Ward 3 candidate Jennifer Hounslow: worth listening to - don't vote until you do

By Pepper Parr

September 26th, 2022

BURLINGTON, ON

New to municipal politics but certainly not new to Burlington.

She attended Central Public School and then Central High School.   Went to Sheridan College where she studied Business Administration and Marketing.

As part of her education she worked as a co-op student for Paddy Torsney, the Liberal candidate federally at the time, and then did a work project with the Town of Milton.  You could see where this career was going.

Jennifer Hounslow – is doing her homework and building on the significant experience she has with one of the best corporate operations in North America.

When she married she and her husband lived Headon Forest, moved to Waterdown and found it wasn’t quite what they expected and returned to Burlington where she now resides in ward 3,  She is running for the ward seat on city Council.

They are Burlingtonians at least until the kids are off to university; with the youngest just 15 months old – the family is going to be around for some time.

With a good workforce experience at Honeywell Aerospace Hounslow was beginning to find that the Burlington she wanted wasn’t doing all that well.

Deeply unsatisfied with the level of service and community support she was getting from Councillor Nisan Hounslow had a long talk with her husband and decided that she would run for public office in ward 3.

One of her biggest concerns with this  council is that they don’t monitor the decisions they make” said Hounslow.  They make a decision, commit the funds and seem to expect that everything will work out. Hounslow is well aware that the world doesn’t work that way.

Hounslow: making sure she is working with the right people where she strives to build a trusting relationship.

She uses the word “execute” in one of the headline on her web site.  She isn’t talking about a solution the coyote problem – based on her experience at Honeywell Hounslow knows that making a decision is one of the steps – how you carry out that decision is the bigger part of the challenge.

Hounslow puts it this way.  She sees her job as a city councillor as making sure she is working with the right people where she strives to build a trusting relationship.

She wants to hear independent voices and wants to collaborate with people.

Updates to the different communities within the ward are part of how she intends to meet with people and hear what they have to say.  The Gazette is mindful of a ward councillor who holds regular ward meetings that are both live and virtual and then spends the bulk of the meeting talking to (usually at) the people taking part in the meeting.

Hounslow has an issue with the cadence of council meetings – by cadence she means the flow, rhythm, tempo and tone of a meeting.

Are the councillors listening or are they off in a world of their own? she asks.

Hounslow: the solution to getting a real grip on the climate change threat is to work at the purely local level – that is where minds can be changed.

On transit – one of the biggest challenges is the optics of the service.

People are quick to say that all they see are empty buses trundling along city streets pouring diesel exhaust fumes..

Hounslow is not an advocate of the “ticking off the boxes” approach to administration and uses instead the phrase – “can we talk that out?”

If elected how long would she serve?  More than one term but does not see herself on a career path that would take her to different levels of government.

She sees the solution to getting a real grip on the climate change threat is to work at the purely local level – she believes that it is at that level where minds get changed and with minds changed the needed steps can be taken.  She is quick to admit that green solutions are expensive.

If you live in ward 3 – and intend to vote – Hounslow is someone you want to listen to.

Hounslow web site: