WARD 7 Priorities
Property Taxes
All candidates promise to cut wasteful spending to lighten property taxes.
Jonathan Sher has done it:
Saved Londoners $160,000 and Ontarians $4.5 million a year by pushing Ford Motors to stop gouging police for cruisers made in Ontario but sold here for 50% more than in Texas. Weeks after his reporting, Ford Motors slashed prices by $5,000 per vehicle.
Persuaded City Council to delay a 7% hike to property taxes after unearthing a report that staff had buried - a report that found London’s property tax burden was among the highest in Ontario.
Traffic and Transit
All candidates promise to improve traffic flow and public transit.
Jonathan Sher has done it.
Persuaded City Council to build an underpass at Adelaide Street by showing how level train crossings that blocked traffic, transit and emergency vehicles endangered lives and cost our economy $7 million a year.
Jonathan’s plan for Ward 7:
More transit routes running with greater frequency so residents can use the bus to commute to work and school.
Move ahead on plans to improve traffic and transit on Wonderland Road, a process stalled four years by a previous council. We cannot continue to build high rises without the roads or transit to support that growth.
We cannot wait for bus rapid transit (BRT) to address the need for more conventional transit now. BRT must be weighed against other options, including boosting conventional transit, because BRT takes years to build, disrupts traffic and business during construction and is too costly to build without upper government funding.
Community Centre
All candidates promise to push for a community centre that serves as a hub for family recreation and community gathering in Ward 7.
Jonathan Sher persuaded City Hall to grow recreation facilities:
After City Council refused to expand the city’s only indoor soccer facility from four fields to six, Jonathan convinced City Council to reverse course. He did so by showing the one-time ask for $400,000 by the non-profit group that runs the BMO Centre, the London Optimists, was 10-times less than what the city pays each year to subsidize hockey arenas.
I will apply the same skills to push for a community centre and other recreational needs that serve a ward whose population of families with children is growing quickly.
Responsible Development
We need growth that doesn’t harm existing neighbourhoods and a councillor in Ward 7 who isn’t financially backed by developers.
As a journalist Jonathan Sher helped convince City Council to scrap a fund that gave developers, not residents, say over where and when to build. He did so before the fund had to be bailed out a second time by taxpayers.
Jonathan Sher refused donation offers from developers.
Employment
All candidates promise to boost employment.
Jonathan Sher has, since 2023, worked for an economic development agency that helps businesses grow and adapt to tariffs, disrupted supply chains and the transition to green energy. His work gives him access to entrepreneurs, business leaders and experts in the shifting global economy, providing him with insights into how London can position itself to compete for jobs of the future.
Advocacy for the Vulnerable
All candidates promise to reduce homelessness.
To do that, London must persuade Queen’s Park and Ottawa to partner with cities to protect the vulnerable. We need supportive and affordable housing and better mental healthcare and help for those with addictions.
Jonathan Sher persuaded upper governments to help the vulnerable.
Jonathan’s advocacy for seniors in nursing homes persuaded Ontario to double the number of inspectors and conduct annual inspections.
Jonathan Sher showed how massive home care agencies neglected the elderly and frail by spending too much on gatekeeping and senior executives. His reporting convinced Ontario to scrap those agencies so money could be directed to providing care.
Jonathan showed how vulnerable foster kids in Ontario were being placed in the care of for-profit companies paid as much as $167 million a year without oversight from the provincial government or children’s aid societies – flaws that led to the murder of a 15-year-old foster youth in Barrie. His reporting for CBC’s The Fifth Estate persuaded the provincial government to admit the system was flawed and to commit to new legislation.
Jonathan Sher fought for children who were exposed to elevated levels of lead in tap water. Ontario’s chief drinking water inspector credited Jonathan for pushing the province to create protective measures that caused lead levels to plummet.
Better Value for Taxes
All candidates promise to boost public accountability.
Jonathan Sher has, for decades, held politicians and public officials to account -- imagine what Jonathan can do as your Ward 7 Councillor!
Exposed extravagant pay at City Hall and Western University. His reporting pushed City Council to part ways with its top manager and Western’s president to give back nearly $500,000.
Mountains of money spent but not a penny of proof of benefit; that's the ledger after Ontario closed 87 hospitals in a process that in London alone cost $1.3 billion.
Eight years after Ontario created a $40-million fund to save nursing jobs, as little as half a cent on the dollar had been spent on nurses.
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