Prominent Canadians Weigh In: Kelly Linton
Kelly has been a local member of council for 12 years, including two terms (8 years) as Centre Wellington Mayor and two terms (4 years) as Wellington County Warden. His focus is on achieving positive results and making his community a better place to live. Kelly has been a positive force supporting a variety of community projects - big and small. As a member on many local groups, including the Healthy Growth Advisory Committee, he has been instrumental in helping steer the municipality towards increasing the supply of more attainable housing amidst skyrocketing real estate prices. Kelly is also the co-founder and owner of a boutique business consulting firm providing management consulting services to government agencies. He is also the co-founder and owner of one of Wellington County’s premier athletic training centres.
What early life experiences triggered your interest in climate issues?
Watching the news and seeing the increasingly frequency of catastrophic weather events.
What worries you most about where we are at with the climate emergency?
People are increasingly starting to believe whatever they want to believe regardless of the science/evidence. It results in things like climate change becoming just another political position.
What green lifestyle change have you and your family started because of the pandemic?
We have decided to make do with one car rather than two and use our bikes more. We also using the County of Wellington's organic curbside service every week.
What green lifestyle change are you finding most difficult to take on?
Driving places rather than jumping on my bike.
Do you have a song, musician or other artist that inspires you and gives you hope as you grapple with the pandemic and climate change?
Not really.
If a young relative were to ask you in five years' time "what did you do when the climate was tanking," what will you say?
I would list the real actions that the County of Wellington has taken to contribute to a healthy environment like:
- planting 3 million trees through the green legacy program
- transitioning from gas-powered to natural gas vehicles
- completed a study to review all of our facility and fleet operations to find ways to reduce carbon emissions. We built these improvements into our annual budget.
- introduced an ambitious green bin organics curbside pickup across the County that has added about 20 years to the life of our landfill site by diverting organic materials
What gives you hope about the future of the climate and life on this planet?
Increasing attention to climate change is helping to make this a topic of public conversation for all levels of government. As more climate change targets are established, responsible leaders are finding ways to achieve positive results.