A week after her win, County of Brant Mayor-Elect Jennifer Kyle spoke with the Brant Beacon to discuss the moment she found out she would become the next mayor for the municipality and what she hopes to accomplish in the role.
After spending several months campaigning for the role, Kyle reflected on the moment she found out she won her seat, making her the third Mayor, and first female Mayor, for the County of Brant.
“You’re kind of in shock a little bit. Obviously, the outcome was what we were hoping for, but there’s nothing that can prepare you for that actual moment,” she said, with a laugh. “My husband and my kids were there, as were my parents, one of my sisters and my grandma came down as well. We had another sister on FaceTime, too. My team was all there and lots of our supporters, so it was a pretty cool experience for sure. And then, after the results came in, some of the Councillors and other candidates popped in to say congratulations, so it was neat to see all those folks come out for that.”
Above all, Kyle said she was simply happy to see how many people voted.
“This election represented a huge increase in voter turnout from the previous one. I think that’s a really encouraging sign and hopefully something we can continue to build over the next four years. Maybe next time will have a 45 per cent turnout, or maybe even crack that magic 50,” she said. “I think the more we can get people engaged in the municipal side of things, the more they’ll be inclined to come out and vote. I was super excited they voted for me, of course, but in general I was just happy to see how many people took part.”
The Mayor-Elect also hopes those who ran for Council but were not elected will remain involved in the community and continue to contribute to their perspectives.
“When you’re running for municipal politics, you are part of a cohort. Some of us get elected and some don’t, but you get to know people along the campaign trail, and I hope the ones who weren’t elected this time around will stay engaged,” she said. “They have excellent perspectives, ran great campaigns, and their voices are important to have around the table in some sort of capacity, whether that’s with a committee, advisory group or whatever the fit might be for them. And hopefully they run again because, by that point, there could be spots that open up, or the community might be ready for something new.”
Having grown up just outside of Stratford on her family’s dairy farm, Kyle has called the County of Brant home for two decades.
“I moved here when my husband and I got married, so it will be 20 years in the spring that we’ve been with his family on their dairy farm,” she said.
With an education in public relations, Kyle was most recently employed with the Beef Farmers of Ontario (BFO) as the Manager of Public Engagement and Digital Strategy, while also serving as a County Ward 1 Councillor.
“I’ve spent my 20-year professional career working in the agricultural sector, specifically in roles involving communications, public relations and public engagement,” she said. “I’ve done everything from creating, editing, laying out and producing a magazine, all the way up to what I was doing recently at the BFO, which was more of the public engagement, digital strategy, marketing, and advertising of Ontario beef as a food to the general public.”
Kyle continued, “Because I worked in communications, I always kind of joke that I’m a bit of a translator. For example, when I was working at the Holstein Association of Canada in Brantford, I was often taking information and communicating it to the farmers. Then, once I moved to BFO and took on more of the consumer-facing work, I was taking the farm language and translating it in a way for the general population, who maybe don’t have an agricultural farming background, to understand what we do on the farm and why we do it. And then vice-versa from the marketing and advertising industries to the farmers. I’ve always had to be that in between in a lot of cases for different audiences depending on who I’m working with at the time.”
Having now resigned from her position with the BFO to pursue her new role, Kyle said she will sincerely miss her colleagues, but is looking forward to the opportunity ahead. She also hopes to take her communications experience to the Mayor’s office, using those skills to make municipal government more accessible to residents.
“Municipal government and the way it operates and functions is super complex. During my campaigns, both for Council and this time as Mayor, one of the biggest things I heard from people is that they don’t understand what’s going on,” Kyle said. “They feel like there isn’t enough communication and they feel like they’re out of the loop. Even though the information they’re looking for is there, it’s just a lot to sift through and to read. I’m hoping that my skill set will translate well to the Mayor’s office and help be more of that conduit for getting information from Council and the County to residents. I think we could, as a Council, do a better job of being that vehicle to get information to the people as yet another way to make sure people are getting what they need.”
Working on the budget and reviewing the County’s long-term financial plan will be among some of the immediate work happening on Council once the term begins. Beyond that, Kyle said there are a number of key projects that will require improving collaboration outside of the Council Chambers.
“We have some really big things coming down the pipe for the County. We have things like the wastewater treatment plant in Paris that’s going to need to be replaced, and we’ve got the hospital coming, so those are some really big-ticket items,” she said. “One of the things I think will help us to best position ourselves for handling those is some of those relationships and communications pieces. Those are big, expensive projects that will require funding and partners, and relationships are a big piece of that. We really need to strengthen those relationships with our local MPP and MPs for sure, but even beyond that, with Queen’s Park in general and directly with the ministries that we need to work with on some of those projects.”
Kyle also sees an opportunity to work with neighbouring municipalities on certain projects.
“I do think that there are some really big opportunities for some joint advocacy to help potentially move some big projects forward. For example, the Bishopsgate Interchange is something that the County has been working on since about 2014 or 2015, and we haven’t made too much progress on that,” she said. “I think there’s an opportunity to advocate together with some other partners to potentially move that forward because, while it sits within the County, it is certainly an interchange that would benefit more than just us. Perhaps there’s opportunity with the city of Brantford, perhaps with Oxford or Blandford-Blenheim, Norfolk, Waterloo Region, or even North Dumfries, because there’s lots of folks traveling from those areas.”
She also added that she hopes to meet with Richard Carpenter, Mayor-Elect for the City of Brantford, to reset the relationship between the two municipalities.
“It’s obviously yet to be seen how the two Councils get along, but I’m hopeful that with some new faces around their table, some new and returning faces around ours, and different mayors, we can potentially work together more collaboratively. I think one of the first things I discuss with Richard is that collaboration is not amalgamation,” said Kyle. “There are joint advocacy pieces that I think both communities would really benefit from, but at the same time, we do need to make sure that we are respecting that each municipality is individual and has its own challenges and needs. We need to maintain that individuality, but work collaboratively where it makes sense.”
With the new term of Council set for November 17, Kyle said she’s looking forward to reaching out to each of the new councillors so she can get a sense of the constituent priorities they heard about while campaigning. She’s also looking forward to setting the tone for a respectful and collaborative Council.
“I have no interest in using any sort of strong mayor powers beyond what I’m legislatively obligated to do, which is like the budget. I would prefer to keep all of the decisions around the Council table, and so making sure we have a really good group who can work collaboratively is important to me,” she said. “We can and we should disagree at times, but I would like us to have some really robust, healthy debates and discussions to ultimately come to the best decision for the community. I think that will be a big part of making sure we have a successful four years.”
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.
