Meet Your Regional Council Candidates: Dave Sheen, Wards 1, 2, and 3

October 2, 2026 · 0 Comments

By Kathryn Fraser

Dave Sheen, incumbent Councillor of Ward 2 has decided to take things to the next level by running to become Caledon’s next Regional Councillor for Wards 1,2 and 3.

Sheen was first elected as Councillor of Ward 2 back in 2022 and has made the decision to not run for re-election there, but to run for Regional Councillor instead.

“I feel that now after four years on Council, I’ve gained the experience that I need to represent Caledon at the Regional table on Regional issues,” says Sheen.

In addition to being a member of Caledon Council, Sheen spent 34 years with the Ontario Public Service where he worked with many young people in conflict and law, and has now retired. Sheen was also an appointed Alternate Member of Peel Regional Council, Chair of the Governance Review Committee, and Vice Chair for the Audit Committee.

To Sheen, public service has always been a large part of his life and he wants to be able to be a strong voice for those living in Wards 1,2 and 3.

“I think the residents of Wards 1, 2 and 3 want someone who will be honest with them, open, transparent, and willing to and being very available to them. All three Wards have different needs, particularly between Ward 2 and Wards 1 and 3. Wards 1 and 3 are and will be largely agricultural communities for a long time, especially the Ward 1, which has incredible natural resources, sights and scenery and wildlife, and rivers, lakes and streams, and they want to protect them. I don’t blame them. It’s beautiful up there,” says Sheen. “Ward 2 is probably the fastest growing Ward in Caledon. It has a lot of growth targeted for it. It’s currently underway. It’s not moving as fast as it was originally projected to move at, and they need someone on Council who understands what it’s like to live in a large, growing neighbourhood, which I do. They want somebody who understands what it’s like to live in these communities. But also someone who will follow through on what they say and do.”

To Sheen it is very important to be able to stay connected with the community and he wants to make sure that he can hear from all of his residents.

Using the advice he received from Council candidate Stan Cameron many years ago, Sheen says he makes it his mission to never leave anyone hanging.

“I have a system where I can keep track of who I’m calling and who I’m meeting with. I’m sure someone will say, ‘Oh, you didn’t get back to me,’ that’s possible, because I’m not perfect. But 99 per cent of the time I get back to people. I also make it a huge [priority] unlike any other member of Council, including the mayor, including the Town, to constantly communicate our work through social media,” says Sheen. “And in the last year and a half, I’ve been making better use of my website, and I’ve been writing blog articles. Some more often than others, but I try to communicate outwards, and I’m trying to model how the Town is one big community. So many communities like Valleywood and Southfields and Mayfield West, and all the hamlets up in northwest Caledon, all see themselves as their own little community, and a lot of ways they are, but in a lot of other ways we’re all part of Caledon.”

Focusing on his main priorities, Sheen stresses the importance of slowing down development, but that he is not anti-development but against rushed development.

“Slow down the development, make sure we’re doing it right, because we can’t have a do-over. Once you build a community, it’s done. You’re living with it. In fact, that’s not even true, because now, we built out this neighbourhood, for example, we think about Southfields and then the Province comes in a couple years ago and says auxiliary residential units are right. If you can build an auxiliary residential unit, so like an in-law suite in your backyard. Your backyard’s big enough, and you can tie into municipal water and wastewater, and you can establish a proper setback from your fence line, you can have a garden suite. We’re going over, now wait a minute, there’s already not enough parking…. I know we have a problem housing affordability. I don’t know if it’s just housing shortage, but a housing affordability issue, but that’s not something that should fall on the municipality to figure out,” says Sheen.

Through his many years of work and service in the community and his proven track record Sheen says he hopes Caledon will decide to put their trust in him again.

“You can’t be a public servant for 34 years and not be trustworthy,” he says. “Not only was I a public servant and [in] a managerial position for most of those 34 years, I also earned a medal – admittedly, it’s a long service medal, but they don’t give it to everybody just because you managed to survive 30 years there. You also must have a clean record serving in the public service. I’ve got a medal called the Corrections Exemplary Service Medal. I was a public servant in Youth Justice. I also worked with Kids’ Help Phone for 18 years as a telephone counsellor taking calls from hundreds of kids all across Canada and into the territories. I was active in my community. People in Valleywood probably will remember when I was a coach out there, so clearly I’m community-oriented and not just because I’m a Councillor. This is who I am.”