Door to door family man

By Sean Frame

In the words of a dedicated man, “Knocking on 7,000 doors seems like a lot of work but at the end of the day it is an amazing experience.”

Kieran Mckenzie is running in Windsor’s upcoming municipal election for Ward 9 councilor. He has dedicated most, if not all, of his spare time to campaigning. Mckenzie’s goal is to meet at least 95 per cent of the people living in his ward before October 27. With 45 minutes of daylight left, he treks on to reach his goal. With each neighborhood he visits and each new person he meets, he feels a sense of accomplishment and fills in the ward 9 map with a blue highlighter.

Mckenzie says he gets most of his excitement while campaigning from talking politics, and the odd time when someone’s cat runs out the door. But when the day is finished and the political chatter and cat wrangling comes to a halt, Mckenzie heads to his favourite place in ward 9: his home.

Mckenzie and his wife Jessie have a 20 month-old little girl named Liv. In this point in his life Mckenzie says his daughter is the main reason he gets up in the morning and works as hard as he can.

“My wife… I love very much and while I am campaigning I miss my family very much I am away from home more than I have been in the past,” said Mckenzie. “I look forward to coming home every single day. As much as it has been a great experience, coming home after a long day of campaigning and seeing my family is what encourages me to be a better person than I am and be involved in the community. This is part of the example I want to leave behind for my daughter.”

As a child Mckenzie was encourage to be involved in the community. He grew up on Windsor’s east side playing baseball, and was a member of the Windsor Y Dolphins Competitive Swim team. Kierans father Lawrence and his mother Lorraine were involved in various organization looking to improve Windsor’s community. Over the years Lawrence Mckenzie ran in the municipal election in Montreal and in the last provincial election for an NDP nomination in North London Centre. Mckenzie’s sister is currently running for school board trustee in Toronto, so one might say he has politics in his blood. When he was very young he had dreams of being an astronaut and never would’ve thought he would be in politics. In university, Mckenzie went to the University of Windsor and completed his honours in political science. He also obtained his firefighter level one and two certification, but in the end he decided to follow in his fathers footsteps and is trying to better Windsor’s community. He now works as a legislative assistant at the office of Brian Masse M.P. He explained the experience he has gained over the last 10 years of working there has given him the ability to serve better for the community.

“Give yourself every opportunity not to have any regrets,” he said with pride in his voice. “There is nothing worse than looking back and saying ‘Oh jeez I wish I would have
done this and if I would have said this, things would have been different.'”

If you go to Kieran’s social media pages they are full of support and wishes for good luck.

Paul Synnott writes “Congratulations Kieran McKenzie, a strong start to the campaign trail, only 6000 more houses to go now!”

Donn Merrifield wrote “Best of luck my friend. Seriously don’t raise my taxes. I know where to find you.”

Mckenzie said campaigning and jogging are a lot a like, and that mental games are involved in both practices. He said, there are mental demons that tell you “you have done enough and you can stop now”, this is demotivating for Mckenzie but doesn’t let it get to his head.

Broadcasting is another one of Kieran’s hobbies. He is a producer and co-host on CJAM’s award winning radio program Rose City Politics and helps with the television broadcast
of Lancer’s football. He said the opportunity to work in sports broadcasting was a dream come true. It is true Kieran has his toes dipped in many different pools so the
question remains, what does he want to be remembered for?

“I would like to be remembered as someone who was passionate about his community and who loved his family and was a good man.”