A very small crowd attended a Ward 2 byelection forum at the University of Windsor. The forum was held inside of the CAW Student Centre on Thursday afternoon, which saw approximately a dozen people in attendance. Eight out of the 15 candidates running in the byelection were there to answer questions from the public, and speak about their platforms and policies heading into the byelection. The Ward 2 seat has been vacant since the end of June after Fabio Costante resigned to become the new CEO of the Windsor Essex Community Housing Corporation. While the event featured a range of prepared questions, and questions from those in attendance, topics were mainly focused around housing, how to bring more growth to Ward 2, and safety in terms of crime-related issues and non-crime issues such as traffic calming. Trevor Ramieri, Ward 2 resident and political science student at the university, says public transit was an important topic for him. “I have a disability that prevents me from driving, and I do a lot of advocacy work in that space, so wanting to see what further improvements, because there’s quite a few, that these prospective councillors would be able to put forward, and I was really satisfied with some of the different ideas and experiences that they brought from their perspective as well.” Ramieri says he’s still on the fence about who to vote for. “I think what we’re really fortunate about, and of course it’s a double-edged sword, we’ve got lots of different candidates so spreading the vote as a public transit user, somebody who wants to vote for someone who lives in my ward, there’s lots of options. But I’m really optimistic that we’re going to have a good candidate chosen either way... there’s a lot of fantastic individuals.” RJ D’Aguilar, governor of the Political Science Society at the University of Windsor, says they’re working to release footage from the event for those who couldn’t make it in person. “We’re going to work with our partners in the UWSA [University of Windsor Students’ Alliance], as well as the university, and our own personal platforms to formalize, format, and then redistribute clips, photographs, and information from the event so that hundreds, if not thousands more students and campus community stakeholders will see the information.” The Ward 2 byelection takes place on Monday, Oct. 27. Residents will be able to vote from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m.
