Fix it at the source
The problems Londoners feel every day start upstream, inside the systems of City Hall. This campaign’s plan is to reform those systems, honestly and in plain language, and let the good flow from there.
One honest review of how the City runs
The City of London is a billion-dollar corporation, run through bylaws, policies, contracts, meetings, and internal processes that almost nobody, including many of the people inside it, can fully see or explain. Bronagh’s plan starts by reviewing all of it and asking plain questions:
- Is it working? Do these systems still do the job they were built for?
- Can people understand it?If a resident can’t read a bylaw, a notice, or a budget, that’s the City’s failure, not the resident’s.
- Is there waste? Where is over-administration eating money that should reach services?
- Is it fair? Are rules and contracts applied evenly, transparently, to everyone?
It sounds like an enormous task. In her words: “That potentially is job one, two and three.” This is the work she has done for nearly thirty years as a lawyer and plain-language educator, and it is the one promise this campaign makes without hedging, because it is entirely within a mayor’s power to lead.
What it means for housing and homelessness
London’s response to homelessness runs through service contracts that get re-evaluated year after year, loaded with administration that never reaches the street.
- Money to the front line,by cutting administrative overhead out of the City’s service contracts. The people doing this work want that too.
- Watertight, fair, long-term contracts that treat homelessness as the long-term human crisis it is, not a line item to re-litigate every budget cycle.
- Honest public measurement,so London can see what’s working and what isn’t.
What it means for downtown and small business
Bronagh runs a small business and works with small-business clients across the city. What she hears, and lives, is not that London lacks rules; it’s that the rules are complicated and unevenly applied.
- Bylaws applied transparently and fairly to every business, with less over-regulation in the way of the businesses London already has.
- Stop rewarding empty buildings: enforce the property standards on the books, and make it easier to fill a storefront than to sit on one.
- Build on what’s already here: the parks, trails, arts and festivals that visitors are amazed by. London under-sells itself, and tourism is a real economic opportunity.
What it means for trust and taking part
Good government should feel accessible, not intimidating. This is the plank closest to Bronagh’s own profession: she teaches plain-language communication to municipalities across Canada.
- Plain language, everywhere: bylaws, budgets, notices, and the reasons behind decisions, written so residents can actually use them.
- Meetings people can attend:shorter council meetings, and fewer closed-door sessions, because with a lawyer in the mayor’s chair, council doesn’t need to clear the room to get legal advice.
- A public meeting every month, somewhere different in the city, with what was heard and what came of it published afterwards. Ask Bronagh, on this site, is the online half of that commitment.
- One term, on purpose:decisions made for London’s long term, never for re-election.
What it means for safety and community
Bronagh works downtown, often on the sidewalk with chalk in hand. Her starting point on safety, in her words: “Coming to your downtown is the way you make your downtown safe.”
- People make places safe: free, accessible community events and public art that bring Londoners into shared spaces. The missing ingredient is you.
- Public servants in the community, consistently building relationships across every neighbourhood and every situation, not just responding to calls.
- Learn from other cities:London has big-city problems and doesn’t need a made-in-London solution for every one of them. Collaborate, borrow what works.
- Transit that gets people there: practical improvements to how people move around the city, so the good things London runs are actually reachable.
Something missing from this list?
This plan will keep sharpening as Londoners weigh in. Tell the campaign what your street needs.