Irek Kusmierczyk — Candidate, Windsor-Tecumseh

A Polish immigrant’s passion for community service lead him to a career at Windsor City Council: this is Irek Kusmierczyk.

In Windsor, he promoted the FIRST Robotics program in high schools to make a better present and future for children and he wants to make this the fastest-growing area for FIRST Robotics teams in Canada. As a director of partnerships for WEtech Alliance, he helps in the development of technology companies through Windsor and Essex county.

He developed the first cross-border Hacking Health Windsor Detroit, which allows professionals from the heath and IT sector to work together in the innovation field.

“We welcome all levels, so there’s going to be some folks that have more advanced ideas, but this event also welcomes people who have no idea in terms of what they want to bring to this hacking health, but they just want to be participants,” said Kusmierczyk, Liberal candidate in the upcoming federal election.  

He earned his PhD in Political Science from Vanderbilt University, a Master of Science from the London School of Economics and a Bachelor of Journalism from Carleton University.

Kusmierczyk promoted an innovative program called Supporting Aboriginal Youth Entrepreneurs in Windsor and Essex. He said the meaning of entrepreneurs is to him is taking a calculated risk to develop and design something new and new products and services and taking that risk bring back products and services to the market.

Kusmierczyk has worked in the Canada Ministry of Foreign Affairs as an Atlantic Council of Canada Fellow. Also, he has published a chapter on Cross-border environment cooperation between local governments around the Great Lakes Basin.

“One of the reasons I am running for the Liberal party is that they have a strong platform in terms of making life more affordable and so they are helping seniors, students and families,” said Kusmierczyk.

When he was younger and more adventurous, he trekked 700 kilometers along the Baltic coast in just 18 days.

Nowadays, Kusmierczyk shows his dedication to politics through a strong social media presence, which allows him to stay in close contact with the public. He has an A+ attendance record for City Hall Council meetings, as he has attended 108 out of 117 meetings in total; that is about 92 per cent.

As a city councilor, he successfully invested money in flood protection, road improvements, libraries and parks.

“In this election, I had focused on investing in people, students and seniors to make life easier so they can build their life together. As your member of Parliament, I will continue to advocate for the auto sector and auto jobs, for more funding for flood mitigation, making sure our healthcare system is the strongest it can be and making sure young people have the skills and education. They need to succeed in today’s economy,” said Kusmierczyk.