A Letter to Our Future Leaders

Dear Candidates,

I’m writing to you as fellow leaders who have chosen to step forward and lead our town. It’s clear our current government isn’t run for the benefit of the people - and that needs to change. With over a decade of community leadership experience, I’m ready to lead a government centred on the needs of residents, that’s ruthlessly committed to delivering meaningful outcomes.

Whatever your background, expertise, or interests, I’m asking you: will you stand alongside me, and commit to being a leader who puts residents first and does what it takes to deliver impact?

Great leadership requires trust and partnership. So I want to share with you why I’m here, and how I’ll approach leadership when I’m Mayor, in the hope that you’ll partner with me to deliver for residents. My approach is informed by years of experience leading organizations, advocating for those whose voices don’t get heard, and collaborating effectively with government of all levels to deliver impact for communities.

There are three ways I’ll lead differently from day one:

  • Unite the entire District - elected officials and staff - under a shared purpose of meeting the needs of our people

  • Create a new approach to community engagement that empowers people to truly shape our town

  • Hold ourselves, and our partners, accountable for impact, not outputs

My commitment to you is this: I’ll do what it takes to make Squamish the town our residents deserve. I’m excited to work with all of you, as people equally passionate about shaping the future of our town. It will take all of us, bringing our best ideas, demonstrated experience, and most thoughtful leadership - but I know it’s possible.

Why I’m Here: Squamish is Falling Behind

After eleven years in Squamish and a long career in community service and advocacy, I’ve decided to stand for Mayor. My decision was driven by my love for Squamish, and my hope that it can be a place where my family – and everyone’s families – can thrive.

But it was also driven by the harsh reality that life in Squamish is becoming harder, not easier, for most people. We now have the second highest cost of living in the province, and this year we saw the biggest increase in property taxes in BC. Yet our amenities and infrastructure are falling behind, more people are struggling to make ends meet, and our quality of life is falling.

Over the last few months, I’ve been talking with Squamish residents from all walks of life. Whatever their biggest concerns or challenges, there’s been one theme that unites them: they feel forgotten. While municipal projects are completed and funds are spent, too often that effort and expense hasn’t translated into real, tangible improvements to people’s quality of life.

So what’s the solution?

1. A Simple Shared Purpose: Meeting the Needs of Our People

Our current government is ineffective because it lacks a clear shared purpose. If you asked all DOS staff what their purpose is, you would get as many answers as there are people. As a result, government has been too concerned with completing to-do lists and drafting master plans, and not concerned enough with driving real outcomes that matter to residents.

But there’s only one true purpose of government: to meet the needs of the people we serve.

Every single person, elected or staff, needs to share that purpose. That’s it. Those elected to lead are stewards of our town and our resources, with a responsibility to represent the needs of our entire community, and leave Squamish better than we found it for generations to come. To do so, we need to work with and for the people of Squamish, filtering every decision through one question: “does this meet the needs of our people?”

2. A New Relationship With Residents

For the last decade, I’ve worked alongside local, provincial, and federal government as a non-profit Executive Director, youth worker, community leader, and advocate. It’s this work – as a champion for marginalized youth – that has taught me what is possible when you work alongside the people most affected by society’s biggest problems. But although so much of Squamish has been built by community members, we’re now being left out of the decisions that affect us.

We need to start a new relationship with residents: proactively, authentically, and openly meeting community members where they are, and hearing what really matters to them. Community engagement should be an ongoing dialogue, not a one-time opportunity. And it should happen when residents still have a true chance to influence outcomes.

Leaders need the humility, flexibility, and skill to adapt to what they hear. And they need to treat residents as collaborators with valuable ideas and solutions. In all my experience working with incredibly diverse groups of people, I’ve learned that those closest to a problem have the most effective solutions. Government should mobilize the knowledge, skills, and wisdom of the whole community to create a Squamish that works for everyone – not make decisions about us, without us.

3. Judging Our Success on the Impact We Deliver

Our government is measuring success in all the wrong ways: they’re mistaking completed plans for solved problems. And so they keep forging ahead with plans that are clearly not working.

Squamish’s Housing Action plan, which is supposed to “make housing more livable and attainable for residents”, has attempted to drive down prices by increasing supply. By that measure, it has been a “success”: the number of housing units has increased by 25%. But ask anyone on the street: housing has not become more livable or attainable, and no amount of council reports will convince us otherwise.

Government must be willing to adapt to feedback and real world impacts, and then move quickly when our strategies aren’t delivering results. Every government project, plan, or policy should define success by whether it delivers meaningful outcomes for residents. Then, when plans don’t work, we’ll make different, more strategic, braver decisions. Government needs to learn from for-profit and non-profit businesses that know: when things aren’t working, you can’t afford to wait. You need to be creative and bold to get back on track.

It’s Time to Start Behaving Differently

I’ve spent my career standing up for those whose voices rarely get heard and doing things that few think possible. I’m used to doing hard things: delivering creative solutions on tight budgets, leading hard conversations, uniting people with very different perspectives under a common goal.

Through it all, I’ve come to understand that change doesn’t happen by accident: it requires courage, creativity, true collaboration, and a critical perspective on how we got here in the first place. I’m running for Mayor because I believe Squamish needs that courage, creativity, and collaboration right now: and because I believe I have the experience, commitment, and drive to deliver it.

I would be honored to spend the next four years collaborating with you, using the power we are trusted with to be leaders with real purpose, meeting our residents’ needs, and holding ourselves truly accountable. I hope that when we look back on our four years leading this town, we’ll be proud of what we achieved: not make excuses for why we didn’t deliver.

My questions for you as candidates are:

  • Will you commit to meeting the needs of the people who elect us?

  • Will you truly involve them in all decisions that impact them?

  • Will you define your success by what we deliver for residents?

If so, let’s start working together now. And if you’re a voter reading this: tell me what I’ve missed, and what you need from the next leadership of our town.

If there’s one thing I’ve heard over the last few months, it’s this: we need to start doing things differently. I’m ready to take that leap – I hope you’ll join me.

With you,

Sean Easton