This weekend, I returned to RodeoX for a follow-up conversation with South Ontario residents who wanted more time to talk. I asked only one question — and the answers were impossible to ignore.
This weekend, I returned for a follow-up conversation with several South Ontario residents at RodeoX who wanted more time to talk after our last Community Conversation.
I asked only one question:
What do you want your first District 3 Councilmember to understand?
Everyone received an index card and wrote down their answer.
As I read them, a common theme became impossible to miss.
Residents don't want someone coming into their neighborhood and telling them what their issues are.
They want to be listened to. They want to be heard. And they want a meaningful voice in what happens next.
One resident wrote:
"I want my D3 council member to understand that we need a voice in what happens in our city. Not just 2 to 3 minutes on subjects already before the council. Real meetings of the community, like tonight."
Another wrote:
"A well-connected district thrives when their concerns and interests are actually acknowledged and listened to."
And another simply said:
"Better communication with District 3."
Those answers stayed with me.
For years, I have heard South Ontario residents describe feeling disconnected from decisions being made elsewhere in the city. As this part of Ontario has grown, so has the desire for representation that understands these neighborhoods because it is actually present in them.
That is one reason district representation matters.
But electing the first District 3 Councilmember should mean more than drawing a new boundary on a map.
It should mean changing the relationship between residents and their representative.
Community engagement cannot consist only of giving people two or three minutes at a microphone after an issue has already reached the Council agenda. There should also be opportunities to talk before decisions are made — to sit together, ask questions, exchange ideas, follow up, and sometimes simply listen.
That is what these Community Conversations, neighborhood walks, Meet & Greets, and follow-up sessions have taught me.
Residents are not asking to be told what they think.
They are asking to be included.
And what I heard this weekend was encouraging: when people are given the space to speak openly, ask difficult questions, and know that someone is actually listening, they begin to feel more connected to their city and its future.
If I have the privilege of becoming Ontario's first District 3 Councilmember, I want these conversations to continue after Election Day.
Not because every resident will agree with me.
Not because every request can be granted.
But because representation begins with understanding the people you represent.
District 3 deserves a voice — not just at election time, but throughout the decisions that shape its future.
Listen first. Understand. Then lead.
Lampkin for Ontario City Council District 3 Service Before Politics.
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Lampkin for Ontario Campaign
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