Canvassing at Meridian Co-op reminded me again why I’m running for Mayor of Hamilton.
Politics looks very different when you’re standing in someone’s hallway, listening to what it takes to make rent, raise a family, care for neighbours, and build a life in this city.
I had the chance to speak with Kinga and Iveta, from Poland and the Czech Republic, and our conversation stayed with me. Iveta told me she believes in me. She also told me how deeply she connected with my speech at the Meridian mural and placemaking grant celebration.
I don’t take words like those lightly. That celebration was about more than a beautiful mural. It was about community, culture, co-operation, and people claiming space in the city they call home. And canvassing those same halls days later brought that message right back to the doorstep: Hamilton is built by working people.
By tenants. By immigrants and newcomers. By artists. By caregivers. By people working long shifts, stretching every dollar, looking after each other, and still finding ways to make their neighbourhoods beautiful.
Too often, working-class people are spoken about at City Hall instead of listened to. They are treated like a statistic, a “stakeholder,” or an afterthought once the decisions have already been made. I want something different.
My campaign is about bringing the people who actually live the consequences of municipal decisions into the centre of those decisions. Housing, transit, public space, safety, arts, accessibility, and affordability. None of this should be designed from the top down.
The doors I knock on are not a photo opportunity. They are the campaign.
Thank you, Kinga, Iveta, and all the residents for the conversation, the encouragement, and the reminder of what this election is really about.
Hamilton belongs to the people who make Hamilton work.
🗳️ On October 26, vote Scarlett Gillespie for Mayor of Hamilton.