Jeff Preston, activist and doctoral candidate in the faculty of information and media studies, announced on Mar. 4 he is running for city councillor in Ward 14.

“London is my hometown now,” Preston explained. “Before I actually lived here, I was coming here for all of my doctor’s appointments over in Ward 14. I was staying in a hotel and going to the hospital and it was really my home away from home.”

Preston was diagnosed with congenital muscular dystrophy when he was three months old and has been using an electric wheelchair for most of his life. In 2008 Preston took his electric wheelchair from London to Ottawa, a journey of 650 kilometres, in an effort to raise awareness about the lack of accessible transportation in Ontario.

“Yes I have a whole lot of experience advocating for the disabled: the key word there is advocate and the role of a city councillor is to be a voice for their constituents,” Preston said.

After he made a presentation to council in January about the need for increased snow removal on city sidewalks, councillors convinced him there was a need for him to run.

“The councillors came to me afterwards and said ‘you know you should really consider this, the community could really use some fresh ideas and your passion and your energy,’” Preston said.

“The thing about having Jeff is having a young person who is well educated, well read [and] brings something,” Judy Bryant, councillor of Ward 13, said. “I haven’t known Jeff very long, but this year he has been in to see me in City Hall on some things and we talked a lot about accessibility.”

Bryant explained there were many infrastructure problems, which need to be addressed for people with disabilities in the community. She cited placing the buttons at crosswalks within reach of individuals with wheelchairs as an example.

“If we can’t make every single piece of the city accessible, what are we going to do to so that people can live independently?” Bryant questioned.

Preston admitted he was worried about being seen as a single-issue candidate, however he felt his issues were relevant to everyone.

“It is a concern, but having said that, disability is a very unique issue in that it transcends race, gender, ability [and] religion. Anyone can be disabled at anytime.”

Hunter Forman, Preston’s personal support worker and friend, explained Preston was passionate about his ideas.

“I think every time you hear him talk, you can hear how truly passionate he is, and how he truly does care,” Forman explained. “He really is well grounded and he […] understands what people need and how to achieve [those goals].”

Preston explained the road into politics was not always the smoothest. “In the back of my mind, my mom always told me if I ever go into politics then she’ll disown me,” he joked.

“She’s very proud of me, but it [has] sort of been a running joke; she always knew I was going to end up somewhere in this kind of work.”