“I’m confident that I’ll finish a good second, if I was not to win,” said Amarjeet Chhabra, while sitting in her ad-hoc campaign office-two commandeered tables in a Scarborough Tim Hortons.
Sipping a small coffee amidst a pile of highlighted Toronto ward maps, the 24-year-old UTSC student was preparing to hit up the some of the brightly outlined areas on one of the maps with campaign literature and newly acquired purple lawn signs. With less than a week before the elections, the winner of the Scarborough region City Idol contest is thinking further ahead.
“You’ve definitely got to start a lot sooner,” said Chhabra, reflecting on how she will establish herself in the community the next time she runs. “In whatever ward you’re running in, you really need to know the ins and outs of the community and what their needs are.”
“I’ll have a campaign office next time,” she said with a laugh.
Yet, the absence of a campaign office, the six other candidates vying to represent Ward 43, and with just $4,000 in donations are not the only challenges Chhabra has met with during her campaign.
“It takes me a longer time to go out door-to-door to drop flyers,” said Chhabra, who contracted polio when she was four months old, causing the left side of her body to be weaker than the right. “In the time that it takes to do ten houses I can only do five.”
For Chhabra though, her permanent disability is almost a non-issue.
“It has never stopped me, and it will never stop me.”
Chhabra’s campaign pits her against a candidate backed by the previous Ward 43 councillor, and nearly cost her position as a director on the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union due to missed meetings. She said she also met with a bit of discrimination based on her age from some of the residents she has approached while canvassing.
“At times it’s kind of disheartening that when people see you it’s like, ‘You’re young, you need to wait a few more years,'” said Chhabra, whose campaign has had around 50 student volunteers-some of whom are high school students meeting their mandatory community service requirements.
Chhabra’s experiences on the campaign trail have not been all bad, though.
“The highlights have been listening to residents and hearing their concerns,” she said. “You see the reality when you go out there and talk to the people, it’s so nice to sit out there and just say that you can represent them.”
The reality, according to Chhabra, is that the people in her ward are not connected to the government at all.
“We can blame people for not getting involved and engaged, but it also is upon the politicians and the government to make sure that there is communication and services in their language that they can understand.”
Whether or not she will win the mandate to try those initiatives is not something Chhabra will speculate definitively about.
“I joined this race because I wanted to serve the people, and I’m in it to do that, and I’m confident still.”
Chhabra’s efforts, as well as those of the volunteers huddled around the two tables in the bustling donut shop, will be put to the test this coming Monday.
