do two things. First, to separate myself (and any ego or ambition) from the discussion and focus on what our city needs. Second, and connected to the first, I said I wanted to go out and talk to as many Londoners as possible, to listen carefully about where they think our city needs to go. I wanted to have a grassroots conversation about building a collective vision for our city and challenge each other on how to get there. Only after that would I decide what role was most appropriate for me to play in driving us towards a better future.
So that is what I did.
Over the past four months I have spoken to over 1000 Londoners, sometimes in groups, but often one to one. The process led me to discover that, despite widespread political cynicism, the citizens of this city still have hope for change. They are filled with innovation, ideas, and passion but, in general, municipal politics is not giving them the opportunity to foster and grow their ideas. There are instances where we do get this right but those exceptions are not part of the ingrained political culture of the city.
Every four years we elect those that will represent us at City Hall and we expect them to make decisions on our behalf with relatively little input from us. Citizens are as capable as politicians with respect to learning about an issue and having an informed opinion about it. Every four years is no longer good enough because citizens want a greater say over the day to day decision making in our city. The time is now to empower and foster citizen decision making in our communities.
This is the vision that I want to bring to City Hall. A London where citizens have a greater ability to shape their local neighbourhoods, communities, and services. This means participatory budgeting. It means enhancing and supporting neighbourhood associations and councils and giving them the ability to shape some aspects of their communities. It means less power centralized at City Hall and more in the hands of citizens. It means more authentic engagement and creating a culture of ‘citizens first’ at City Council. It means much more than I can explain in this post so to start these conversations I will be releasing a series of concrete proposals in the coming months.
I am excited about the conversations we will have because there is no reason that this cannot be a turning point for our democracy and our city, if we believe it can happen.
Given this vision, I thought very seriously for a long time on what role I should play. Since city council is at the center of the changes I would like to make I have decided to seek a seat and thus a vote on council. All positions, whether Mayor or Councillor, are a single vote on council and at this time the best chance for success is running in my home ward, Ward 7.
Constituency work is an important element of what a ward councillor does. It something I enjoy having the privilege of doing, and have experience with. So as I drive these city wide discussions I will also be connecting closely with the residents of Ward 7; they are my friends and neighbours and I will be asking for their support starting today. With their votes, passion, and encouragement I am hopeful that we can create the spark that will build a better city for us all.
