Campaigns should be about what you will do — but they also need to be grounded in facts.

This week, a candidate for Lord Mayor chose to purchase a full-page newspaper advertisement criticizing the current leadership of Niagara-on-the-Lake and our response to the recent flooding.

Everyone running for office has every right to challenge the decisions of Council. In fact, they should.

But if you are going to spend money publicly telling residents that their Town wasn’t prepared and “is still not doing enough,” then I believe you also have a responsibility to accurately represent what actually happened.

Our Emergency Response Plan is established, regularly reviewed and has been updated repeatedly over this term. Our Emergency Control Group was activated, and our response was led by trained professionals following an established plan.

The ad asks why the Community Centre wasn’t immediately opened around the clock for people to shower and gather.

What it doesn’t mention is that two municipal pools — one in St. Davids and one in Old Town — were made available for residents to use the showers and facilities.

But there is an important distinction: the showers weren’t made available because Town staff had identified an unmet need for emergency shower facilities. The pools were already staffed and available, so the Town made those facilities accessible should anyone need them.

Zero residents used the showers.

That matters.

Emergency response should be based on the needs actually being identified in the community and the resources required to meet them. Opening and staffing the Community Centre around the clock when no demonstrated need existed would not, on its own, have improved the emergency response.

Had residents been identified as needing shelter, showers or other emergency assistance beyond what was available, the response could have been escalated accordingly.

The ad also suggests we’re “still just talking” about Four Mile Creek.

The reality is that Four Mile Creek has been discussed and studied for years — including well before this Council. The challenges are significant, and previous estimates for dredging have been extraordinarily high (estimated around $30-$40 million)

Staff and Council have been examining what solutions are actually feasible rather than simply promising an easy fix to a complicated watershed issue.

It also questions whether development impacts on watersheds are considered. Development applications undergo engineering, stormwater-management and agency review.

Does that mean our existing infrastructure doesn’t need significant investment?

Absolutely not. It does. 

And this Council has been working on stormwater projects and longer-term solutions.

There will absolutely be lessons learned from these storms. There will be infrastructure improvements required. And most importantly, the residents, farmers and businesses who experienced flooding deserve our continued support and action.

But there is another part of this story that I don’t think should be lost in campaign politics.

For the past few weeks, Town staff have been working around the clock doing their jobs and helping this community respond and recover.

Some returned early from holidays.

Others postponed time off.

Crews have been out assessing damage, clearing problem areas, responding to residents and doing everything they can to help our community recover.

They deserve our thanks — not to have their work diminished by the suggestion that nothing was being done.

So while one candidate chose to take out a full-page newspaper ad telling Niagara-on-the-Lake what wasn’t done, I’m choosing to use my platform differently.

I’m taking out a full-page blog post to simply say:

THANK YOU.

Thank you to our Town staff.

Thank you to our emergency responders and crews.

Thank you to my fellow Councillors.

Thank you to our residents.

Thank you to our farmers and business owners.

Thank you to our neighbours, volunteers and community organizations.

And thank you to everyone who was dealing with the impact of these storms themselves, yet still found the time to check on a neighbour, lend a hand or help someone else.

THAT is the Niagara-on-the-Lake I know.

There will be time to review what happened, identify what we can do better and make the investments necessary to better prepare for increasingly severe weather.

We should do that, and we will.

But suggesting that our staff, emergency officials and municipal leadership simply “weren’t ready” deserves scrutiny too.

Leadership isn’t demonstrated by purchasing a full-page advertisement after an emergency and promising that, if elected, you’ll create an “action plan.”

Leadership is being there during the emergency — working with staff, communicating with other levels of government, making decisions based on the information available, helping residents and then doing the much harder work of identifying, engineering and funding long-term solutions.

I welcome debate during this campaign. I welcome criticism of my decisions and my voting record.

But let’s debate the facts.

If a candidate believes something should have been done differently, tell residents specifically what you would have done, when you would have done it, what evidence would have triggered that decision, what it would cost, how you would fund it and whether it is actually within the authority of the municipality.

There are real people in our community dealing with the aftermath of these storms.

They deserve solutions, support and gratitude — not political theatre.

Facts matter. Experience matters. Community matters.

And today, more than anything else, I simply want to say:

THANK YOU!