User:Leannemcaron

Leanne Caron Piper (1964-) is the current city councillor for Ward 5 in the City of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. First elected to Council in 2006, she previously held elected office as a Trustee of the Upper Grand District School Board (2003-2006).

Background
Caron was born in Winnipeg, MB, where her father was stationed as an RCAF Navigator (402 Squadron) and her mother served as an Operating Room Nurse at Winnipeg General Hospital. The family later moved to Toronto, Bramalea, and then to a rural property outside of Arkell, Ontario. She attended Brock Road School, College Avenue School and Centennial C.V.I. in Guelph. She graduated with an Honours BA in History and English from McMaster University in 1991. Caron subsequently took a position at McMaster as Programme Co-ordinator in the Dept. of Housing, and later moved into the position of Manager, Admissions and Conferences.

She left McMaster to start her own communications company, Log Cabin Press, and then worked under contract with 4-H Ontario as Communications Co-ordinator in 2002. She accepted a position as Manager, Residence Admissions and Marketing at the University of Guelph in 2011 where she currently serves in this capacity. She obtained her Masters degree from the University of Guelph in 2015. in 2016, Caron travelled to Babati, Tanzania to complete a placement with the Tanzanian Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture as part of a Uniterra assignment through the University.

Community Work
Caron became active in political issues in her youth, forming the first environmental club at Centennial C.V.I. in 1982. During the 1980s and 90s, Leanne was on the board of the Midwifery Task Force of Ontario, culminating in the passage of “Bill 56, the Midwifery Act which was passed on December 31, 1993 making Ontario the first province in Canada to recognize, regulate and fund midwifery as part of the health care system.” She became involved in local education issues following cuts to school boards by the Mike Harris government, while serving as School Council Chair at John McCrae and College Avenue Public Schools (Guelph). School Council chairs banded together to form an organization Save Our Schools (S.O.S.) to oppose the funding formula that led to local school closures, and to advocate for improvements to the accommodation review process. This activism led her to put her name forward in the 2003 election for the position of School Board trustee, where she succeeded Liz Sandals, who had entered provincial politics as the Liberal candidate for the riding of Guelph-Wellington.

Her activism in protecting local heritage led to her appointment to the Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Board (LACAC) in 2002, an advisory committee to Council. Changes to the Ontario Heritage Act resulted in a change in name to Heritage Guelph in 2005, with Leanne acting in the role as chair from 2004-2006. She, along with Susan Ratcliffe and Don Mikel, resurrected the Guelph-Wellington chapter of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario and was a founding member of the Guelph Heritage Foundation. She joined the provincial board of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario (AC0) as the Editor of ACORN, the ACO’s magazine. She continues to be a strong supporter of heritage preservation and is the editor of Historic Guelph, the annual journal of the Guelph Historical Society.

Political Life
First elected to Guelph City Council in 2006, Leanne was a member of one of Canada’s first female-majority municipal councils of its time (69% female).

As a member of Council, Leanne has been a board member of multiple community organizations, boards and committees including:  Family and Children’s Services Board of Directors (2006-2010), Guelph Junction Railway board (2010-2014. ), Macdonald Stewart Art Centre Board (2003-2014), Wellington-Guelph-Dufferin Public Health, Social Services and Land Ambulance (Chair), Guelph Police Services Board (2010-2016), and the Downtown Guelph Board of Management (2018-present). She chaired the Planning, Works and Environment committee from (2012-2014).

She was re-elected in 2010, 2014 and 2018.

Personal Life
Leanne moved to Guelph in 1992 with husband Craig Piper, and they raised four children in the Old University area of the city. They were married from 1985 through 2013. In 2020, Leanne married Arni Mikelsons, founder of Northern Village, a local Guelph BCorp. They currently reside in the Junction neighbourhood of Guelph.