Of the four Russell residents who have put their name on the ballot for the upcoming Russell Township municipal by-election, Julian Hunt is the youngest to apply at 29 years old.
Hunt, originally from Hudson, Quebec, moved to Russell a decade ago with his partner. He worked for Shopify as a Senior iOS Developer in Ottawa from 2019 until 2023. At the same time, him and his partner, began a wedding photography company named Kaitlyn CW Photography.
While working for the wedding photography business, which is busiest during the summer months and calmer the rest of the year, Hunt knows he can manage the part-time councillor role while continuing to managing the photography company.
Though always interested in what has been happening in his community, the main reason Hunt became a candidate for the councillor position was because he now has more time.
“Like a lot of people of my generation, I didn’t have time to dedicate to these things,” Hunt said. “If you look at how Council meetings work, and how you can participate in local politics, it’s very skewed towards those who are retired and have more time to dedicate to it.”
He goes on to say that most people his age, ranging from 20 to 30 years old can’t go on Mondays at 6 p.m. to Council meetings because they come home and prepare supper for their families and have other priorities.
“And once I had that time to dedicate, I said ‘Oh! I should do this for the people who don’t have that time,” he said.
Hunt acknowledges that Council has made efforts to make Council meetings more accessible by livestreaming it on YouTube.
“You can consume the media, but you can’t participate in it,” Hunt said.
If elected, Hunt said he wants to make it so residents watching from their own homes could participate and ask questions while Council meetings are happening and have those comments answered in a reasonable amount of time.
He believes his experience working in programming has given him the tools to handle the role of councillor.
“Managing large-scale tech projects is very similar. You’re dealing with all sorts of different departments and different people. All the project management skills could directly apply. It’s different content and you’re dealing with different problems, but you’re still just solving problems with a group of diverse and different people and different departments.”
If elected, one of Hunt’s priorities would be affordable housing.
“If I’m looking 20 years into the future, I want everyone who works in Russell and runs the town can afford to live here. Right now, the only people who can afford to live here are people in Ottawa with high paying jobs. The people who run the coffee shop or work at the Township should be able to afford somewhere to live without having to stress about finances. But at the same time, keeping the vibe of Russell the same. A lot of us moved here for a specific reason: it was a small town, and it didn’t feel like a city or a suburb, and I want to keep it that way.”
Hunt aims to focus more on affordable multi-unit housing instead of taking more land and spreading houses.
Next, Hunt wants to invest in the youth.
“I have a vision somewhere where Russell’s kids aren’t bored. I think we are lacking a lot in resources for our kids,” said Hunt. “We’ve grown so much, and we have so much more youth, but we don’t have enough programs to keep them busy.”
Hunt wants to invest in more sports programs and “not spending a hundred million dollars on one hockey rink for kids,” a pointed admonishment of the Township’s efforts to build a large hockey and recreations complex.
His campaign will be mainly online and will not be putting up signs for the election, believing that the cost to put up the signs is not beneficial enough.
“We’re going to throw them out at the end. It’s just a bunch of pollution for not much benefit when most of my demographic is online.”
Election Day is September 30. Voter Help Centre will be open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
