Denny has lived in Ward 5 for nine years. When asked why he’s running for councillor, he indicated that he likes and follows politics and wants to help residents get through to the city and ensure city representatives get back to residents in a timely way. He hears concerns about residents not getting responses to their calls. He said that they need more information, even if that information isn’t exactly the answer they wanted to hear. They need to understand the obstacles too. Denny said that he likes to help and finds that people come to him to ask what’s going on.
He identified several issues that he sees as priorities for the incoming council:
- Densification and growth
- Environment: on his website, votedenny.ca, he notes bike and scooter lanes, tree canopy, and greenspace as examples
- Community input
- Accessibility and mobility: on his website, he notes charging stations for mobility devices and metering of accessible parking spaces as examples
- Services: he expressed concern about overflowing waste bins throughout the ward and an interest in extending free bus transportation to those 18 and under (from age 12 currently).
Denny prides himself on always giving customers 100%. He believes in transparency and commits to getting to the root of problems and providing answers, so that residents know what’s going on, rather than hearing after the fact. He provided several examples in our interview. As a trainer for equipment companies, primarily forklifts, he is a contract worker helping a variety of companies in the Windsor-Michigan corridor.
Out knocking on doors as part of his campaign, residents are expressing concern about coyotes, including a parent and child sitting afraid in their car when they saw a coyote nearby. He’s hearing that coyotes have been a problem for 12 years. Garbage pickup along pathways is an issue in spite of many calls to report the problem, and could be contributing to the presence of coyotes in the area. He’s hearing about empty buses and also hearing from people who don’t have cars and rely heavily on transit. Denny’s view is that walking 10–15 minutes is a reasonable amount of time to reach transit, which he sees as the “way of the future.” He was the “only person on the bus” the last time he rode Burlington Transit, but he sees lots of kids using the service and knows that there can be a sense of adventure and security in that mode of transportation. Residents are also asking for bike lanes and Denny’s view is that when roadways are being redone, a bike lane should be added at the same time.
The other candidates for Ward 5 councillor are Guy D’Alesio, Andrew Hall, and Paul Sharman.
