Always striving to work for the constituents of Brantford, Councillor Richard Carpenter, who has served on Council as one of two Ward 4 representatives for just over three decades, has experienced various changes throughout his time in municipal governance.
While he’s helped accomplish many things for the City throughout the years, be it working with issues in regards to hydro, water or transportation, bringing Six Nations Polytechnic to Brantford and widening Wayne Gretzky Parkway, Carpenter said that making things happen is a group effort.
“It takes six members of Council to get something done so no one member of a Council can actually take credit for any accomplishment. It’s really all of Council that makes things happen,” he said. “Sure, I brought small things forward over the years and I was involved in things like opening, naming and widening Wayne Gretzky Parkway, which was good, but I think my bigger accomplishments came later with support for seniors more than anything; I helped start the seniors windrow removal program and I was on the Elder Abuse Awareness Committee. But honestly, there’s nothing big that I’ve come to Council to do. It’s the small things like making sure there’s recreation so we can keep kids out of trouble, or making sure the finances are being used properly that are really more important.”
“I’m not a ‘do one big thing’ kind of guy, it’s the small things. I don’t care who gets the credit for the big projects. Even if it was my idea, I don’t care if someone else gets the credit for it,” he continued. “My job is fixing that sidewalk for someone or making sure snow gets cleared…those are more important to me than the big things. I don’t need the publicity, that’s not what I do it for. My legacy is honesty, I’m not looking for something big to put my name on.”
As rewarding as the job often is, sometimes it comes with challenging moments.
“One of the toughest times I had on Council was when I was acting Mayor of the month and Trooper Larry Rudd was killed in Afghanistan. His family wanted his procession to come down Brant Avenue to the Cenotaph for the service, and as acting mayor, they needed me to approve closing the street and I did that. That was a tough time, but it was the right thing to do,” explained Carpenter. “It was also always tough on those election days when good councillors lost because it happens. Or when Council members like Bob Taylor passed away, or when Mike Hancock retired; that was tough but I threw a little event for him because, when members of Council leave or retire, no one says a word. You could have a 20 year career and not run again, and nobody says a word. There’s no party, there’s no cake and I think there’s something missing there.”
Another difficult moment happened late last year when Carpenter was penalized after the City’s Integrity Commissioner, Jeffrey Shapiro, determined he breached the code of conduct after revealing details of an in-camera discussion back in June of 2024.
“That was tough, but most of those times, once they’ve passed you kind of forget about it and have to move forward,” he said.
What’s particularly hard is making sure the constituents understand why and how decisions are made, especially if they aren’t in favour of them.
“I think the most difficult part is that people don’t always know the difference between provincial, federal and municipal obligations and priorities, they just know what happens to them. So a lot of the time you have to explain that something is happening because it’s under provincial rules,” he explained. “Especially when it comes to development, it’s difficult to sit down with them and say, ‘Look, I know you don’t want this, but you could have this,’ and so what I try to do is tell them that, ‘under the rules, they [the developers] can do this, this and this. They’re going to do something, they may build here, or they’re going to develop there, but let’s make it the best possible thing you can get out of what they can do.’ So people don’t always get what they want, but they know that you’re in their corner to find them the best possible solution.”
Over the past 30 years on Council, Carpenter has seen not only the challenges of managing constituent expectations, but also how the tools and the pace of the job have changed too.
“Everything is quite a bit different from the days when I had a Rolodex. It’s changed in the sense that people can contact you instantaneously. You’re getting emails now, and if you don’t answer it that day, you’ll lose it because you get 40 more in front of it, and then you forget to go back to find the one you’ve got to respond to,” said Carpenter. “People expect instantaneous responses. They want to get things resolved quicker, they want to know how to be involved, and they want to know more. The constituents are much more educated than they’ve ever been and much more knowledgeable about what’s going on here. They care more about what’s going on, but they’re busier than they’ve ever been, so time is important to them. They don’t have a lot of time between work, their families and their personal lives.”
One of the biggest differences between now and when he started on Council is technology.
“We have a new system called Council Request Works, and I love it because you can send me a message about something, I can copy paste it and then send that to Council Request. They send me a response back, and then I send it back to you,” he explained. “It’s kind of nice because I’m not calling ten different people to get something solved; so it’s better that way, but a lot of the decision making process has been taken away from Council and given to staff which means there’s less accountability for Council members, and less ability for them to get things done for their constituents.”
