Testimonials

"I wrote these words in 2018, and I still stand by them today. When the voters elected Charlene Biggerstaff in the Ward 1 by-election in 2017, they made a very good choice. During that campaign, I was impressed by the amount of study and preparation she had done.

As a former Councillor myself for 22 years, I knew exactly what the job entailed and what was required to do the job well. Charlene took the initiative to contact me to arrange to meet with me to discuss a long list of matters relating to this position. She came to the meeting very well prepared and I could tell by her questions that she had a good understanding of the issues — particularly relating to the critical areas of municipal planning and finance.

After the campaign was over, Charlene "hit the ground running" and didn't miss a beat when she was sworn in to office. Over the year-and-a-half since then, she has been rock solid in the performance of her duties. She has truly earned the support of the voters and I am proud to endorse Charlene once again, knowing that the town and Ward 1 will be in very good hands for the next four years."

- Ross Jamieson

Former Councillor of 22 years  

Georgina Resident 40 years

S&B Motors Sales

"Charlene Biggerstaff has been one of my biggest role models over the years. She is very special to me; she has been an idol for me as a young entrepreneur, and she is a friend since I was 13 years old. 

We met through my first work opportunity at Crates Landing, and from then on, she took me under her wing and has offered endless support and kindness through to present time. Even in her busy life (like ridiculous busyness), she never fails to check in on me and offer guidance or advice when I need it. She has taught me to believe in myself and seen things in me that I didn't know was there until years after (and probably some I haven't even seen yet).

I could write about Charlene all afternoon, she is one in a million. I am beyond thankful that we crossed paths so many years ago and that I have her in my life. I may be biased, but nobody has the drive, the care, and the balls (excuse me) for this position in our municipal government as she does. We need more people like this in support of our community. 

Charlene, it is! You couldn’t ask for someone more fit for this opportunity to represent you and your community."

- Hailey Boden

• Georgina Resident for 25 years
• Customer Success Operations Manager
• ABC Fitness and Entrepreneur

"I just wanted to say thank you for all you have done to support me in my push for Lyme Disease awareness. The first thing I would like to thank you for was attending my Lyme awareness day at RL Graham. 

You had great advice and encouraged me to make a video that now has over 1.5k views and 87 likes as well as a big fat goose egg for dislikes!!  It is important to spread awareness as many ways as we can. To top things off, you showed my video to Carolyn enabling me to speak in front of town council in turn making May Lyme Disease awareness month official in Georgina.

Another huge thank you and I would love to see you at R.L.Graham's Lyme awareness day 2018 if possible (I know you are really busy)."

Have a good night,

 - Daniel

• Lyme Disease Advocate

"Ward 1, she's yours. Keep her!

I met Charlene Biggerstaff about four years ago, through community events in Georgina. I don't live in her ward. I have never needed anything from her office.

What struck me first wasn't warmth. It was how much she knows.

Ask her how the Township is structured and who actually makes a given decision, and she'll tell you — not in slogans, but in the order things really happen. Ask about the Keswick Business Park and she talks about the development plan like someone who has read it. For anyone trying to get something done at a municipality, that kind of knowledge is worth a great deal. Sympathy tells you someone cares. Knowledge tells you they can help.

I got to test that impression properly when I joined the Georgina Equity and Diversity Advisory Committee.

Charlene had come to the Chinese Association when a seat opened, told us about it, and encouraged our members to apply. She didn't hand anyone a seat — she couldn't, and I don't think she'd want to. More than one of us applied. I went through the process like everybody else, and I was the one appointed.

That committee is where I stopped being a grateful community member and became something closer to a witness. Until then I knew her in one context only: a councillor who was good to the Chinese community. That's a warm view, and a narrow one, and I was aware it might be flattering me.

The committee's job was to give the different communities in Georgina somewhere to bring their questions, their asks, their suggestions. Part of it is listening. The harder part is figuring out what a group actually needs, which is not always what they came in prepared to say.

What I watched Charlene do, month after month, was ask questions. She was always one of the members asking — especially of our guest speakers, whose presentations she paid real attention to and always had something to follow up on. And they weren't the polite questions that close a conversation. They were the second and third question, the ones that get past the surface of a request.

None of that had anything to do with me or my community. Same preparation, same patience, same follow-through, whether or not there was anyone in the room who owed her thanks.

One example I can point to. The committee wanted Georgina to have a multicultural event of its own — that much everyone supported. Charlene was one of the people who then did the work to turn it into something real. She wasn't alone in that; there are people on that committee who care a great deal, and staff who did the real building. But she put in the work, and she stayed with it. Georgina has the event now.

I should say plainly what she has done for my own community, since that's where I first came to know her. Over four years she has turned up for the Chinese Association's events year after year. And one year, when a festival we had already announced lost its venue — performers booked, date set, nowhere to hold it — she was asked for help, and what she did went past anything I expected. Others worked on it too, Town staff and our own volunteers. But she was the one who got it moving when it was stuck, and the festival went ahead on schedule in August 2024. 

She has never asked us for anything in return. I'm aware that makes me a grateful person, which is exactly why I've spent most of this on what I watched her do for everybody else.

Here's the pattern I keep noticing. She is rarely the most visible person in a piece of work, and she is very often part of the reason it gets finished.

She listens longer than she talks. She follows up on the small things — the email, the introduction, the phone call — which, if you've ever run a volunteer event, you know is most of the job. She is visibly busy and she still turns up, and she gives you her attention while she's there.

I call her Charlene, not Councillor Biggerstaff. That isn't disrespect. It's what happens after four years of someone treating you like a neighbour instead of a demographic.

I live one ward over. I can't vote for her, and I'm not asking anyone for anything. But I've watched her work for four years, most of it on matters that had nothing to do with me, and I'd rather say so out loud than assume everyone already knows.

Ward 1 — she's yours. Keep her."

— Nancy Liu 

** Written in my personal capacity as a Georgina resident and a member of the local Chinese community. 

**I sat on the Georgina Equity and Diversity Advisory Committee until it was dissolved ahead of the election, and previously served on the board of the Georgina Chinese Association. I do not speak for either.