About Me
It's Nice To Meet You!
My name is Wyatt Tanton, and I'm running to become one of Camrose's 8 City Councillors in 2025. This is not my first time running for office; I was previously one of 19 candidates in the 2021 City Council race, and I'm here again because my values, beliefs, and hopes for this city have not changed in the last 4 years - I still think you deserve better than you're getting, and I still believe that I bring the policy solutions to help you get that. I am incredibly excited for you to get to know me, my policies, and my values - and I hope that I can earn your support over the course of this campaign!
Contact Me
If you have any questions or comments for me about my campaign, I would love to hear about them! You can contact me at contact@wyatttanton.com, or through any of my social media accounts. If you would like to have a one-on-one zoom call, I would also be happy to schedule one - and if you are a local organization, society, community, etc. who would like to ask me questions or invite me to meet with your members, I'm equally available for that.
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Whether you are supportive or critical of my policies, I want to hear your thoughts. I believe strongly in my policies, and I believe they (and I) will only be made better from critique and discussion.
My Story
To start at the very beginning, I was born in 1998 and raised by my parents in Camrose - first in the City, then in the County - alongside my three younger siblings. I lived here until I was 15, when I moved to Vancouver Island for high school. After my graduation, I spent half of my gap year working as a teacher's assistant at a school in Queensland, Australia, and the other half living in Camrose and working as a barista while preparing for university. In 2017, I started my first year at McGill University in Montreal, studying political science, education, and communications. In 2019, I decided to transfer to Capilano University in North Vancouver to study communications, but when the pandemic hit in March of 2020, I decided to move back to my hometown: Camrose.
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While I was back here, I thought long and hard about what I would do after the pandemic. Ultimately, instead of moving back to Vancouver or Montreal to continue my studies, I decided to move back permanently after being reminded why I was in school in the first place. I've wanted to work in public service for years, ever since I was a kid when adults would tell me that they were certain I would either become a lawyer or a politician (which may or may not be a compliment, depending on how you feel about lawyers and politicians), and after being back in Camrose for a few months I realized that I wanted more than anything to start that work immediately.
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When I had been deciding what I would do for university, it was always in my mind that my goal was to come back to Camrose and work to improve my community - I didn't know when I would make it back home, but I knew that was the end goal. There were many ways in which this City helped me get where I am in life, and I wanted to make sure that those supports were there for the next generation of Camrosians in the same way. There were also ways in which it failed me, and I wanted in equal measure to be a voice for change for those things so that nobody else was failed the same way.
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Four years ago, I got that chance to try to make a difference in the 2021 City Council race - and lost. It was an incredibly difficult experience, and it was one that initially discouraged me. However, that loss didn't change the truth that Camrose still needed change - that you still deserve better than you're getting. Four years ago, I ran for City Council because I believed that you, your parents, and your kids deserved a better quality of life, a lower cost of living, and a more accessible, enjoyably community to live in, and four years later I still believe those things. Not only that, but I believe we can achieve them - together.
A Campaign of Wheat and Roses
I've made Wheat and Roses a fundamental part of my campaign, from the underlying philosophy to the symbols and slogan - but you might be asking "What does it actually mean?"
Wheat and Roses is inspired by an old feminist labour slogan, "Bread for all, and roses too!" The slogan first appeared in the women's suffrage movement in the United States, and has since been used in songs, poems, and labour movements. It was popularized by Helen Todd in 1910, when she explained it as "woman is the mothering element in the world and her vote will go toward helping forward the time when life's Bread, which is home, shelter and security, and the Roses of life, music, education, nature and books, shall be the heritage of every child that is born in the country, in the government of which she has a voice."
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The original slogan stuck with me, and when it came time to come up with a slogan for my own campaign, I wanted something that could reference it while still making it my own - thus, Wheat and Roses.
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Wheat represents utility, economic opportunity, jobs, and stability. It is what gives us our ability to exist. If we don't grow our wheat, then we don't eat - we need a strong, stable economy full of attractive job opportunities with good wages, reliable infrastructure that keeps the whole City running smoothly, and a place where cost of living is kept low while economic opportunities are kept high. To me, that means fighting for policies that reduce expenses, particularly for the low-income Camrosians who are being squeezed out of our City. It also means fighting for long-term stability, including long-term infrastructure, industrial, and economic development that can weather recessions and avoid catastrophic failures. It also represents our rural roots and the agricultural legacy of our community that continues to this day - a legacy we need to embrace to reach our true potential.
