My Profile in the Stratford Citizen

Thank you Stratford Citizen for a very accurate article based on the interview with Adam.

http://www.citizennews.ca/?page_id=1798/

As a citizen participant in the OMB hearing over Walmart, Lesley Walker-Fitzpatrick spent days researching and hearing about planning issues relating to Stratford. If elected, she hopes to apply what she’s learned to the upcoming review of the City’s offical plan.

“I’d like to see it be a good road map so that we manage to keep the character of our city as we grow,” she says.

Among the issues she wants to explore are increasing local sustainability, resisting urban sprawl, pursuing creative retrofits, cleaning up brownfields, hosting open markets in Market Square and ensuring that future commercial developments in the west end blend with the surrounding neighboorhoods. She also wants to take an active role in the city’s accessibility committee, having “walked the walk” in caring for her late brother, John, a quadriplegic.

Walker-Fitzpatrick says her performing arts background has helped her understand the challenges faced by those without a guaranteed income. And in a nod to the City debt, she says more large capital expenditures shouldn’t be pursued without public consultation.

As for the environment, she says it’s a matter of getting the City’s many thriving aspects – like culture, industry, tourism and the new university – to work together.

“We have the right ingredients for us to be a leader in this direction – a responsible, sustainable, green direction.”