With summer winding (too quickly!) towards its conclusion, we’re giving you two quick RaBIT updates and letting you know about a fun RaBIT event happening on Sunday, 20 August.

Another Successful Pledge Campaign

It isn’t news that on 26 June, Olivia Chow was elected Toronto’s new mayor. But some of you may not yet be aware that Mayor Chow was one of 15 candidates who took RaBIT’s latest candidate pledge during the campaign leading up to that vote.

We are very grateful to Mayor Chow for her support for adopting ranked ballots for Toronto’s municipal elections and look forward to working with her to turn this support into concrete progress towards this goal. We are also grateful to the other candidates who took the pledge, including well-known contenders like Josh Matlow and Mitzie Hunter. 

Speaking of pledge campaigns, with Councillor Gary Crawford resigning his seat on Toronto City Council to run in a recent provincial by-election, there will likely be yet another by-election for a seat on city council called in just a few days. As usual, RaBIT will be working to make sure that voters in the affected ward (Ward 20 - Scarborough Southwest) know where all the candidates stand on ranked ballots, so watch this space for more information shortly. 

New Board Members

At the same time as RaBIT was running a candidate pledge campaign for the mayoral by-election, we were also recruiting in an effort to expand our Board of Directors. We are happy to announce that this effort was a smashing success and that we have welcomed the following three new exceptional individuals to the board: 

• Scott Tabachnick
• Karelle Pickersgill
• Nicholas Renzetti

You can learn more about these new board members on our website. We would also like to mention that while we undertake focused board recruitment initiatives from time to time, RaBIT is also open to expressions of interest from individuals interested in joining the board at any time. If you think that you could make a positive contribution to the cause, just drop us a line at [email protected]. (Please put “Board of Directors Inquiry” in the subject line.)

RaBIT Picnic 

It’s been a while since our community got together in person so we’ve decided to revisit some treasured RaBIT history by organizing a fun summer picnic on Sunday, 20 August. Meet us between 12.30 and 3.00pm in the field at Wychwood Barns Park (just a couple of blocks south of the St Clair West streetcar line and a 10 minute walk from St Clair West subway station). We’ll have some conspicuous signage to help you find us. We’ll also bring a few simple snacks and drinks, but please feel free to bring something more substantial if you’d like to enjoy a meal with us. 

This will be an informal opportunity to meet many volunteers, supporters, and other members of the wonderful and growing RaBIT community, including past, current (and future?) board members. If you plan to join us, please RSVP using this link so we can get a sense of numbers in advance. We’re really looking forward to seeing you there!