2024–present · Carleton, Ontario

Policy Development

Ontario Liberal Party

Evidence-based policy. Grassroots engagement. Local priorities.

Policy Director, Carleton Provincial Liberal Association (since 2024) and Chair, Eastern Regional Policy Committee (2024–2025).

Consultations: 30+; Digital surveys and in-person policy events
Policy ideas: 250+; Gathered from our members
Regional proposals: 19; East Region submissions to the OLP platform team
Carleton authors: 10; Distinct contributors to policy proposals

As the Policy Director for the Carleton Provincial Liberal Association, it is my job to listen to residents, hear their concerns and research possible solutions, and share our progress back with them. There are always opportunities to participate in this process, in-person and virtually. If you'd like to get involved, check out what's happening in the next few months:

Upcoming events

West Side Pride

Sat, Jul 25 · 3:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Alexander Grove Park, Stittsville

Visit the Carleton PLA booth at West Side Pride in Stittsville!

Festival

Volunteer

Community check-ins

Group door knocking across the riding. Neighbours talking to neighbours. No sales pitch, and no experience needed; first-time canvassers welcome.

Findlay Creek
Sun, Jul 12
5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Join
Richmond
Sun, Aug 23
5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Join
Stittsville
Sun, Aug 30
5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Join
Greely
Sun, Sep 13
5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Join

Getting involved

My first taste of partisan politics came in 2013, when I joined the Nepean—Carleton Young Liberals. Initially, I joined to vote in that year's federal leadership election. But with an eye on making a difference, an active group of volunteers in Nepean, and a curiosity about our democracy, I stuck around. I wanted to be a voice for my community.

When I moved to Boston for work in 2014, I fell out of Canadian politics for a while. But shortly after my mayoral race and beginnings with Make Housing Affordable, another leadership race pulled me back in: this time, a provincial one.

Impressed with the team in Carleton at a candidate meet and greet event, I joined the Carleton Provincial Liberal Association as their Policy Director. In the years since, we've run online surveys, hosted policy townhalls, and held social events with a policy focus. Across more than 30 opportunities to share ideas, we've gathered over 250 ideas, concerns, and priorities from residents of Carleton, and shared them all with party HQ.

Leading the region

After the leadership race, the Ontario Liberal Party established regional committees to help develop its platform and give the grassroots members a voice. I was the first Chair of the East Regional Policy Committee, coordinating the efforts of the 14 ridings in East Region.

Provincial politics should not be dictated top down; ridings need structures that amplify local voices if we truly aim to connect with and represent local voters. I helped to build those structures in Carleton and in East Region, which continues to have the strongest grassroots policy network.

My dual roles meant channelling member concerns up to the party, translating local issues into policy proposals, and building the grassroots organization that supported a competitive nomination and provincial run.

At the end of 2024, we submitted 19 developed policy proposals to the party's central policy team, alongside hundreds of additional comments and ideas. Eleven of those proposals were authored or co-authored by Carleton volunteers. Though the platform was rushed for the accelerated election cycle, we can count at least three of those proposals in the party's 2025 election platform.

Ahead of the 2025 election, I resigned as chair of the regional committee, proud of all we achieved but ready to pass the torch and focus on campaigning.

Focus areas

Both roles centred on the same question: how can the Ontario Liberal Party earn trust in Carleton and eastern Ontario through concrete policy and genuine, respectful engagement? At the VP Policy's direction, the 2023–2024 policy development was organized under five themes:

Healthcare
Housing
Environment
Education
Economy

The Carleton policy team surveyed our community and found healthcare was the top concern in our riding. Housing and the environment followed very closely, effectively tied, both in the number of people who chose to prioritize the issue and in the number of policy ideas we received.

Across the 19 East Region proposals, 6 were for healthcare, 5 were for housing, and our two most-detailed proposals were environmental.

Policy proposals

Since they were not officially endorsed by the party, the policy proposals will not be published here. Still, I'd like to share a few of the themes that Carleton prioritized, that our volunteers put so much hard work into researching and developing.