As she runs to remain Local and Regional Councillor for Vaughan this October, Linda Jackson is continuing a career deeply committed to public service.
It takes guts, passion, belief and confidence to put your name on an electoral ballot, and this coming October in the Ontario Municipal elections, Linda Jackson will be putting her name on a ballot for the eighth time in her years of public service. She will be on the ballot seeking to continue to hold the office she currently serves, as Local and Regional Councillor for Vaughan. The daughter of Lorna Jackson, who served as Vaughan’s longest-serving mayor from 1982 until her death in office in 2002, Linda explains that it was her mother who opened her eyes to the power and value of public and community service as a youngster.
“I was inspired by my mother as a young teenager,” Jackson recalls. “I was going out into the community with her, whether we were volunteering at the local recycling stations or being out in the community doing other work, and I saw how she affected change, how she could help people, people who felt their problems could never be solved. But just her compassion for her community where she lived and where she wanted to raise her children …. My mother always believed that you should give back to your community but also you always had to be kind to people and that everyone was created equally. It didn’t matter whether you worked at a factory job or whether you were an executive — that you treat everybody equally and you treat everyone with respect. And that goes a long way if our community comes together and works together as a team.”
Jackson grew up in Pine Grove, in what is now a neighbourhood in Woodbridge, and she attended Woodbridge High School and Thornhill Secondary School. Hockey was a large part of the Jackson family’s life as her father and brothers were active in local hockey; Jackson herself was a founding member of the Pine Wood Angels in the early 1970s, the first girls’ hockey team in Vaughan, and she later coached boys’ hockey.
With a business background in human resources and security management for corporations in the city of Vaughan, following the passing of her mother in 2002, Jackson took up the mantle of the importance of public and community service, which she had witnessed firsthand, and was first elected to the position of ward councillor in a 2002 by-election. Jackson was then elected as regional councillor in the 2003 municipal election, serving as York Region councillor from Vaughan from 2003 to 2006.
Her steady hand, commitment to working for others and, again, her passion for service, led her to run for mayor of Vaughan in 2006. It has often been said about politics that every vote counts and every door you knock on matters, and Jackson experienced this in a very personal way, winning the mayor’s chair by just 90 votes. While the world of politics has been under scrutiny lately, Jackson is concerned about the level of public engagement and involvement, specifically involving municipal politics, considering the day-to-day importance and impact it has on every citizen.
“I’d love to see residents become more active in municipal politics,” she says. “Voter turnout is exceptionally low in municipal elections, lower than provincial or federal, and it certainly would be nice to see more people engaged. Municipal government affects our residents and everyone every day. If the garbage isn’t picked up it’s municipal. In the winter, if the roads aren’t plowed it’s municipal, or if the community centre isn’t there or the grass in the parks isn’t cut – people may not realize how [much] municipal politics impacts them every day.”
“People need to come out and get involved,” Jackson continues. “I’ve seen over the past number of years our council chambers would be full of residents being concerned about a development application or the building of a new park or consultation about a new community centre. But they don’t come out anymore. I appreciate time pressures and children, of course, but there seems to be a disconnect between municipal politics and residents, and I think that’s where they should be more concerned.”
Jackson’s career is the impressive embodiment of a resident committed to serving the residents of Vaughan with integrity, experience and a commitment to putting the community first. She has been focused on safe neighbourhoods, responsible growth and protecting taxpayers while advocating for local priorities and regional investments. One of her proudest achievements has been to serve as Vice Chair of the York Regional Police Service Board, where she has been instrumental in making her community safer.
“You’ve always got to put your residents first and to try to always do the right thing. It’s been many great years, and I look forward to another great four years.”
“Here was a place where I could have a direct impact on our community,” says Jackson. “I started having town halls, and people were legitimately afraid, people would come up to me crying, saying they didn’t want to leave their children alone in the house no matter their age. Then Vaughan was hit with a rash of auto thefts, break-and-enters and home invasions. So we put a lot of resources forward with new funding, allowing police to hire more than 300 civilian and sworn members. One of our most successful police projects was Auto Guard 1 and 2, which was proven statistically to reduce auto thefts in our community. YRP has run other successful projects with respect to break-and-enters and home invasions throughout southern York Region. But in the bigger picture, we really need new federal laws; the bail reform law needs to change and we need more jails.”
With cameras everywhere these days and statistics proving they have a direct impact on reducing crime, Jackson used that to her advantage to help York Regional Police make her community safer. “Through Vaughan council, we went out and bought 10 CCTV cameras for the police for the first time ever,” she proudly recalls. “Many of them are portable and can be moved around, and they all have ALPR technology — which is Automatic License Plate Readers. These are running 24/7, and we’ve had very good success with these because, generally, people who are going to commit crimes are committing crimes with stolen vehicles. The cameras are also equipped with shotgun detectors, so if gunshots are going off, it sends a direct alarm to police immediately, so we don’t have to wait for someone to call 911.”
Jackson believes Vaughan’s future depends on smart responsible growth to create opportunities for future generations. Her priorities for this campaign are to plan for growth — don’t react to it — by advocating for planning decisions in the right places at the right pace that reflect the community needs. She believes in building infrastructure first to ensure roads, transit, water and wastewater infrastructure keep pace with population growth. Jackson also wants to create complete communities, protect Vaughan’s quality of life and support a range of housing options to meet the needs of families, seniors and young professionals. Most importantly, Jackson is a passionate advocate of listening to residents, to ensure community voices are heard and to continue to advocate for transparency, accountability and public engagement in development decisions.
Holding a public office is not on-the-job training, and Linda Jackson has the experience and a proven record of getting things done and remains committed to building a stronger, safer and more prosperous Vaughan, for residents of today and the generations to follow.
“There’s a lot to the job, and you must have a willingness to learn,” she says. “You’ve always got to put your residents first and to try to always do the right thing. It’s been many great years, and I look forward to another great four years.”
