A long-time city councillor will not be running in the upcoming municipal election. Ward 5 Coun. Ed Sleiman announced on Friday that he would not be filing for re-election. The 83 year old has been on council since 2010 and received 49 per cent of the votes during the 2022 election. He has advocated and invested in road and sewers within his ward, has been involved in numerous community boards and agencies, and has continued to invest in the revitalization of Ford City. Sleiman says he always did his best to be honest and sincere with the community when helping them with concerns. “I always tried and tried again. Sometimes if you’re really persistent, sometimes it pays off. Some things are impossible to be done, but I always stuck with it, and the end result... we always had a good ending.” He says he feels sad to step away, and he wishes he could continue to be the councillor. “People say ‘for how long’ - I’m 83-years-old - ‘for how long do you want to stay?’ I give them a kind of funny answer, I say ‘until I’m six-foot into the ground’, because I enjoy doing it. You ask people who retire ‘what do you want to do after retirement? Do you want to travel? Do you want to do this and that? Do you want to go fishing?’... with me, I’d really like to stay involved with the City of Windsor.” Sleiman added he’s going to miss his constituents. “Some residents they are very active, and they see something wrong and they say ‘can we fix it?’ I just tell them to get in touch with whoever the councillor will be, and I’m sure they’ll do their best to help my constituents.” When mayor Drew Dilkens was asked about Sleiman not filing, he stated he’s one of the hardest working councillors he’s ever seen, and he will be deeply missed around the council table. Sleiman is the last of the current council to announce his intentions. Dilkens has yet to announce if he is running for mayor. As of Friday evening, five individuals have filed their nomination papers for Ward 5. Interested candidates will have until Aug. 21 to file nomination papers. The municipal election will be held on Oct. 26.
