{"id":31804,"date":"2022-08-25T13:47:22","date_gmt":"2022-08-25T17:47:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=31804"},"modified":"2022-09-01T18:20:31","modified_gmt":"2022-09-01T22:20:31","slug":"anna-lozyk-romeo-joins-race-for-mayor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/anna-lozyk-romeo-joins-race-for-mayor\/","title":{"rendered":"Anna Lozyk Romeo joins race for Mayor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Long-time community advocate, blogger and photographer Anna Lozyk Romeo made it a three-way race for Aurora\u2019s top job on Friday morning by filing her papers to be the Town\u2019s next mayor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Lozyk Romeo was the final mayoral candidate to enter the fray, following first-time candidate Phiona Durrant and incumbent Tom Mrakas who is seeking a second term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday I am filing my papers for the Office of Mayor to lead the next term of Council under the Ward system,\u201d said Ms. Lozyk Romeo at Town Hall just after filing her papers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to her popular Living in Aurora blog and Facebook group, where she has provided her own perspective on the Town\u2019s politics over the last two Council terms, she comes into the race as a citizen member of the Town\u2019s inaugural Governance Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If elected, she says she will be a policy-driven leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe intent of policies is to make decisions that are consistent regardless of what person is in charge,\u201d she says. \u201cIf elected, I want to focus on establishing and maintaining policies to ensure that Council decisions are consistent and not just based on popular opinion. I want to go in and review the policies and make them even better now that we\u2019re in a Ward system and maybe have to tweak and adjust so they serve the community properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re approving a lot of stuff that is sometimes based on personal opinion, but it should be based on the policies, debate and facts \u2013 good reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lozyk Romeo, Ukrainian by heritage and raised in Poland, has lived in Aurora for 25 years where, as an engineer, she spent ten years working in a corporate environment, in small business, and even with her own business until she decided to press pause on her day job to raise her son Matthew alongside husband Domenic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was time to get Matthew out in the community and raise him in the community and that\u2019s what I did,\u201d she says of feeling the need to become more involved in her Town. \u201cI went from raising him and taking photos, then getting into Council chambers\u2026and I voluntarily attended Council meetings for eight years, and that is a clear record [for an average citizen] here in Aurora. I am well-informed with what is going on in our Town through the things I did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through Living in Aurora, her community blog with a political edge, Lozyk Romeo has been a strong advocate for the environment and fiscal responsibility. Describing herself as \u201can environmentalist at heart,\u201d she says there\u2019s \u201clots to do at an environmental level because the Town is growing and I think we need to protect our environmentally-sensitive lands to strike the balance between growth and protecting the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If successful in her bid, this is something she intends to keep a focus on as the Town prepares to finalize its revised Official Plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am a curious person,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen I go into anything I am trying to understand it and not just \u2018be there.\u2019 I was never politically inclined\u2026 but it was the Aurora community that pulled me in and I made my own path to where I am today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cChange is coming from everywhere from different levels of government and we need to know how to deal with it properly. Strengthening our policies\u2026will help us to work with the higher levels of government and strike that balance for the community to ensure that we have a livable [community].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI respect diverse perspectives. As an effective leader I look forward to encouraging public participation and critical thinking to strategically shape our community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Long-time community advocate, blogger and photographer Anna Lozyk Romeo made it a three-way race for Aurora\u2019s top job on Friday morning by filing her papers to be the Town\u2019s next mayor. Ms. Lozyk Romeo was the final mayoral candidate to enter the fray, following first-time candidate Phiona Durrant and incumbent Tom Mrakas who is seeking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":31794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/2022-08-25-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-8gY","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-09 12:25:08","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}