Sheila Wisdom

Sheila Wisdom (born 1950) is a former municipal politician in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. She represented the second ward on the Windsor City Council from 1988 to 1997, and later became a journalist with the Windsor Star newspaper.

City councillor

Wisdom studied linguistics at the University of Windsor, and owns South Shore Books in private life.[1] She was thirty-eight years old during her first election in 1988, and campaigned on a platform of waterfront renewal and economic diversification. She was also known to oppose student housing plans by Canterbury College in her area of the city.[2] She was endorsed by Bert Weeks, a former mayor of the city.[3] Wisdom was not identified with any party, and was regarded a supporter of fiscal restraint.[4] She won election to the ward's second seat, and was appointed to the board of the Windsor Symphony Orchestra after the election.[5] She later co-authored a fiscal policy to keep annual mill rate increases at the level of inflation. This document became the cornerstone of Windsor's fiscal policy during the 1990s.[6]

Wisdom was a prominent supporter of culture and the arts. She fought for increased cultural spending in the 1989 city budget and supported increased funding for the symphony, although she also presided over a musicians' pay cut to stabilize its finances.[7] She criticized conductor Dwight Bennett, who was forced to resign in 1990, for trying to grow the orchestra too quickly for the city's capacity.[8] In November 1990, she advocated a significant spending increase in hiking and bike trails.[9] The following year, she promoted the idea of an international Air Pollution Advisory Board.[10]

Wisdom was re-elected in 1991, with an endorsement from the Windsor Labour Council.[11] She supported an inventory of Windsor's green spaces in 1992, and was disappointed when council deferred the decision for another year.[12] She voted for a comprehensive waterfront renewal plan later in the same year, despite her doubts about a planned aquarium and science centre as the waterfront's centerpiece.[13] Wisdom served on the city's budget committee during this period,[14] and was also appointed as executive director of the Windsor Family YMCA in late 1993.[15] She supported the arrival of a Windsor casino in the mid-1990s, but opposed plans to make it a twenty-four-hour operation.[16] (She later voted against the final deal, citing concerns about the city's concessions to the casino).[17]

Wisdom was elected to a third term in 1994, again with support from the labour council.[18] She was chosen as chair of the Essex Region Conservation Authority in 1996, and was re-appointed to the position the following year.[19] She voted against a new farmer's market plan in December 1996, arguing that she could not support it without further financial details.[20] The following year, she was the only councillor to vote against a new mall development.[21]

She declined to run for re-election in 1997.

Journalist

In January 1998, Wisdom was hired to write a regular column for the Windsor Star newspaper. She held the position until 2006, and often used her columns to address and criticize municipal government decisions.[22] Her articles about provincial, national and international developments were highly articulate, and were usually very objective. She was named executive director of the United Way/Centraide of Windsor-Essex County in June 1998.[23]

Wisdom supported the Kyoto Protocol in a 2002 article.[24]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ " 15 area students Christmas winners in writing contest", Windsor Star 6 December 1986, A5.
  2. ↑ "Wisdom bids for seat", Windsor Star, 19 October 1988, A11.
  3. ↑ Marty Beneteau, "Eight fight it out in west-end ward", Windsor Star, 8 November 1988, A5.
  4. ↑ Marty Beneteau, "Votes make right turn", Windsor Star, 15 November 1988, A1.
  5. ↑ "'No guff' Millson says he's the boss", Windsor Star, 13 December 1988, A3.
  6. ↑ "City's fiscal fitness top priority: Wisdom", Windsor Star, 24 September 1991, A5.
  7. ↑ Marty Beneteau, "Stingy council holds tax boost to around $30", Windsor Star, 21 April 1989, A3; "Windsor Symphony asks city to bail it out", Windsor Star, 1 September 1989, A7; Lauren More, "WSO tills alive with sound of money", Windsor Star, 1 December 1992, A3.
  8. ↑ Marty Gervais, " Sour notes?", Windsor Star, 29 September 1990, C1.
  9. ↑ Chris Vander Doelen, "Group seeks $300,000 for bike trails", Windsor Star, 29 November 1990, A5; Chris Vander Doelen, "Bikeways plan lacks only cash", Windsor Star, 13 February 1991, A8.
  10. ↑ Gary Rennie, "IJC called 'toothless' over air emissions", Windsor Star, 20 March 1991, A11.
  11. ↑ Don Lajoie, " Labor council endorses slate for Nov. 12 election", Windsor Star, 16 October 1991, A5.
  12. ↑ "Green space inventory off until next year", Windsor Star, 31 March 1992, A5.
  13. ↑ Chris Vander Doelen, "Riverfront plan leaps forward", Windsor Star, 15 October 1992, A1.
  14. ↑ Chris Vander Doelen, "Hunt is on to cut dollars", Windsor Star, 10 May 1993, A1.
  15. ↑ "Wisdom to run Y for next 3 months", Windsor Star, 11 August 1993, A3.
  16. ↑ Ellen van Wageningen, " 24-hour casino backed", Windsor Star, 14 June 1994, A3.
  17. ↑ "The big deal: Wisdom of debate" [editorial], Windsor Star, 6 July 1995, A6.
  18. ↑ "Labor council releases its picks for election '94", Windsor Star, 19 October 1994, A5.
  19. ↑ Sharon Hill, " Wisdom takes reins of ERCA reins", Windsor Star, 19 January 1996, B1; "ERCA sets 1% levy increase, Wisdom wins second term", Windsor Star, 17 January 1997, A5.
  20. ↑ Ellen Van Wageningen, "City Council: Council votes for pavilion-style market", Windsor Star, 17 December 1996, A1.
  21. ↑ Chris Vander Doelen, "Hotel wins approval", Windsor Star, 18 February 1997, A1.
  22. ↑ see for instance Sheila Wisdom, "Let's make a better deal", Windsor Star, 2 March 1998, A6.
  23. ↑ "Windsor in brief", Windsor Star, 3 July 1998, A4.
  24. ↑ Sheila Wisdom, "Kyoto an opportunity", Windsor Star, 3 June 2002, A6.
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