Random Access

Some people might be intimidated by jumping into a high-profile City council race that features a former MP who seems to make national headlines in her sleep and a wheeler-dealer man-about-town who already knows City Hall better than some of our sitting councillors.
Olive Rose Steele isn't some people.
"I see myself on a par with them," says the soon-to-be 59-year-old in speaking of Carolyn Parrish and Ron Starr, two of her three opponents in the Ward 6 council race. (Terry Pierce Jr. is the other registered contestant.) "I think Mississauga is looking for fresh new faces."
Steele ran for public school board in the same ward, where she's lived for 14 of her 32 years in Mississauga, in the last municipal election. It might have been natural to expect she'd run for the Peel District School Board again, especially given that incumbent Warren Kennedy is not seeking re-election.
While she still maintains a strong interest in keeping students in school longer and improving after-school programs, Steele didn't hesitate to jump into the council pool even after her high-profile opponents had taken the plunge.
"I am not going to bring Ottawa politics or Queen's Park politics into my ward," she said. "Yes, they are seasoned but I feel it is my right to run because I have something to offer. I feel I could make a difference."
In fact, Steele and Starr had coffee recently, "because he wanted to know how serious I was."
Serious enough to have given at least some passing thought to a platform which includes increasing affordable housing for seniors and putting in programs, "to help young people who've lost their way to come back into society as good citizens and not be left floundering."
Like many people, the African-Canadian feels a little nonplussed when she tunes into City council and sees a colour palette whose theme song could be, "A Whiter Shade Of Pale."
The long-time Queen's Park civil servant, who now runs her own employment agency in the city centre, says cheekily that she hopes to give council, "not only some colour but a different perspective."