The ‘Bell’ still tolls

I could have very easily ignored the upcoming election. I was, and still am, 17, too young to vote, and wasn’t affiliated with any of the parties running. Besides, American politics always has so much going on. It can be easy, sometimes, to ignore what’s going on in your own backyard when south of the border you’ve got Trump gearing up for a second charge at things. I might have let the whole thing pass me by. Except for the fact that this election was the reason my prom was postponed. My senior year of high school ended in a very relaxed manner, and with the signs that littered the streets of Toronto, the election was an omnipresent factor in my life. However, it was not a factor that impacted me directly. That was, until it was announced that, since enough of my classmates were working the polls, it would be best to postpone prom for another week. That got my attention, and not in a good way. Regardless, the provincial election was now at the forefront of my mind.

This election was the first time I had ever attended a political event, shook some hands, and met our candidates. It was also an election without any real change, no real shifting of the lines. The 2022 provincial election was the public deciding that they liked the status quo, that the PC government’s handling of COVID wouldn’t increase or decrease their hold on Ontario, and that the Tories and the NDP would sit in opposition once more. Additionally, it reaffirmed the dominance of the NDP in an area central to Toronto, the riding of University-Rosedale, where our MPP Jessica Bell holds her seat.

University-Rosedale is a very interesting riding as it contains two of Toronto’s most prominent postsecondary institutions: Toronto Metropolitan University, and our own University of Toronto. On top of that, it also comprises the more bourgeois area of Rosedale. The riding has reliably swung away from the PC Party even before its 2015 inception, and in its current shape has elected Jessica Bell in both elections she has contested in. The NDP is federally very popular amongst young people, and a similar demographic of 20-34 year olds (compared to 18-34 year olds) makes up about 35 percent of the population of University-Rosedale as per the 2016 census. To me, it’s clear why Bell has done so well in the past two elections, winning 38.84 percent of the vote in 2022 as compared to her closest competitor, Andrea Barrack of the Liberals with 25.8 percent.

Beyond just numbers, what Bell seems to stand for appeals to me a great deal as a student and a young person. In an interview with The Varsity from 2018, Bell makes note of her party’s pledge to support students dealing with debt by turning the debt into grants that do not require reimbursement. Further, she seeks to develop the attractive idea of co-op positions further, something that heavily influenced my own university decisions early in the game. In that same interview, she shows support for the mental health of students, as well as the lowering of transit costs. For these reasons, is it really any surprise that a riding with two university campuses came to vote for her in droves? Personally, I believe Bell stands for the interests of the students she represents, choosing her stances very well.

I was a commuter student even before university, learning the ups and downs of the TTC and GO Transit at 14. For this reason, the quality of transit is definitely an issue that hits close to home. I don’t drive, and anyone else who also regularly uses public transit knows the pitfalls of the TTC, from the daily commute being delayed, to the cost that accrues from being a regular user of our transit system. Before her career as an MPP, Bell was a high ranking official of TTCriders, a group dedicated to improving the Toronto Transit Commission and making it more accessible. In the same Varsity interview, she presents issues like longer transfer times and discounted passes as a result of lack of funding for the TTC. Grievances with the TTC are dime a dozen in Toronto, and it’s nice to see that Bell acknowledges them too. Even before her political career, she cared—something that lends legitimacy to her claims.

Another issue that Toronto residents experience and that Bell supports are grievances with renting and costs of living. Toronto is an extremely expensive city to merely exist in, costing close to $2000 monthly for a one bedroom apartment. Bell has been known to: support renters being charged unfair rates; support legal protection against Toronto’s sometimes oppressive summer heat; and stand against landlords manipulating existing laws to jack up prices by evicting their tenants unfairly.

Jessica Bell, to me, is someone who appears to know the concerns of her constituents, but beyond that, stands for general human decency. A lot of her policies can be summed up as “this is unfair, and we need to do something about it,” a quality all politicians could do to adapt.