Of course, with technology comes social media and people taking to the internet to express their frustrations.
“It’s so easy for someone to say something negative because they just hit a couple keys, but you can’t take that to heart because if you do, as soon as you respond to someone that’s angry, you just inflame the anger,” said Carpenter. “Sometimes you can’t do much more than just let them say what they’ve got to say, and if at a later date, you see them in person, that’s the time to explain what happened and help diffuse it. But getting angry back at them on social media doesn’t fix anything.”
Carpenter continued, “When things like that happen, you just have to remind yourself that 95 per cent of people are really good people, and they’re all trying to do the same thing. They’re trying to live a life, love who they’re with, be healthy and have some fun. But all people have their moments.”
These days, most people just want transparency, said Carpenter.
“There’s a lot more mistrust because transparency is so important, and the public wants more information about everything, which is a good thing,” he explained. “The public also wants a say in everything, so that might mean things take longer, but if we don’t give them a say, then they mistrust you. There are things that have happened in this city that have created a huge mistrust against a lot of current politicians because of the way it was done. Anytime you keep something secret from the community, or when you spring something on them without having time enough for consultation or communications, then that creates mistrust.”
Carpenter said that with the demographics of the city always changing and improving, future councillors will, and should too.
“We’ve got so many new Brantfordians and they’re just wonderful. It really adds to our community,” he said. “I’m glad that Canada’s a mosaic and not a melting pot; I think sharing and celebrating each other’s culture is a fantastic thing to do and it makes us better people. Because Brantford’s really changed that way, and will continue to change, we need people from different backgrounds on our Council to reflect that.”
As far as what he hopes future councillors will learn from his time in the role, Carpenter said he hopes they’ll do it because they want to make a difference.
“I hope that they put people first and my advice is, don’t be afraid to show your emotions and listen to people and be passionate about it. Do it because you love helping people, don’t do it for any other reasons,” he said. “I want new councillors to be energetic and enthusiastic, and not be afraid to make mistakes or to say something wrong. I just want them to be who they are and do it because they love Brantford, and they love the community. Because they want to make it better for their neighbours and their friends, not to get their names in the papers.”
Carpenter added that the biggest challenge for Brantford and future Councils will be managing growth while preserving the character of the community.
“We’re just going to keep growing and I think the biggest challenge is going to be managing that growth,” said Carpenter. “How we do it is really important, and how we maintain the communities and connectivity of people and parks is going to be huge. We’re going to be a metropolis much like the rest of the Golden Horseshoe. So we should accept that and then build a plan accordingly, and make sure we have things in place to transport people and maintain our green spaces.”
A big part of planning for the future will be building better relationships with the surrounding communities.
“The biggest thing we have to do is, and I’ve been fighting for this for years, is Six Nations, the City of Brantford and the County of Brant should get together every three months. There shouldn’t be anything on an agenda,” he stated. “We should sit down and talk to each other like parents and grandparents, and mothers and fathers, and just get to know each other. Ask each other, ‘What are your issues? What’s going on in your community?’ And then start coming up with ideas. As soon as you put an agenda down, you’ve got to follow this list, and that’s not what it should be. We need to get to know each other as people first so we can all grow together.”
As far as his own future on Council? Carpenter said people will just have to wait and see.
“I’m contemplating now about what’s ahead of me because I think we need young people with new ideas on the City Council,” he said. “As much as I love doing it and I love my people, there’s new people coming on board like Mandy Samwell and others that are lining up, that are community leaders and should be on Council.”
“I could do it forever because it’s almost second nature to me so that makes it easy to stay. But is it fair? There’s probably an unfairness to staying,” added Carpenter. “My wife’s been pretty generous to let me do this for 35 years. I mean, she’s been very supportive and we’ve made it work with the children and the grandchildren, my job and everything else. So those are the things that I’m having some sleepless nights about. I have to consider whether I want to put another four years in. I can do it forever but I don’t know yet if I should.”
While he said he hasn’t made any decisions about his future on Council just yet, he said the past 31 years have flown by and he’s grateful for everything he’s had the chance to do.
“It’s gone by real fast, but it’s been such a gift,” he said. “It really has been my pleasure, truly. I love doing it and I’ve loved every moment. And the people are just really fantastic, it’s amazing how people are when you really let them be who they are.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
