Ward 2 Councillor-Elect Dave Sheen excited to serve community

By Zachary Roman

Dave Sheen said it's been an exciting time since he was elected to be Caledon's next Ward 2 Councillor.

On election night, October 24, Sheen was at a small party hosted by close friends who had helped him in his campaign. Surrounded by friends, family and campaign volunteers, Sheen watched the results come in.

“At some point in the evening, when we saw the numbers come up and it looked like I was in the lead, everyone in the group and the watch party was excited and ready to celebrate,” said Sheen. “I said, ‘I don't think that's the total numbers'... so I tried to dampen everyone's expectations and told them to just wait until the numbers were updated.”

One of Sheen's competitors for the Ward 2 role, Jagraj Sekhon, notified Sheen via phone call that he had won — this happened before Sheen had even seen the final numbers.

“He congratulated me for the win… he said some pretty gracious things,” said Sheen. “When (the numbers) appeared online the whole house erupted and we all jumped up and down.”

Sheen received 1,559 votes, while Sekhon received 1,100. Other candidates for Ward 2 Councillor, Hunar Kahlon and John Ruscetta, received 866 and 275 respectively.

Sheen used social media quite a bit in his campaign, and after he won he said he took the time to read all the comments and messages that were coming his way. He also made a thank you post for not only the people who voted for him, but to his competition as well for a civil and well-fought election campaign.

“My main campaign team, Kim and Kevin Conlin, were extremely helpful. Bill and Sherry Pratt were very helpful as well,” said Sheen. “I was particularly grateful for their help since they're all working full time and pretty busy themselves.”

Sheen said he also wanted to thank those who contributed financially to his campaign and those who offered him valuable campaigning advice. 

“Adding to my list of those I should say thanks to, people who allowed me to display my election signs, especially the large election signs on farm properties. They provided a lot of visibility in high-traffic areas in the rural parts of the Ward, for which I am grateful,” said Sheen. “Also, many thanks to those who hosted ‘meet and greets' with my neighbours.”

During election season, it became clear to Sheen that traffic safety was a major issue in Ward 2.

He said if there were an easy fix to it, it would have been done already, but he's very excited to get to meet Town of Caledon staff and take another run at tackling traffic. He said the Town has done much already, but that more can be accomplished, and once the new term of Council is sworn in, it can begin to look at the feasibility of solutions like speed bumps and red light cameras.

Sheen said he will communicate with residents to let them know what's being done and what barriers to solutions there may be.

“I think one of the reasons that people drive badly is that they don't feel a connection to their community, and so they just don't feel connected to their neighbours, and therefore drive disrespectfully,” said Sheen. “It may sound a little ambitious or naive, but I think if people could somehow feel better connected to their neighbourhood, they would behave themselves better.”

Sheen said he's going to be working hard to help build that sense of community and help people in Ward 2 feel better connected. He said he would like to collaborate with the Town of Caledon's communications team to achieve this goal.

Caledon's new term of Council will begin on November 15.