It’s become a fact of life for Bahar Aminvaziri that sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day. For the past six months, she has juggled her campaign for city councillor for Toronto’s Ward 26 with her full-time job at the Ministry of the Environment.
The 27-year-old is up every morning by 7 a.m., preparing for her work day at the Ministry, where she works as an engineer in the Waste Disposal branch. After work, she meets up with her team of ten campaign volunteers-comprised of mostly close friends and family members.
Without a headquarters, the team usually meets in a coffee shop nearby, where they discuss the campaign until well after dark. Then Aminvaziri heads home-her campaign’s de facto headquarters-to catch up, which given the circumstances could mean writing a speech, preparing for an interview, answering emails, or updating her website and blog. She keeps at it until well into the night (her most recent blog entry, for instance, came at 4:37 a.m. Monday morning) before she turns out the lights.
It makes sense then, that our phone interview takes place, at her urging, over the lunch hour, as she darts from her office at the Ministry of the Environment to get a bite to eat. Cars are honking in the background. A moment later she interrupts our conversation to order her lunch.
One of my first questions is if she’s exhausted, and her brief answer is more revealing than she thinks. “Yes. Very,” is all she can muster.
But her hard work has not been without its rewards. Of the fifteen candidates in her ward, only five-the perceived front-runners-were invited to a televised debate on Goldhawk Live. There she performed well, earning praise from the perceived front-runner, John Parker, a former MPP during the Mike Harris administration.
“I find Bahar charming, and I thought she spoke very well at the candidates’ meeting,” he said. “She’s honourable, conscientious, and speaks well. And I found it very imaginative of her to come up with round lawn signs.”
Aminvaziri, a U of T grad student (though she’s put her studies on hold), was one of four winners of the City Idol contest that wrapped up in June, and though the City Idol team provided her with four volunteers-assistance that was sorely needed-Aminvaziri’s campaign has struggled financially. With the help of the Iranian community, Aminvaziri’s campaign raised about $10,000-enough to cover literature costs and website fees, but not enough to rent office space or hire full-time staff.
“A full campaign would require about $20,000 to $25,000” she said. “But young people don’t have any full chance-we’re not yet well-known in society. Others who are older and more experienced and have relationships to businesses, they have no problems raising funds. When you are young and not well-known, it is difficult to convince people to donate funds.”
But, for all her youth and inexperience, Aminvaziri has established herself as an articulate voice in the municipal politics-and that’s according to her opposition.
But if Aminvaziri loses on Nov. 13-which is possible, given that the riding went to conservative Jane Pitfield last time around-she will still take much away from the experience, she said.
“If she’s not successful [on Nov. 13],” said Parker, “she’s performed admirably and set the stage for the future.” Aminvaziri shared this outlook.
“This has been an amazing experience. I’ve learned so much I didn’t expect-how to handle a budget, how to manage a team of volunteers, how to design a website, how to go door-to-door, and more. If I could, I would do it all over again.”
