Jack Henry
Get out there and vote! That is the message that Jason Colterman wants to give out prior to the municipal elections in October. Jason is one of the 3 candidates to throw their hats in the ring so far for Ward 43 Councillor. We recently sat down with Mr. Colterman at Guildwoods local coffee shop to discuss everything Guildwood and get more insight into his thoughts as a candidate and as another resident of the city. We discussed everything from the island airport expansion to whom he would want to play him in a movie about his life. We also discussed many of the items in his platform as many of them affect Guildwood directly.
Jason lives on the east side of Morningside Ave, which puts him in Ward 44. He has lived there for about two years. When asked why he was running for Ward 43 Councillor and not Ward 44 he said that it was because he has been connected to Ward 43, specifically Guildwood, through family and friend connections and has always loved the area. It is also his intention to move into the Guild at some point. He said that the area reminds him of a small town and that he likes how everyone in the Guild is really friendly and tight-knit
You can access Jason’s platform on his website. Many of his platform topics are issues that affect the Guild directly such as the city’s handling of the forest after the ice storm, bringing jets to the island airport and getting transit built.
We asked Jason if he supports building a Downtown Relief Line. His response was that there has been no real talk from anyone about what the relief line actually is. He said that the first person to have some sort of a plan for it was John Tory who planned to run it on the GO Train tracks into Scarborough. That plan he said he could possibly support because even though the infrastructure would have to be modified slightly, its already there so “the cost of making it will be minimized, the affect on the community will be minimized and it will be up and running fairly quickly.” Jason also says that the city needs to do more to protect the businesses during the construction of the Eglinton Crosstown. As for the method of transportation, he said that he really has no preference as long as it is off of the road, either underground or in existing rail or hydro corridors. Question two in our interview was about the city’s management of the Guild forest after the ice storm and the city’s response in the days following the December ice storm. The question was about his take on the issue. He first talked about the tree cutting in the Guild forest saying, “I understand that some of the trees had to be removed for safety reasons, what they did (referring to bringing in a logging company to cut the trees) did not need to be done.” What would he have done differently? He says that they should have phased it in over a period of time and cut down the trees that were a risk. As for the emergency response after the ice storm. He mentioned that city management was not as accessible as they should have been in the aftermath of the storm and the other thing that really bugged him was that after the ice storm, “They (the city) kept saying ‘We have warming centers open, go to the warming centers' but the trees had blocked the road entering the Guild, the bus stopped coming down into the Guild so how are the seniors and older families down in this area going to get out?” His suggestion would have been to have more door knocking (by volunteers) to check on residents and that if they did need to go to a warming center have a vehicle that would be able to take them. Another thing that is in Jason's platform is to be more accessible. We asked what his plan was to be even more accessible then our current councillor. The way Jason plans on being more accessible is by holding frequent community meetings where "People can come in and talk to me about their issues or just hang out and have a tea party where people can come out to talk and socialize, it would help bring the community together, allow us to know who our neighbors are, who our councillor is, who our school board trustee is…" in closing our discussion on his platform, I asked Jason what he would do differently from our current councillor if elected, he said he would genuinely represent the interests of the community of Ward 43 saying that "The one thing that I see as a problem in the city is that the councillors have their view point and that's the view that they represent. We need to listen to the people in the area and their concerns, understand why they have those concerns and then represent those concerns, we can't dismiss people because their concerns aren't in line with ours."
Along with asking Jason about his platform we also asked him some other questions to allow you to get to know him better as a person. The first question we asked was, "What is one thing that people don't know about you?" He said, "That I'm running for councillor" with a laugh, "A lot of people are really confused as to why you would want to run for councillor and everyone's like 'What?' That catches a lot of people off guard." Then why does he want to run for councillor? Jason says it is because he sees a lot of dysfunction in the city and wants to change that. He also says that "A councilor’s job is one that nobody ever likes, he's everybody's enemy, and everybody’s always bad mouthing their councillor or their local politician. I'd like to change that image and become a helpful person and deal with people's concerns so if people say 'That’s a mess down there! Why do you want to run?' It's because I actually want to help people, I want to make lives better, I want to bring our community together." What do not a lot of people know about Jason other then the fact that he is running for councillor? In 2008 Jason was involved in a serious car accident where he was run over by a transport truck. He was told that he may never walk again but after 6 months in a wheelchair, during which he was able to see how inaccessible the city is, and intensive rehab he was able to walk again. From when he walked in I would not have been able to tell that he had experienced any kind of trauma. I also asked about Jason's full time job before running for councillor. Jason opened up his own business selling poker supplies and other games room products that he sold off because the business was growing to a point that one person could no longer sustain it. Most recently he has been working as an independent contractor. I asked about how his business experience would be valuable to him as a councillor, he said that it has prepared him to make tough decisions, in his words, "I have some experience making some tough decisions, when you have a successful business at some point you need to decide to sink a lot of money into it and take a huge risk. I was starting to be successful and I was starting to make money but I decided that it wasn't worth moving forward and sometimes you have to make those tough calls and say 'There's too much risk to keep going on this path, let's back track and rethink how we're going to do this.'" Jason also referenced volunteering for St. John's Ambulance, comparing the negotiating there to negotiating in council "Through my volunteer work with St. John's Ambulance, I have helped run the organization in Toronto and believe it or not there is a lot of politics in a volunteer organization and dealing with different people at different levels and negotiating with them and getting what is best for our members." When asked about what his favorite thing about Ward 43, he said that it was the community feel of the Guild, "I know that there is more then the guild in Ward 43 but it’s like a small town. We have a nice small grocer which I personally visit three times a week and pick up stuff that I need where it’s not a big box store that’s trying to sell me everything under the sun, I can just run in and grab the groceries that I need. We have nice little coffee shops. The park is amazing, all the architecture the history, being able to see the lake, its just such a great community." Jason said that he wants some sort of venue to go into the Guild Inn building but doesn’t completely agree with the method that Dynamic is using. His suggestion is to put in a Community Centre similar to the Cedar Ridge Creative Centre that is just off of Scarborough Golf Club Road. Where does Jason go when he needs to relax? He goes to our very own Guild Gardens with his son. They walk through the gardens enjoying the view and architecture, his son even puts on shows on the stage, something anyone who grew up in Guildwood can relate to. We also asked him what he thinks about when he is alone, when he is alone Jason thinks a lot about his family and about ways to interact with his community through his volunteer work at St. John's Ambulance. We asked Jason whom he was supporting for the mayoral race. He said that he has not actually came out in support of a mayoral candidate, however, he encourages anyone who may be undecided to look at all the candidates for mayor and ask them questions “even if you support the top 5 and your talking to what they call a fringe candidate, they are going to make you think about questions to ask your top 5.
In conclusion, what message would Mr. Colterman want to give to the residents of Guildwood? "My big message this election is get out and vote, become involved in the community, take part in the community and (use) your right to vote. Without your voice being heard, you’re going to be misrepresented and we need to make sure we have proper representation and informed citizens that are active in the community." The final question that I asked, whom would he like to play him in a movie about his life? That would be Jack Nicholson from A Few Good Men amongst other movies.
Thanks to Jason for taking the time to sit down with us and discuss Guildwood! If you want to find out more about the City of Toronto Municipal Elections check out our municipal “Elections in Guildwood” page. As always we would love to hear your comments and feedback through email, Twitter @TheGuildwoodian and on Facebook.