I am Richard Harlow. I was born and raised in Nanaimo, and I have watched this city become what it is. I lost most of my sight in my early twenties and rebuilt my life here as a painter and a small business owner. Today I run Blind Eye Works, an accessibility consultancy and art practice, and I am a member of the Greater Nanaimo Chamber of Commerce.

I do not drive. I am out on these streets every day, in every season, and my cane finds the broken sidewalks and dangerous crossings before my feet do. For six years I have taken what it finds to the City's accessibility and inclusion committee, and a good deal of it has been fixed. Nanaimo now has a street standard that keeps sidewalks level across side streets, spreading one water main at a time. Every bus in the system announces its stops. The low-income recreation pass moved online, and use grew from 300 people in 2020 to 3,326 last year. And until this year, a blind person could not complete Nanaimo's candidate nomination papers without somebody else reading and writing for them. I pushed to have them digitized. That is the only reason I am on this ballot.

Most people know me as the runner. I run trails, and this year I became the first blind runner to finish the Run Saysutshun half marathon. Blazing a trail really means clearing it, so whoever comes along behind has fewer things to climb over. I have been doing that from an advisory seat. I want to do it with a vote.

I am running on four things: safe streets and ready responders, a city you can afford to live in, health and care close to home, and a green city that protects us. Accessibility is not a fifth item. It is the lens over all four, because a city that works for the person facing the most barriers works better for everybody in it.

My full platform, written in plain language with every source attached, is at RichardHarlow.ca. I live, work and run on the unceded territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation. Voting day is Saturday, October 17. That is my vision beyond sight.