NDP Candidate Benjamin Jenkins is running for York-Simcoe and shares his vision to help develop communities ‘up’ while protecting existing green spaces.
Jenkins is a published researcher, with a degree from the University of Waterloo and a background in microbiology. Originally from the UK and now residing in the Barrie area, Jenkins came to Canada 25 years ago and grew up in Toronto, raised by his mother.
“I have a wonderful mother who did her best and worked herself to the bone raising my brother and I,” he shares. “I learned a great deal from her; about compassion, care for others, and empathy. Growing up in Toronto, right above a busy intersection, I also learned about what air pollution feels like.”
Jenkins shares a major objective for running as NDP candidate in this year’s election is so he can make a better impact on climate action. He explains he spent years breathing in the fumes from tens of thousands of vehicles that passed by that busy intersection every week which ultimately affected his health on unknown levels.
“I’m not unique in experiencing climate-grief,” he says. “That feeling of looking up at the sky at night and wondering, how are we ever going to look forward to a future that’s just going to get worse and worse and worse – I don’t believe this has to be the case. When the party came looking for candidates, I put my name forward saying ‘yes, this is something I would like to take a stand on’.”
Jenkins describes a strategic plan to build cities ‘up’ which will help with affordable housing and climate change at the same time.
“I know what it looks like to have a walkable city… a city where you can get around on foot or by bike or by public transit without ever needing a car. I know what it looks like to have an area with protected green spaces… the UK does a phenomenal job protecting a lot of its green spaces,” he explains.
Jenkins makes comparisons to other major cities in Europe, like Paris or Lisbon, which utilize accommodations called mid-rise housing or ‘flats’. Some are rentals but many people own their apartments because they are more affordable and more ideal for safe, walkable communities, and are also environmentally friendly.
“A lot of the thinking that goes into solving the housing crisis is where do we put more suburbs, where do we put more single-family units. Whereas, I would like to see how can we redevelop lands that we’re already using so we don’t build more on the greenbelt and we don’t add more pollution – let’s get people living where they want to live.”
Jenkins is a bachelor-renter himself and shares that the housing crisis is not going to be solved by just ‘building more houses’ but by changing the way we envision the development of our communities.
“If I ever had the choice between having a place of my own or renting, I would never rent again! It’s awful, awful, awful to have that feeling hanging over your head: Am I going to have a home tomorrow? Is the Landlord going to decide to sell the property to some land developer where I’m going to be without a place to live? Is my rent suddenly going to go up? Because when you rent, you are paying the cost to maintain the place; it’s something you could ostensibly do on your own. But you’re also paying (on top of that) the landlord extra money essentially for being rich enough to buy the place before you could. Unless we fix that, we’re going to be back here again in a few years time with the same problem, no matter how many houses we build. That means viewing housing as a right, not a commodity.”
He notes that more than 30% of Ontarians are paying over 30% of their income in rent and shares the NDP’s platform includes building more than 500,000 new affordable housing units over the next 5 years.
“That is something I’m very excited about. You can look out West to see just how effective the NDP are at that because the BC-NDP have built more houses in 3 years than the Liberals built in 17 years out there. So, the NDP has a good track record for getting stuff done when it comes to housing.”
In respects to the Covid-aftermath and how small businesses have been hit the hardest, Jenkins notes the NDP was instrumental in having CERB and wage subsidies raised to their actual levels ($2000 a month and 75% subsidies) above the initial proposed amounts ($1000 a month and 15%), and shares the NDP will be extending wage subsidies throughout the pandemic as it lingers on.
“If you were a business owner who had to shut down during the first wave of lockdowns, you saw your business go to companies like Amazon or Costco or Walmart before the second or third wave, until they were limited to only sell essentials. And Amazon never even did that,” he asserts. “They still kept making enormous profits – they have done better out of this pandemic than anyone.”
Jenkins shares the NDP will require these Big Box companies to ‘pay their fair share’ so “we can keep propping up small businesses who were forced to shut down and do the responsible thing and care for their fellow citizens while these companies raked it in”.
“Small businesses need customers! … You have to look at both sides – supply and demand,” he says.
When asked about his personal view on the provincial vaccine passports, he says he is awaiting more details.
“The NDP has come out in favour of vaccine passports federally, and they’re important tools for ending this pandemic. My only caution is about using a non-paper-based system. It might be easier to detect fraud with a digital app but … once you have the app on your phone it potentially has access to your location data, etc, etc. I will need to read more and see what they are going to do.”
Stay tuned for more information about NDP Candidate Benjamin Jenkins on his upcoming website.
“Mother-nature is not being subtle anymore; she is through being patient with us and we are absorbing the price for our past climate sins.”
Election day is Sept. 20.
