Brampton city council candidate and native, Rafiqul Islam, is hoping to bring positive change to the city he calls home.
He’s running for councillor in Ward 1 and Ward 5 in Brampton.
Each councillor in Brampton represents two city wards. The city councillor position is currently held by Rowena Santos, who is running for re-election. There are six other candidates in the race for councillor, including Stacey Ann Brooks, Steven Lee, Omprakash Kapil, Tracy Pepe and Harshmeet Dhillon.
Islam has worked as an IT professional for the past 34 years and has lived in Brampton for about 24 years. While he’s running for councillor, Islam didn’t see a potential career change as part of his future.
“I wasn’t always interested in politics, but my volunteer work is really what changed my mind,” he said.
He started volunteering 15 years ago by participating in various community services, including at his local mosque as well as youth soccer and badminton teams. Most recently, he’s been spending some time volunteering at badminton clubs.
Islam’s volunteer work in previous elections is what inspired him to run for the 2022 municipal election. During previous elections he said he had an interesting observation.
“The first thing I saw everybody complain about was that they only saw candidates during election time, they felt like they didn’t see them frequently outside of that,” Islam said.
Islam said intends on improving the lines of communication between politicians and their constituents if elected.
“Every leader has to be willing to communicate with the community and listen to their concerns in order to fix the communication gap,” he said.
One of the biggest community issues he promises to address is public safety. Islam recounted an experience he had where a friend of his had his car stolen and this event is what sparked his commitment to improving public safety issues.
He hopes to create a community that has a steady police presence to monitor the areas most at risk. He also said he wants to make it easier for community members to communicate among each other to build a better sense of trust.
The third item on his list of goals is to improve infrastructure planning.
While he may not be able to change the busschedule, he wants to adjust the construction schedule. Recently, one of the main roads was being repaved right around the time school opened, which can be a busy time for all commuters.
Islam is a candidate who wants to be a voice for people in the community who feel like they aren’t being heard.
“Councillors have to be vigilant. They have to be committed, and the support is what’s needed for the community to help each other,” he said.
“We have to ask the citizens of Brampton what they think the problems are and I don’t see anybody doing that.”