Hobson wants a city for the future

[attach]1990[/attach]Ryan Hobson wants Toronto to be a city his young son will choose to live in when he’s older.

“I want him to want to live in Toronto,” Hobson said. “Not just because this is where he grew up, but because it’s the best place to live.”

The Ward 14 resident is running for councillor in the ward, and said he wants to bring this sort of long-term thinking to council if elected.

For example, he said he would prefer subways to LRTs wherever possible because the initial investment will pay off in the long run.

“It’s important to keep surface areas available and flexible for different uses of transportation, including bikes, hopefully emission-free
cars one day, and pedestrians,” he said.

Hobson said he would like to see community gardens in his ward, using open spaces such as a school’s unused property. He said he would like to see them run by volunteers and the food donated to local food banks. Hobson, who frequently volunteers at food banks, also wants well-off businesses and restaurants to commit to donating some food.

“Hunger is just one of the worst things in our society,” he said. “It’s kind of hard to believe that there are people going hungry every day.”

Hobson said he also wants to support local businesses, the characters of which he said he was impressed with when coming here from his hometown of Calgary.

“These businesses, these strips, are what give the nieghbourhood their character,” Hobson said.

To do this, he said he would work with BIAs and promote city programs such as the Façade Improvement Program and try to make more city resources available to business owners online.

Hobson has run a business in the past. He also has political experience through involvement with the federal Liberal party and working on campaigns. He currently works in a bank where he often arranges fundraising activities for the United Way.

At press time, other candidates running in the ward are Michael Erickson, [url=https://streeter.ca/youth-an-advantage-says-council-challenger.html]Jules-José Kerlinger[/url], Christopher McCurdy, [url=https://streeter.ca/third-try-for-candidate.html]Jimmy Talpa[/url], [url=https://streeter.ca/ex-poet-challenges-gord-perks-in-ward-14.html]István Tar[/url], Bill Vrebosch and incumbent [url=https://streeter.ca/saundercook-and-perks-plan-to-run-again-in-october.html]Gord Perks[/url].