A longtime Mississauga resident with roots in the Caribbean diaspora is running for city council in Ward 5 this October, campaigning on taxpayer fairness, community engagement, and municipal accountability, according to a report published by Frequency.
Jamie Dookie has lived in Mississauga for 36 years, and has lived and worked in Ward 5 for 21 of them, the report states. He is one of three candidates of Caribbean heritage seeking municipal council seats across the Greater Toronto Area this fall, alongside Michael Samlalsingh, who is running in Ward 1 in Pickering, and Robert Bazil, who is running in Ward 24, Scarborough-Guildwood, in Toronto.
Dookie's professional background includes senior roles in procurement, materials management, logistics, and operations across government, healthcare, and private enterprise. His community résumé includes longstanding involvement with residents' organizations in Mississauga, as well as leadership within Caribbean-Canadian business organizations.
He said community engagement is one of the main reasons he is seeking a council seat, alongside "equity and fairness for the taxpayers, ensuring that they get value for the money they pay in taxes and services they get in return."
Dookie is also campaigning on community safety, accountability, and what he describes as equity in property taxation. One of his stated objectives is "ensuring property taxes are kept in line with inflation," while making certain residents receive corresponding value through municipal services.
"I want to put my skills experience and expertise in serving humanity and community to ensure that residents of Ward 5 receive the service, and to help the community meet the challenges that are currently being faced," Dookie said, according to the report.
His candidacy comes as all three diaspora hopefuls bring different professional paths to their campaigns — Samlalsingh through a career in banking and financial management, Bazil through journalism, youth development, and legal services, and Dookie through procurement, operations, and community organization.
Samlalsingh, a Chartered Professional Accountant with Trinidad and Tobago roots and roughly three decades in banking, is focused on diversity and representation on Pickering city council. "I decided to run for a few reasons, among them diversity on the city council and representation," Samlalsingh told Indo-Caribbean World.
Bazil, who was born in Guyana and came to Canada in 2008, is a former Guyana Chronicle chief reporter and became a licensed paralegal, notary public, and commissioner of oaths in Ontario. His platform emphasizes youth development, community safety, affordable housing, transit, and homelessness.
For Mississauga voters, Dookie's campaign places a local focus on questions of how tax dollars are spent and whether residents are getting fair value in return — themes he says he intends to bring directly to the council table if elected in October.