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Roses, on the other hand, represent quality of life, identity, and happiness. It is what gives us our ability to not just exist, but to truly live. If Camrose is to grow and thrive, we can't just have jobs - even if every single Camrosian had a job and we had extras to attract new residents, that wouldn't be enough. This City, and this province, have made prairie/wild roses an integral part of who we are and what it means to live here, and I want us to embrace that and grow it further. We need to put real effort into improving the physical beauty of our city, making it more accessible, and making this the kind of City that people genuinely feel lucky to live in. That means committing to policies that improve quality of life and community-building, such as community gardens, improved parks, better mobility and accessibility options, and considering our future infrastructure and development not just from a strictly economic perspective, but from a community happiness one as well. It also represents our urban elements and the role we've played in being able to develop as a City into something that's not just useful, but beautiful - a sentiment embodied in our nickname: The Rose City.
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In short, Wheat and Roses stand for growth, both in terms of the things we need to survive and the things we need to thrive. Without one or the other, our community will continue to struggle in the face of urban centres that are draining rural Alberta of its jobs and opportunities - but with both, Camrose can lead the way and show the world what rural Alberta truly has to offer.
My Commitments
Commit to Collaboration
Feuds between municipal governments are hurting our ability to get things done, and it's time that that ends. The people of the City and the County deserve governments who will act collaboratively in everyone's best interests - and I'll commit to doing just that. As well, I'll work to strengthen connections with other neighbouring municipalities and counties to see what we can do to help one another to build bigger and better.
Standing Up For Camrose
We've seen huge harm inflicted on Camrose by our provincial government, especially the cuts to rural healthcare, education, and Augustana. We need a strong municipal government to stand up for this community, and if I am elected, I will ensure that the interests of Camrosians are heard loud and clear by both the provincial and federal government.
Truth and Reconciliation
Canadians have, more and more, been forced to reckon with our history as settlers in this country over recent years. The horrifying discoveries of mass graves at residential schools hammered home, once again, the need for serious action to right the wrongs of the past if we ever hope for this country to live up to its values of liberty, equality, and security of the person. Municipal governments don't have the authority to do everything within the T&R Calls to Actions, but we should do what we can and then work with other municipal, Indigenous, provincial, and federal governments to ensure that the future of Canada is one of a peace built on justice.
Everyone Pays Their Share
You pay your taxes and your bills, but countless major corporations side-step their leasing, taxes, and rent owed to landowners and the City - that needs to end. We need consistency and fairness in our policies, and we need to stop letting the big players cut corners. We also need to work to level the playing field so that big American-owned franchises aren't running up the score against local businesses who don't have the luxury of a multi-billion dollar corporation behind them. If we want to grow our community, we need to make sure there are opportunities for innovators and entrepreneurs to truly think outside the box - and our current system just isn't doing that.
Support Businesses by Supporting Camrosians
If you went off of how candidates talk in every municipal election, you'd swear that it's businesses who vote - not people. The reality is, businesses struggle when we don't put people first - a high cost of living for housing, utilities, and travel means that wages have to be higher to compensate and make Camrose attractive for new potential residents. A lack of integrated commercial zoning and the prevalence of food deserts in the City means that community accessibility is terrible, and businesses are constrained to very specific locations (often with poor accessibility) which restricts their ability to innovate or compete.
If we want to support business in our City, we need to lower the cost of living as much as possible so that Camrosians can spend their hard-earned dollars investing in their own community rather than on an inflated cost of living, and we need to attract workers of all skill levels to the City so that those businesses have a quality crop of potential employees to choose from.
Focusing on Long-Term Infrastructure
The City has cut corners on a huge number of infrastructure projects that have hit Camrosians almost as hard as the mismanaged roads have hit their cars. Whether it's potholes on important roads, or chewed-up streets that need constant maintenance, or just steep inclines to get into and out of parking lots, short-term cost cutting is costing all of us big-time.
We need to find a balance in terms of infrastructure investment to ensure that we're actually making the smart financial decisions - not just kicking the can down the road.
Supporting Augustana
Augustana is one of the most important institutions in our City, and I will unequivocally fight alongside students and staff to ensure that it remains a quality, affordable, and accessible rural university.
I also commit to working to make Camrose an attractive city for students and graduates so that we can start seeing more returns in terms of innovation, job creation, and community growth from Augustana.