A strong Federation is one that stays close to its members

Our collective strength starts with a relationship of trust with members.

OSSTF/FEESO brings together members with extremely diverse professions, classifications, regional realities and workplaces. To represent that diversity well, you have to go and meet it.

That’s what I have always done in District 32. And it’s what I am now doing across Ontario.

During this campaign, I am travelling to every corner of the province, from Sault Ste. Marie to Ottawa, from Toronto and Waterloo to Thunder Bay and Timmins, to meet members where they live their working reality.

But I want to do more than meet them.

I am also job shadowing OSSTF/FEESO colleagues to spend time with them in their real work environment. I am joining teachers in the classroom and in co-op. I am getting a closer look at the reality of university support staff. I am meeting members in Northern and Far Northern Ontario.

Because I don’t claim to know a reality I have never lived. I would rather go and see it, ask questions and listen to the people who live it every day.

This approach helps me better understand what brings our members together, and also what sets their realities apart by profession, region and workplace.

That is the way of representing I want to bring to the Provincial Executive: being present before deciding, listening before speaking and understanding before acting.

Mobilization doesn’t begin the day we need members. It is built every day, through presence, communication, listening and trust.

I am travelling across Ontario today to better know the members I hope to represent tomorrow.

And whatever the distance, the classification or the workplace, my commitment stays the same:

go to the members, learn from their reality and make sure their voice finds its place within OSSTF/FEESO.