Henry Clarke is currently serving as councillor of Ward 2 - Monaghan. He was first elected to council in 1997 and has subsequently served 25 consecutive years on Peterborough City Council, serving as deputy mayor four times during his tenure.

Councillor Clarke’s Peterborough credentials are solid. He is a life-long resident of the city and attended Thomas A. Stewart, where he was valedictorian of his graduating class. He went on to study Anthropology and History at Trent University and rubbed shoulders with W.L. Morton.

Following his education, Mr. Clarke worked for 43 years at Quaker Oats as a frontline supervisor and production manager. He was a reservist in the Canadian armed forces with the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment from 1971 until his retirement in 1997 at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

Now he is seeking the top job on Peterborough City Council. I spoke to Mr. Clarke over the phone to ask a few questions about the solutions he sees to the issues of community members, and to address some of the concerns we heard from students.

Mr. Clarke has a number of priorities when it comes to the work of City Hall. He mentioned that while he is out knocking on doors, he is hearing a number of consistent and repeated questions from residents.

“There’s huge concern about the downtown, the state of cleanliness, the number of homeless that are there,” Mr. Clarke told me. “The homeless issue itself, while interrelated, is a separate issue that has a lot of people concerned. They see many young people that appear to have no future in front of them. They’re all interrelated these things.”

On the topic of student housing, Mr. Clarke says that Trent and Fleming especially need to look at building more residence space. Increasing enrolment represents both a gift and a significant challenge in Clarke’s eyes, one which will require both short-term and long-term solutions.

“I think we have to encourage people to look at what are commonly called garden suites or granny flats that allow them to take in students,” he said, adding that ensuring that proper rules and regulations were in place would need to be prioritized by the city and the schools.

This short-term solution would have two benefits according to Clarke. First, it would allow the homeowner an opportunity to make a bit of income, and some help around the house for themselves. And second of all, it would hopefully provide safe, decent, affordable housing for the students while making use of pre-existing spaces in town.

When asked if he was aware of the Canada HomeShare Program which had recently launched at Trent, Clarke said that he was and that he was enthusiastic about this type of solution to student housing in the community.

When a follow-up was asked about international students and their place in the housing debate, things began to go a bit off kilter for Mr. Clarke during the conversation.

“The issue of international students, I think it’s an absolutely wonderful thing for Peterborough. They bring diversity and excitement and interest in cultures other than what we’ve been used to for so many years. And it really makes for just a more lively, multicultural community,” he said.

“Sometimes when there are language barriers, I’m sure there are cultural barriers to even simple things, as some may not be used to the kind of food that is readily available here. So those are the things that we can do to make them feel welcome and leave our community to return to their homes with a positive experience. And perhaps some of them will even just say they want to stay here. And that would be great, too.”

When I mentioned to him that being able to stay here wasn’t exactly an option for some, and asked how this related to the affordability of housing, Mr. Clarke didn’t really have a direct response but added that he knew the importance of working with various levels of government to find solutions to all of these issues. He was especially interested in ensuring that talent was staying in the Peterborough area. I decided to leave things there before things went even further afield.

Reliable transportation is one thing that has “really got people frustrated” and has left many community members feeling as if the new system is not as convenient as the old spoke and hub system, something Mr. Clarke tends to agree with.

“The transit system is something that the city has invested an awful lot of money, and we have increased the frequency, change the route, modernized the bus fleet, and so forth, trying to be able to help people move through the community in a reasonable manner,” Clarke said.

“But, it has created a lot of upset and concern within the community, as people either find that buses aren’t going to where they used to or not as directly the way they used to. I’ve heard stories of people waiting for one in two hours for a bus. And that’s not acceptable.”

When I asked if he knew of the labour issues affecting ATU 1320 and their ongoing work-to-rule campaign, Mr. Clarke said he was aware and that he firmly believed in the collective bargaining process and hoped that he would be able to strike a collaborative tone with transit workers.

I had read in a recent Examiner piece that Mr. Clarke was supportive of a recent request by Peterborough Police to create a designated drug unit and so I asked him to clarify his reasons for believing that more police would aid in the drug crisis.

Mr. Clarke responded by saying that according to the police, 80% of violent crime in Peterborough is related to drug use. However, what was of primary concern was the lack of any treatment facility in the Peterborough area.

“We have a safe injection site, which we have opened in that helps to keep people healthier and safer. In fact, is this been a marked improvement on that area, the access to the drugs, that’s something that we need to really bear down on” he told me. “And I know the police would like to add an additional drug unit to that to go after these folks are coming in from Toronto and other places like that, and bringing their, their poison with them.”

I pushed a bit to ensure I understood him correctly and asked if the drug unit would be targeting drug users, or dealers, to which Mr. Clarke very adamantly clarified that such a new drug unit would target only those who are distributing drugs.

“Users in many ways are innocent people,” he said.

When my time with Mr. Clarke came to a close, he told me that he wants to take every opportunity to encourage students to engage in the democratic process.

“I think it’s important for our students, whether they’re at Fleming or Trent or some other place to take an interest in local government and be involved. Many of them may only be here for a few years, but it is still their home while they’re here. And I hope that they will be model citizens here and for the future when they return to other homes and places to be involved to speak up and to be part of the communities in which they live.”

Mr. Clarke’s record of public service and his devotion to this community is firmly established and unshakeable. The question remains at this point if the old guard which has ruled in city hall for so long will give way entirely. We may have seen the beginnings of such a wave in 2018, but after the tumultuous four years since then, there is a lot to be said for voters to feel as if the “safe” vote might just be their best bet. Henry Clarke certainly feels like a candidate who would