Ian Morton

I have lived in Stratford for 12 wonderful years, and have taught in and around Stratford for 23 years. The first four years of my career were at Anne Hathaway PS, and then later I taught 8 years at Bedford PS. I currently teach grade 7 at St. Marys DCVI.

I have been involved in many coaching opportunities through school, coaching almost every sport.

In connection to my career, I am also heavily involved in my local and provincial union, ETFO. I have dedicated 15 years to the school steward position, in addition to spending the last 4 years as a member-at-large on our local executive. I also have the honour to serve on the ETFO Provincial Environmental Standing Committee.

In 2018, I started the Stratford Sabrecats Track Club. In 5 short years, including through the pandemic, the club has grown to almost 90 athletes and 16 coaches. I am the President, Head Coach and Throws Coach.

In the mid-2000’s I served on the Waterloo Citizens Environmental Advisory Committee that looked at items going to council through an environmental lens. I had the fortune of being involved in some of the work on Waterloo Region’s Light Rail Transit project.

I am just finishing my 3 year term as the President of the St Marys Curling Association, having successfully led the club through the pandemic while minimizing losses and keeping curlers safe. Due to the financial impacts of the last two years on the curling club, we have done much work to increase and rebuild membership.

Important priorities for me in our city are transparency, housing, public transit, active transportation and the environment. In addition, we need to celebrate our diversity and also improve equity in our community. There is so much work to be done. Please take a look at my website, www.ianmorton.ca, for much more detail around these priorities.

We need caring individuals that will work to engage the public and embrace resident voice. We need to work together collaboratively with stakeholders to ensure that decisions are made to the best of our ability. We need to ensure that we build up our community by helping those that struggle the most. We need to make sure that councillors are accountable to the public who have voted them in. Help me to lead Stratford forward.

1. What will be your unique contribution to council?

As a teacher, I work all day to build people up and to build community and equity. I believe that my unique contribution is to bring the voices of Stratford citizens to council. I am not only comfortable engaging with residents, but I encourage it. I have the ability to build community, through listening to the voices of Stratford, collaborating with stakeholders, and creating an environment in which people collaborate to solve problems, and build common understandings. I also bring an open mind to all I do. I want to grow and learn, and through listening and collaboration, I expand...[]

2. How will you tackle urban sprawl and protect prime agricultural land?

We must stop urban sprawl, plain and simple. We don’t need to continue to pave farmland. We can instead create more densified residential developments that prioritize the protection of farmland and natural areas. In addition, we need to ensure that Stratford’s boundaries remain static to prevent the further gobbling up of lands surrounding our city. Build up, not out. Develop with intention to protect and create greater density, rather than develop for the developer. We don’t need suburb’s of million dollar homes. We need to protect nature and land!

3. How will you encourage businesses and individuals to respond to climate change?

The response the council has towards the climate crisis is vital to the future of our city. For businesses, we need to make the mitigation of carbon attractive, and also help them to reduce their carbon footprint. We can do this through subsidies to retrofit businesses with technology and infrastructure that reduce carbon, while increasing sustainability. Electric fleets for transportation. More natural spaces if possible. More efficient transportation.

For individuals, we must incentivize the reduction of fossil fuel use. We can create amazing new infrastructure for active transportation, and provide real solutions to our public transit system, so that we...[]

4. What is your idea(s) to attract new industry to Stratford?

We can truly show some leadership with respect to bringing new industry to Stratford. We need to prioritize environmentally responsible industries, and create positive conditions for those industries to operate in Stratford. If we want to be a municipal leader in environmental policy and action, we can pair that with complementary industries. In addition, the current innovation with the University of Waterloo’s digital arts programs in the city, should naturally lead to an investment in this sector, to attract youth and industry to our city. These can create a great partnership between industry and the municipality to pilot programs based...[]

5. How will you address wealth inequality, homelessness and poverty in Stratford?

We need to ensure that programs and resources are created or have increased priority to deal with social problems in our city. Our homeless need to have stable shelter, mental and physical health supports available, opportunities for skill training if desired, and support for the acquisition and holding of a job. Families need supports for children as well. Food security will likely be an issue, which the city should be well-equipped to subsidize.

As a municipality, we can lead by ensuring that we are providing a living wage to all who work for the city. We can encourage other businesses...[]

6. How will you engage and inform the public about current issues and legislation?

I believe that the city holds a responsibility to help citizens remain informed of issues and initiatives that are happening in our municipality.

We can make huge upgrades to the city website to streamline the ease of access to information. We need to go beyond this, and actively work to get information to citizens. All forms of media can be leveraged to reach our residents with council business. Town halls and information sessions can become part of regular council practice.

Most importantly, councillors need to be engaged with the citizens of Stratford. I will be holding myself to a high...[]

7. Would you support term limits? Why/why not?

I think term limits are extremely important. While good leadership can be hard to find, and something we would like to hold on to, it is more important to ensure that one vision for Stratford doesn’t take hold for a generation. We constantly need new ideas, new energy, new people, and new talents to come to the table to serve our citizens.

I would encourage term limits of 3 for councillors, 2 for mayors, and a maximum of 4 terms in total if someone were to fill both roles in their time on council. We don’t need lifelong politicians in...[]

8. What is your plan to better engage youth in Stratford?

I do feel that as a teacher, I have many, many ideas to better engage youth in our community. Youth need opportunities. We must get our children and youth involved in our community. Through events specifically geared to younger residents we can create a culture of caring, giving, and concern for others. We can build community together, we can make change together, and we can empower them to help shape our community. Most importantly, we must hear the voice of our youth. Now in my 23rd year of teaching, I know for a fact that our youth are incredible. They...[]