This week we speak with Ana Bailão (Ward 18, Davenport). Bailão was born in Portugal and at 15 moved to Canada, where she went to West Toronto Collegiate. Bailão's family was working class, and she worked four hours after each school day to save money to attend the University of Toronto.
As it happened in her ward, Bailão has recently addressed the death of Jenna Morrison, the cyclist who was killed in a collision with a truck driver. We spoke to her about this, the Portuguese community in Ward 18 and what she would like to see in her ward by 2014.
In light of the recent Jenna Morrison tragedy, what kind of response you have had from constituents in regards to cyclists and safety?
It's been an issue in Ward 18 for a long time. We're very lucky to have the West Toronto Railpath in our ward; one of the things the community wants is to see it expanded in the south and north, which I'm working on. People were tired of having the cars-versus-cyclists or cyclists-versus-cars rhetoric. People felt there was fault on both sides. There are drivers that are really, really bad and there are cyclists that are really, really bad.
A lot of people feel we need to do more education. It's not an option anymore, especially in areas such as mine. It's a downtown area, a lot of people cycle. It's cheaper, people get their exercise, it makes sense. It's not an option to have cyclists on the road; it’s the reality. So we have to learn how to live with it.
So in terms of education, what are some tools to use to get that across?
I would like to eventually see a city-wide education campaign done. Hopefully, after we get this budget out of the way, we can get into projects like that, building on these programs. I think locally, as councillors, we have a responsibility to speak that way, act that way. For example, I have Dupont street, where a bike lane was put in. It's created some traffic issues.
The easy thing for me to do would be to say, “let's take this bike lane out because it's creating traffic.” But you have to come to a meeting and say, look, we're not going to make the same mistake twice. We're going to look at this, the reality is we have cyclists that use it, the path is the east-west connection for communities and we need to find a solution. Is it going to take a little bit longer? Yes it will. But we have to be strong and have that kind of conversation with our communities and I think as elected officials we need to do a lot of that.
Something came up at a recent committee meeting on the subject of cleaners. You spoke about your personal experience as a cleaner in high school when you came to Canada and how that related to so many people in your community. Can you talk about the importance of sharing those stories, of building an understanding for who your community is and where they come from?
I think I'm very representative of the community I have. We have a community that is very much in transition, but still a working-class community. A lot of immigrants, 25 percent of Portuguese descent. But a lot of young families, young professionals moving in. During the campaign I said that I thought I brought something to the table that none of the other candidates bring. I understand where these older communities are, because I'm Portuguese myself.
The Portuguese community has very poor political representation. We need to start saying, “you know we're great cleaners and construction workers, but we can be great doctors and lawyers and politicians as well.” I think I have a little bit of a responsibility to do that as well, but I have a responsibility to represent everyone. For example, the arts. I have 10 percent of people in Ward 18 that work in the arts industry. So it's really important for me that issues in the arts community are represented well.
How would you like to see your ward change by 2014?
The more engaged, the better. Ten years ago, I worked for the local councillor here (Mario Silva). North of Bloor, there were no residence associations. At that time, I started two groups as an assistant. Actually one of those residents reminded me recently that ten years ago we started this group, and it still exists, and it's great. I think the more people we have engaged the better results we have.
