We want you to tell us who should rep TTCriders on the TTC Commission

 So we started thinking to ourselves.... TTCriders represents the needs of close to 1.8 million people who take the TTC every day. We’ve made huge gains together with over the last few years for public transit in Toronto and that was when we didn’t have representation inside the City government. Where is there a voice for riders on the Commission now? Who better to rep riders than TTCriders? Who better to introduce motions for TTC service improvements than a grassroots riders organization who depends on  transit and knows its problems and opportunities inside and out?

 The last few years have shown pretty poor representation of transit rider interests on the commission. TTC service cuts and fare hikes seemed to be the norm.  Now under a new administration Toronto has the opportunity to get things right again. This term of office citizens appointees could help make 2015 the year of the rider but only if the new appointees are truly representative of our needs. Here’s a good article that explains more on that.

 So TTCriders has decided to put forward an application for membership on the TTC Commission and here’s where you come in: First we will run a competition based on popular vote. We want you to either nominate the candidates who have expressed interest so far, nominate yourself or nominate another TTCrider member. Here’s a link to our form with the candidates listed and options to self-nominate or nominate a TTCrider that hasn’t stepped forward that you think would be a good fit.

On Feb 17th at noon  we be will closing our internal nomination for who will represent TTCriders on the commission and then we will tally the vote count. We will announce the person who will represent TTCriders thereafter.

 The City application process closes Monday Feb 23, 4:30pm. So that gives the winner a week to finalize their application for the commission.

 We encourage anyone interested to check out the link to the City’s application process and submit a nomination anyways even if they are not picked to represent TTCriders. The more applications the better. Get a head start on creating your submission because the competition will be stiff.

 We encourage candidates to nominate themselves or others based on the following criteria:

• Nominee relies on ttc to travel
• Nominee knowledge of public transit in Toronto
• Nominee has time to dedicate to poll TTCriders members on upcoming issues and concerns they may have before TTC Commission meetings
• Nominee has time to poll people outside TTCriders that may have a say
• Nominee has a combination of  leadership and organizational skills like those that we'd expect from a TTCriders campaigns or board member

Questions? Contact Marco at [email protected]

UPDATE: Please Read Further for information on those candidates who have volunteered their statements of interest so far:

Jessica Bell

With so many of those we represent living in the inner suburbs, I strongly believe it’s important for a citizen appointee to the transit commission to be the advocate for this demographic that Commissioners such as Glenn de Baeremaeker and Denzil Minnan-Wong have failed to be. I’m proud to say that as an organization we’ve already beendoing so, winning an important victory for service improvements on surface bus and streetcar routes.

As an inner suburban transit user myself, using the system to fulfill temporary assignments and continue my job search, I know that I share the frustration of my fellow riders. What’s more, I’ve been an enthusiastic member of both the Scarborough and External committees; demonstrating that I have the enthusiasm and experience to represent our organization and the transit riders of this city faithfully while building upon the media exposure and campaign success that we’ve had to date. If chosen as the TTCRiders candidate for transit commissioner I will continue our campaigns from the ‘inside’ and will fight for lower fares, progressive revenue sources and completion of the rapid transit expansion plans that best serve residents of the whole city, rather than motorists parking for the odd Jay’s game. In the long term I hope to change the discussion regarding transit from one of austerity and ‘cap in hand’ begging for one off project funding from higher levels of government to one of sustained and forceful support for riders of all income levels and postal codes.

I would be honoured to serve as our representative on the Commission and continue the fight for great public transit in Toronto.

In Solidarity,

Vincent Puhakka