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As an educator, Ian Morton strives to build up students, advocating for them and teaching skills based around community ideals so they can become positive members of their community.
Morton wants to expand on that, helping the community outside of the classroom grow and flourish, so he’s running for a spot on Stratford city council.
“Our strength as a community comes from our residents and all of our members and engaging with the public to figure out what the priorities are for people. I am a huge advocate for voice and equity. If we are not taking care of everyone than we are not doing a good enough job from my perspective.”
Morton, a Stratford resident in his 23rd year of teaching, said he thought about running in the last few civic elections. There are several issues that inspired him to run for a city councillor spot this time around.
“I have concerns around transparency and openness of council and I’m hearing that consistently at the door when I am out canvassing,” he said. “You here that there is no engagement with council, or (residents) don’t know what the direction is and feel cut off from their city. That is unfortunate. I think that is a dangerous place to be as a community.”
Housing has been a hot topic among candidates for city council. Morton said there are things a municipality can do to provide affordable and attainable housing, including rent subsidies, ensuring there is enough rental stock and working to ensure there is a variety of new home builds.
“Building massive suburbs, million dollar homes, is not really the demographic of our residents. People need homes. They are not buying those homes. It all revolves around development planning. We need 20, 30, 40-year plans for housing to be able to get people off the streets, to lift people out of poverty.”
Morton would like to see city council tackle housing immediately, and, if elected, he would make sure he’s engaged with the public and reach out to hear the voices of the community and bring that back to the council table, he said.
"Housing needs to be jumped on immediately. That involves providing mental health supports, job training…the systems are out there, we just need to pull them together.”
People living on the streets is unacceptable, he said.
As an environmentalist, Morton said climate change is a concern. He wants to ensure the city is doing all it can for an effective and efficient transit system and motivate residents to ditch the car and use public transit to mitigate the city’s carbon footprint.
Teaching in different areas of Stratford has afforded Morton an opportunity to see varying demographics and socio-economic challenges. He said he’s learned a lot about the community through teaching and volunteering. Morton has coached sports and volunteered for clubs at school. Outside of the classroom, he is president of the Stratford Sabrecats Track Club, which he helped start. He has also been an executive member of the local teacher’s union.
Morton currently teaches Grade 7 at St. Marys DCVI.
“I got into teaching because I care about people, I care about kids. I work to build kids up to bring equity and empathy and care into my classroom, to build a classroom community and go beyond and build a school community. I try to get kids to advocate for what they see going on and what they feel needs to happen and empower our youth to take the reign, and give them those skills based around community ideals so they can become positive members of our community.”
Morton feels he has a good view of Stratford as a whole through his experiences, which will be a benefit moving forward, he said, as he works to engage with the community.
The main point Morton wants to get across to voters is the city can do better.
“We need to treat the community as one community, make sure we are taking care of each other and not leave anyone behind. Caring and collaboration are at the heart of my campaign, so we can build that strong community that we are all looking for.”
