(We here at All Fired Up in the Big Smoke have been friends with Ward 1 Etobicoke North’s city council candidate, Idil Burale, for a few years now. In fact, we’ve put in some time working on her campaign. So, there’s some question of objectivity when it comes to writing up her profile. Luckily, Ms. Burale has more than her share of fans excited about her candidacy. One, Samuel Getachew, a Toronto based community journalist and political activist, busily preparing his Canadian Perspective site, wrote an article about her a while back and was generous to let us share it with us.)

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Unlocking City Hall’s potential: a new voice for Etobicoke North

In a room full of distinguished citizens – Former Prime Minister John Turner, Conservative strategist Jamie Watt, former Mayoral candidate Karen Stintz – at Royal York Hotel last year, the only person I wanted to have a conversation was with Idil Bruale.

The only subject I wanted to discuss with her was about her potential candidacy for municipal office in 2014. I had heard a rumour she might be a candidate and I was excited. However, she told me she would not be a candidate and I was disappointed.

How could I not be?

Burale is an eloquent, smart and ambitious young person that would bring much substance and initiative to our local government. I have enjoyed her thoughtful insights over the years on outlets such as TVO’s The Agenda and CBC radio and she is exactly the kind of person one should encourage to be active in electoral politics.

In the tradition that mere months in politics is a life time, the 28-year-old has recently announced that she would indeed be a candidate in 2014. She is running in Etobicoke North‏’s Ward 1 against Councillor Vincent Crisanti, a loyalist and mouth piece to Mayor Rob Ford. I am glad she is running and is giving her neighbours a better destination to support.

Beyond her youthful lofty ideal and objectives in social justice issues, Burale knows the potential and limitation of governments as she has been mentored and employed by noted area politicians such as MPP’S Mike Colle and Glen Murray. She understands retail politics as much as the responsibilities of governments.

What makes the young dynamo even more attractive is her civic participation.

For instance, she has made a great impression with the Rexdale Priority Neighbourhood Youth Solutions Group, organizing an event called Youth Solutions, in search of practical solutions to discuss important policy issues that affect youth disproportionally such as unemployment, policing, and a culture of low expectations at schools. For her, as she reflected with Inside Toronto, “the youth wants to be able to contribute to help find solutions for the neighborhood from everything such as employment to safety.”

She is also a member of Toronto District School Board’s task force for the success of Somali Canadian students in addressing a depressingly high level of drop outs. At the Toronto Police Service Board, she was a member of Community Safety Task Force that just concluded its work and produced an important policy report.

At the Toronto Police Service Board, she is a member of a task force on community safety and she also sits on an external advisory committee comprised of community members who are to assist in implementation of 31 recommendations. She also served with PACER, an internal Toronto Police Services initiative, of which she is accepted a three year membership of the external advisory committee helping the force in the implementation of 31 recommendations.

She is a founding member of Positive Change TO, Women in Toronto Politics, Academy of the Impossible and the Policing Literacy Initiative – an idea of the inspiring Jamil Jivani, a recent Yale Law School graduate. According to Jivani, an inspiring and engaged citizen himself, it’s to being “20 young leaders bringing new ideas and diverse perspectives to improve police services and community safety in Toronto and abroad”.

The ever busy Burale is currently pursuing an innovation leadership fellowship at MaRS Discovery District on systems change called Studio Y.

She was honoured by Samara in its 2013 Everyday Political Citizen (previously called Canada25) contest as its runner up candidate. Her nominator, University of Toronto’s Rima Berns-McGown, described her as “thoughtful, wise, diplomatic, perspicacious, funny, passionate; a community leader who understands the issues and who never puts her own interests before those of the people she serves; someone who cares about Toronto as a city and Canada as a country; and someone who is self-effacing and kind”.

She added – “If every political leader were like Idil, what an amazing city, province, and country this would be. I nominate her for Etobicoke North. I would vote for her anywhere”.

Indeed. Add me to the long list of admirers of such a special citizen in Idil Bruale.

— submitted by Samuel Getachew