Who is Joan
Two poodles, one ward, a lot of listening.
Joan Christensen was born in Manchester, England, and came to Canada with her family as a child. They settled first in Toronto, then in Acton, where she spent her school years.
She studied political science, education and environmental studies in Toronto, and has spent more than fifty years working with regional and provincial governments, non profit organisations and the private sector, including her own consulting business. She has lived near Prospect Point since moving to Fort Erie, and does most of her shopping on the main street in Ridgeway.
What shaped the work
Four things that were not learned from a policy binder.
Joan's professional focus on seniors, poverty, disability and municipal politics all began at home.
A grandmother who raised her
Grandma Seddon looked after Joan while her mother worked. With over half of Fort Erie residents now over 50, anticipating their housing, health and social needs is not abstract to her.
A paycheque away from poverty
Her father, then the unpaid mayor of Acton, was laid off when the Avro Arrow was cancelled. He dug ditches for 40 cents an hour and her mother took in piece work. Friends quietly made Christmas happen that year.
A sister worth fighting for
Her younger sister was found to be severely hard of hearing at seven, in the era when institutions were the recommended answer. The family taught her to speak. She went to university, built a career and raised a family.
How things actually get done
Her father entered municipal politics to get the roads in his subdivision paved. Then the farmers told him that the local tannery drained the tanning products into the groundwater and he fought along with other municipal leaders for new provincial legislation. He showed her that a local issue is usually a regional one too, and that municipal leaders working together can change provincial law.
Before the Council seat
Showing up in Fort Erie.
Joan has served as a board member and grant writer for a community health centre, a community mental health organisation and a Board of Health. After moving to Fort Erie she worked with Advancing Crystal Beach, the Fort Erie Native Friendship Centre and the Beachcombers Senior Citizens' Association to make the case for social and recreational facilities (a community hub) across town, and particularly in the west end.
That work took her onto the Mayor's Task Force on the future of the former YMCA, now E.J. Freeland: sustaining the building and negotiating for a new operator. The Community Hub Project stalled during COVID, but the community survey behind it still holds up, and it is why a Facilities and Recreation Master Plan sits in her platform today.
In the summer of 2022 she worked with the Crystal Beach BIA, the Town, Niagara Tourism and Advancing Crystal Beach on the illuminated Crystal Beach sign. She wrote the funding application, ran the tender process with BIA members, handled contract administration and liaised between the Town, the supplier and the partners. She was campaigning for the fall election in Ward 4 at the same time.
As a long time board member of Bridges Community Health Centre, she is delighted by the $4.75 million allocated to Bridges so that 9,000 residents across Fort Erie, Port Colborne and Wainfleet can reach primary care, along with social workers, nurses, diabetes educators and physiotherapists. That is the kind of care that keeps people out of emergency departments.
In her words
The part that is hardest to write.
I raised my son alone from the time he was thirteen. He had nearly died at four from a rare E. coli related illness, and developed Type 1 diabetes at nineteen. He had a heart attack on New Year's Eve 2023, received excellent tertiary care and a quadruple bypass. He died nine months later because the systems around that care - financial support, a nephrology referral, quick access to dialysis - were simply not good enough to keep him alive.
Through all of it I did not miss a Council, Town Committee or Board meeting.
I have never been an inside the box thinker, which is both a strength and a liability. A strength because I can see how systems could work better. A liability because people sometimes read a change agent as a wild card. I listen to fresh ideas, including the ones that contradict my own.
Joan Christensen
Values
What I actually believe.
There is an intrinsic worth in human beings, an equality of being that transcends attributes or characteristics or abilities. Fundamental to that worth is the capacity for growth, change, kindness and choice.
From that perspective, there is no path more honourable than working to help others become truly themselves. For some it is direct service, for others planning and design. Once you accept it, you can only try to act with respect and kindness, and use whatever agency you have to change the systems and programmes that fail people who are vulnerable, disadvantaged or different.
Sometimes you have to accept that you cannot change the world. You can only change the piece of the world you live in.
Away from the job
What she does when Council is not sitting.
Two standard poodles
Adopted through Carolina Poodle Rescue and Standard Poodles in Need. You will see them in Ridgeway, Crystal Beach and dog parks across Niagara.
Back on the ice, eventually
Figure skated as a child and again as an adult, and would like to get back on the ice.
A work in slow progress
Works out at Buddha Fitness to rebuild strength lost to years of avoidance.
Piano lessons, paused
Paused to focus on being a Councillor. The plan is to start again when there is spare time.
Come say hello.
Joan is out in the ward most days. Stop her, or send a note.