ThoroldToday will be profiling every candidate in the upcoming municipal and school board elections on Oct. 24. Today: Dean Taylor.
This is the second time 64-year-old Dean Taylor is running for city council.
“I ran four years ago,” Taylor says, in an interview with ThoroldToday. “I made a good showing but I didn’t get elected so this time I want to get elected.”
Taylor works as a surveillance operator at a casino in the Falls. Being involved in local politics has been a lifelong dream for him.
“I’m a history and politics major and I’ve always wanted to get involved,” he says. “I’m at a point in my life where I’m able to dedicate more time to it. I raised my kids. Now is the time to give back to the community and I can dedicate myself to doing it.”
Taylor’s mission statement is simple.
“We’re growing in leaps and bounds and I think it has to be managed in a better way rather than willy-nilly and everything all over the place,” he says. “I want a more responsible plan.”
One of the issues he feels passionate about is preserving the character of Thorold’s older neighbourhoods.
“They’re knocking down a house and then squeezing in three or four units,” Taylor says. “They’re single home dwellings and then they put in this big, great monstrosities. There’s one on Metcalfe [Street]. They knocked it down and now they’re putting in four units. There’s one on Queen [Street]. It was supposed to be a fourplex, it’s an eightplex. It’s monstrous.”
Another important point on Taylor’s agenda is the way the city’s money is being spent.
“Everything we do we should be doing responsibly and taking care of the taxpayers’ money,” says Taylor. “They were fixing Colborne Street. They were squeezing all that tar into the cracks to fix the roads. I went to Florida for a week, I come back, and now they’re digging it up. It just wasn’t efficient. I would like to see more efficiency in our plan.”
Taylor, who is a member of the Oddfellows in St. Catharines, can’t wait to go out and meet as many people in the community as possible.
“I have signs, I’m going to go door-to-door,” he says. “I got a team of volunteers that are looking forward to getting started and helping me. I’m just waiting for my flyers to come in and then we’ll be able to get the show on the road. I’ve had so many people ask if I need help to let them know. The support has been wonderful.”
Even though he didn’t win a seat on city council last time, Taylor says he has learned a lot from his previous run.
“The one thing I learned is that you got to get your name out there so I joined a couple of [city] committees,” he says. “I was on the library board and the Thorold Active Transportation committee. The committees were very open to hearing everybody’s voice. On the library they’re planning an expansion so that’s really an exciting time. I’m looking forward to that.”
Taylor was born in Burlington and after growing up in the Bahamas and on the Canary Islands he finally settled down in Thorold.
“I was not born and raised in Thorold, my wife is,” Taylor says. “I met her and 42 years later here we are. You don’t want to leave. I’ll be honest with you, I love it here. I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. I raised my four kids and I’m working on eight grandkids.”
What Taylor loves most about Thorold is its familiarity.
“It’s got such a small town feel,” he says. “I can’t walk anywhere in Thorold without waving at somebody I know. It goes the same for Port Robinson, Allanburg, and Thorold South. I can’t drive around anywhere and not wave at somebody that I don’t know. That’s what I love about it.”
If elected, Taylor is looking forward to rolling up his sleeves.
“I’m going to work hard for the betterment and all of Thorold,” he says. “I want to see us grow into the future together. I want this to be the best little town that we can have.”
