By Wendy Terry

Usually, municipal elections are the most complex as you vote directly for the Mayor of your city, a Counselor for your Ward, and a School Trustee (Public, Catholic, or French Public or French Catholic) often by ward. This time you only voted for the Mayor of Toronto, a by-election. The Mayor elected on October 24th, 2022 resigned. Mind there are 102 candidates for this one position!

Oliva Chow is the new Mayor of Toronto.

In the Fall issue of Learning Curves, the front-page top-of-the-fold story was titled October 24th, Municipal Election Day. I tried to help our readers and myself understand the whole municipal election situation for Toronto and the GTA. You may want to look at this story by going to https://learningcurves.org/vote-election-day-october-24th/.

In that article, I focused on adult students bringing it to the attention of their councilor candidates and school trustee candidates that they oversee funding for adult education and you as an adult student had specific needs. Now in this by-election, we specifically focused only on the Mayor and the position that oversees all. The Mayor needs to understand the adult education funding aspects of their job. The Mayor needs to understand the adult education funding aspects of their job. Just after being elected, Mayors are more open to ideas. Let Olivia Chow know what she could do for you and other adult Learners.

How do cities can help you as an adult learner? 

For one they fund public libraries and decide on their hours of operation. They run a What’s On program which has lots of current topic presentations. They also fund Recreation Centers and offer General Interest courses and decide on hours of operation. They also fund specific learning programs at community associations. Go to 211.ca to search for programs listed under Employment and Training:

• Academic Upgrading, 

• Apprenticeship, 

• Career Counselling, 

• Internationally Trained Professionals, 

• Job Search Support/Training, 

• Newcomer Employment Programs, 

• Youth Employment. 

Go to the City of Toronto website and click on Mayor and City Council. Email them you would like to see for you as an adult student. They are still listening as they develop plans for the city.