There’s a specific season of life that doesn’t have enough voice at the West Perth council table right now, and it’s the season my family is living every day.
I grew up here. Minor sports on our fields and rinks, neighbourhood schools — this town raised me. Now my wife Abbey and I are raising our own young family in Mitchell’s southwest end. Abbey teaches at our high school. Our son is growing up here, same as I did.
Here’s what that changes about how I look at the files in front of council.
Childcare isn’t an abstract policy file to us. It’s three years of our lives. My family spent nearly three years on the Perth Care childcare waitlist. When childcare comes up at council, that’s not a line item to me — it’s the exact scramble dozens of Mitchell families are living right now. Council can’t run childcare; that’s the province’s job, and I won’t pretend otherwise. But we can advocate loudly for it, make sure our own zoning and planning never quietly block new spaces, and use the buildings and partnerships we do control to help. What I won’t do is treat it like someone else’s problem.
Housing is personal, too. People I grew up with want to stay in Mitchell, but they can’t find a rental that fits the budget or a first home they can actually afford. At the same time, seniors who’d love to downsize have nowhere smaller to go in town — so they stay in houses bigger than they need, and the few family homes that exist stay locked up. My approach is simple: figure out what we actually need, then build that. Homes young families can buy. Rentals for people starting out. Smaller options that let grandparents stay in town. Growth should never price our own kids out of the community that raised them, and it should never change Mitchell into something we don’t recognize. Those two things aren’t in conflict — we just have to plan like both matter.
Recreation is where our life actually happens. Practices after school. Saturdays at the park. Summer ball. A big reason Abbey and I chose to raise our family here is the life a kid gets in Mitchell — the sports, parks, and programs, and the volunteers who keep it all running. Sensible investment means maintaining what we have, planning replacements before things fail, and keeping registration fees within reach of every family. When a facility fee climbs fifty dollars, that’s not an administrative detail to me. That’s a decision about which kids get to play.
So here’s my promise. On every vote, I’ll be the voice at the table asking, “What does this mean for a young family?” Not because other perspectives don’t matter — they do, and I’m not the only person in this town with something at stake. But because the families living here deserve someone asking their questions out loud.