Rocco Achampong is running for mayor of Toronto. The 31-year-old lawyer and former president of U of T’s Student Administrative Council (now known as UTSU) will officially launch his campaign today at Hart House, entering the thick of an already uncertain race.
Born in Tema, Ghana, Achampong entered U of T’s Transitional Year Programme in 1999 and went on to study history and political science at Trinity College. He was the president of the Black Students Association before being elected to lead SAC in April of 2002.
Achampong says his decision to run for office dates back to December 2005, after a violent year that saw 80 homicides in Toronto, 42 of them shootings. Achampong, a student at Osgoode Hall law school at the time, remembers the death of Amon Beckles, an 18-year-old Toronto man who was gunned down at the funeral of his best friend, Jamal Hemmings.
“My brother and sister were in that church,” said Achampong. “They had to duck when they heard the gunfire.”
“That’s when I decided something had to be done,” he said. “It became ominously clear to me that no politician knew how to speak to the issue. They didn’t speak the language of the youth that were involved in these spates of violence. They ought to have known societal values have changed.”
Achampong’s campaign pledges include a two-year freeze on rising transit fares, a problem he believes the city can solve internally. He also promises to start what he calls “the largest subway expansion in the history of Toronto since probably the mid-to-late 1960s.”
He advocates loosening regulation to make it easier to start businesses. His campaign materials—emblazoned with his slogan “Leadership. For a Change”—speak of his commitment to the arts and an endorsement of a national housing program. The rhetoric suggests a John Tory–like conservatism. While Achampong welcomed the comparison—he spoke of carrying Tory’s torch and getting started in politics because of him—he did so with caution. “Conservative as I interpret it implies a certain duty to protect, preserve, and conserve the interests of the public,” he said. “But I’m not a banner-holding individual. Context dictates approach.”
As president of SAC, Achampong actively supported a campaign to discourage U of T’s entry into the Canadian Federation of Students; he still maintains that UTSU’s membership in CFS is illegal. His leadership was questioned after a motion of non-confidence that saw the SAC board vote 31-8 in favour of his resignation. Included in the allegations against him were insufficient office hours and failure to comply with executive procedures, all of which Achampong denied as “patently false.” Still, he says his time at SAC was an important experience.
“I think it makes me even better [as a candidate],” Achampong said of his time in SAC. “I have more experience in participatory democracy than most of the other candidates do. I’ve been in the hot seat. I’ve taken the shots.”
As far as the controversy is concerned, Achampong says that was a result of his results-oriented attitude. “I came with four promises,” he said. “I said I’d put the opt-outs online, bring college council presidents onto the board, bring discounted metropasses, and fight for tuition fees. And what did I do? I did all four.”
As someone in his early thirties and with no background as an elected official in the city, Achampong is likely to face questions of inexperience. His fellow thirty-something in the mayoral race, Adam Giambrone, is often labelled as inexperienced, though his six years on Toronto City Council and as TTC commissioner make him far less of a fringe candidate. (Notably, current mayor David Miller was largely considered a fringe candidate when he kicked off his campaign in 2002, having polled beneath Barbara Hall and John Nunziata for the better part of his campaign.)
“Experience—and especially good experience—is needed in situations where the current state of affairs is beneficial,” Achampong said. “But it’s not just about being the popular guy from Ward 19 or Ward 17. We need a guy that will bring this city into the next century and see things in a globalized context.”
Rocco Achampong launches his campaign on Monday, Feb. 1, at 5:30 p.m. at the Hart House Debate Room.
Click here for The Varsity’s look back at Rocco Achampong’s term as president of SAC (UTSU).
