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For City Councillor - Adil AWAN
9-10-2014
Since emigrating from Uganda, Adil and his family have called Richmond home since 1974 and is an air transport pilot based at YVR. In aviation, communication is absolutely critical to a pilot’s work; He wants to bring the same kind of mentality to City Hall where greater dialogue, two-way communication is absolutely necessary.
Adil is at the forefront of our local economy as he transports various goods to and from YVR, while his family also owns and operates a local business, employing 9 full time employees.
Adil’s hands-on, roll-up the sleeves attitude is most wonderfully demonstrated by his restored 1919 Ford Model T. Adil believes in hard work, dedication, and perseverance - the kind of values he will bring to City Hall, and the kind of values his father, Mahmood Awan, has impressed upon him over the years.
When asked why Adil had entered politics, he said that it all started at the grassroots, with conversations with friends and neighbours that made him aware of a shared sense of exclusion from his Muslim and immigrant community members.
“Lots of immigrant communities do not appreciate the role of municipal politics in their daily lives” Awan said. “We tend to focus ourselves more with Federal, provincial and international politics, and neglect the local politics that impact our lives so immensely.”
He cites examples of services that affect our daily lives that municipal politics dictates: our roads, public transit, parks, garbage collection, and schools. If municipal government is not effective, we end up with all sorts of local issues that ultimately lead to the deterioration of our society.
Due to a multi-cultural divide within Richmond, Adil’s vision is to improve and bridge the gap between various ethnic groups and government.
To the Muslim and immigrant communities, Awan’s message is strong - exercise your right to vote at every opportunity and remember that so many people around the world are struggling for very basic human rights. “They are living daily struggles, fighting for the right to vote and we get it on a silver platter. It’s our duty to exercise this right that is given to us so easily”
Adil Awan wants to see Richmond’s planning better integrated to meet the demands of today and the future. “Workers demand their workplace to be transit-accessible, families want shopping and child-care near-by, and seniors want to be able to get around town without a car because cars are no longer considered a necessity.” said Awan. “Public transportation and accessibility is and will be the bedrock of each community. Our downtown for example, has a lot of transit infrastructure in place, but we are not leveraging it correctly. We need to plan downtown so it’s a self-sufficient eco-system of businesses, residents, and amenities. This will help businesses remain competitive with other cities and retain a skilled workforce. Accessible and diverse residential options will ensure a thriving and attractive community for all.”
Running with Awan on the Renew Richmond Team for councilor is Three-term Richmond School Trustee Grace Tsang who sees the biggest challenge in Richmond is our City’s inability to cooperate communicate. “City departments seem to operate in silos; sometimes they are not aware of what other departments are doing, and the lack of situational-awareness amongst each other is a culture that must be changed and Peter Mitchell, a well-known community organizer and professional property manager, who wants to see the City planning ahead instead of playing catch-up. School Trustee Candidate Alice Wong mother of two teenagers and vice-chair of the Richmond District Parents Association have spent over a decade working in the public education system. She wants to become a Richmond school trustee and continue her work in delivering quality public education.
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