When I call to interview Tasha Kheiriddin, she’s in the midst of trying to organize a rideshare for her mother’s doctor appointment, talking off-screen to her teen-aged daughter Zara, while posting a video of her cat on Instagram. She can give me 15 minutes.

“I’m just running flat out,” laughs the cheerful and seriously high-energy 56-year-old single mother, lawyer, political commentator, journalist, media trainer, PR consultant, and, a job she clearly enjoys, fill-in host for Zoomer radio’s Fight Back with Libby Znaimer. 

As if she didn’t have enough on her plate, Kheiriddin recently decided to toss her hat into the ring as a candidate for the school board trustee in Toronto’s Ward 7 (Toronto-St. Paul’s, University-Rosedale & Toronto Centre) for the Oct. 26 municipal elections.

So far, she’s worn out a pair of sandals on the campaign trail, canvassing neighbourhoods, knocking on doors, visiting schools and dropping off literature in an effort to restore common sense to an education system she feels has become inundated with political agendas that distract teachers from teaching and children from learning.

Kheiriddin says she doesn’t want to turn her candidacy into a political crusade. “This isn’t about being left or right,” she says, rolling out her speaking points. “It’s about education. It’s about teaching kids the skills they need so when they leave the school system, they can actually, you know, be successful. It’s about exposing them to important things, like art and sports – providing a well-rounded education. And it’s about building a safe and welcoming place. All so that kids can enjoy their education and get the most out of it.” 

The primary role as trustee, she tells voters, is to represent the community within the board – “Not just to rubber stamp what the staff gives us.” She feels that a lot of these ideological pursuits and political “distractions” emanated from teachers. “We can push back and say no. Or, we can ask the staff, ‘Have you measured how this policy is helping students as opposed to just doing it and saying it’s fine?’”

The feedback on the campaign trail so far has been “incredibly positive,” says the first-time candidate for any level of government. “People are first of all surprised they can even vote for school trustee,” referring to Premier Doug Ford’s provincial government takeover of school boards that were riven by financial mismanagement and trustee infighting, replacing trustees with provincial supervisors. But her board isn’t one of them. “We’re still here and, if reasonable people are elected, they will sit,” she says, leading nicely into her election pitch: “I’m a reasonable person and I have one interest – education.”

She’s spoken to many parents who are unhappy with the current state of education. “The overwhelming vibe I get is frustration.” Whether it’s the use of technology in the classroom, the actual instruction, the quality of teaching, to the size of classes – she feels there’s a deep dissatisfaction with the board’s lack of focus in addressing these issues that clearly matter to parents.  

This frustration has been driven home time and again during her campaign, especially when she began passing out erasers emblazoned with the slogan Vote Tasha. “My message is: here’s an eraser for your child to clean up the TDSB.” It always gets a laugh but there’s a deeper meaning. “People are reacting to the handouts: ‘Yeah, we like that. We’d like someone to come in and get the board to focus on education as opposed to distracting issues and ideology and agendas that have nothing to do with schooling.”

Safety is another central concern for the prospective trustee. Her ward has a large Jewish population and many parents from the community she’s spoken to don’t feel their kids are safe. “It’s heart-breaking to hear these things but, at the same time, it doesn’t surprise me.”

The one thing Kheiriddin would most like to change is to impose stricter financial oversight on the board’s spending policies. “The TDSB wastes a lot of money,” she says bluntly, citing a case where her school wanted to buy picnic tables but were told they would cost $3,000 each. “If I could leave one legacy, it would be to actually control costs within the system so we can deploy that money to things we need, like smaller classes, more teachers and more educational assistants.” 

Despite these worthy goals, the question remains: why would anyone with a successful career and busy family life willingly choose to enter today’s increasingly hostile political world, especially one as dysfunctional and toxic as the school board? 

“I don’t know,” Kheiriddin pauses, before offering: “I’m a bit of a doer.” Maybe it’s as simple as that. Like a growing number of people who are frustrated by the direction our political and education systems are taking, she feels compelled to stop watching from the sidelines and step into the fray.

But even as she struggles to describe her motivations, she’s quick to point out that the experience has been unexpectedly rewarding. “I have a wonderful team of people. The most gratifying experience from this whole thing has been the people who have come out of the woodwork saying, ‘I want to help you.’”

Photographs courtesy of Tasha Kheiriddin.