{"id":37610,"date":"2026-02-05T15:39:01","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T20:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=37610"},"modified":"2026-02-05T15:39:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T20:39:12","slug":"residents-step-forward-to-declare-as-first-time-council-candidates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/residents-step-forward-to-declare-as-first-time-council-candidates\/","title":{"rendered":"Residents step forward to declare as first-time Council candidates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The 2026 Ontario Municipal Election campaign isn\u2019t set to formally begin until May, but two local residents put themselves forward as first-time municipal candidates this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lauren Hanna, a long-time community builder and Chair of the Aurora Public Library Board, has declared her candidacy for Ward 1, while Optimist Club member and long-time political volunteer Connor Logan has done the same for Ward 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Wards are currently held by Ron Weese and Rachel Gilliland respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her campaign launch video, Hanna, a mother of two, and member of the Town Park Community Association, said she wants residents to feel their municipal government is \u201caccountable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have worked my full career in Ontario\u2019s public service and I know how important local government is,\u201d said Hanna. \u201cI want all residents in Aurora to feel included and engaged in our community, and to be confident that our local government is accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Logan, a long-time Aurora resident and graduate of Wilfrid Laurier University, who ran for the Ontario Liberal Party as a candidate for the riding of Windsor-Tecumseth in last year\u2019s Provincial election, kicked off his campaign with a focus on youth and housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor a long time, we haven\u2019t had youth representation on Council and I want to be the person to represent us. However, it is not just youth issues that matter; older generations are also being impacted by the issues of today,\u201d he said. \u201cAurora could have received millions and millions of dollars from the Provincial and Federal governments. However, we didn\u2019t diversify our housing and we didn\u2019t build affordable housing. There\u2019s many lots being put up on the Greenbelt and surrounding area that are going for a million dollars-plus, but the average person can\u2019t afford that. If I were to make it on Council. I would make it my mission to diversify housing as anyone should be able to live in our Town and be a part of our community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow, the campaign doesn\u2019t start until May, however, I\u2019ll be going around Town asking Aurorans how they feel about this current municipal government, what they would like to see change, and what they would like to see stay the same.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2026 Ontario Municipal Elections are slated for October 26.<\/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":"

The 2026 Ontario Municipal Election campaign isn\u2019t set to formally begin until May, but two local residents put themselves forward as first-time municipal candidates this week. Lauren Hanna, a long-time community builder and Chair of the Aurora Public Library Board, has declared her candidacy for Ward 1, while Optimist Club member and long-time political volunteer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"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-37610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9MC","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-04 21:37:16","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\/37610","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=37610"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37611,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37610\/revisions\/37611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}