KEVIN KER QUICK FACTS
Running for: Acclaimed as Ward 1 councillor Age: 65 Occupation: Retired agricultural researcher and consultant resides: lifelong resident of Fenwick Family: Wife Jina, one daughter, five grandkids
He’s got to be the most educated agriculturalist in Pelham. Kevin Ker, an acclaimed candidate in Pelham’s Ward 1—meaning he will automatically be seated as a member of the new council, given a lack of other candidates this year—holds Bachelors degrees in agriculture and education, and both a Masters and PhD in science, earned through studies at the University of Guelph and at Brock.
Farming comes second nature to Ker, since his family has been tilling the Fenwick soil for over a hundred years.
“My family had 35 acres, 20 of which are now the Cherry Ridge subdivision,” he said. “My current house is on ancestral land. I grew up with cherries and peaches, and we had hogs in the winter, but it was never the sole source of income for the family. I thought of farming as a career, but it didn’t take me long to figure out that the economics were not great. But I went to university and got my aggie degree from Guelph, just like my dad had done.”
Ker was hired by the Ontario Minister of Agriculture and Food as a specialist on pesticide reduction, and after working in the London area for three years he returned to Niagara, assigned to the Vineland Research Station. He also taught at Brock’s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI) for 20 years, and had a consulting business monitoring orchards and vineyards.
“I left a well-paying, full-benefits government job and went out on my own, and it’s worked to my advantage, allowing me to travel all over the world, working with all kinds of different university people in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, China. So my life experience has been quite broad.”
Ker graduated from E. L Crossley, but attended Pelham District High School for his first three years of secondary school, where his father, Edgar “Bud” Ker, was the principal. The elder Ker clearly had a strong influence on his son.
“Dad taught from the 1950s right through until Pelham DHS closed,” said Ker. “But before he got into education, he was a fighter pilot in WWII at 20 years of age. He did his flight training in Dunnville. My mom and dad got married on the thirtieth of August, and on the first of September, he was overseas. Dad used to joke that Mom honeymooned in Fonthill, and he honeymooned in Europe.”
I left a well-paying, full-benefits government job and went out on my own, and it’s worked to my advantage
Ker said that his father flew 16 different aircraft in the war, including six versions of the Supermarine Spitfire.
“Dad was a squadron leader who won the Distinguished Flying Cross on the sixteenth of September in 1942, when he shot down two ME109s [Nazi Messerschmidt fighters]. Eighty years to the day later, I was at the Mount Hope Airport’s Warbird Heritage Museum, flying in the passenger seat of a WWII Harvard trainer aircraft,” he said, beaming.
The flight, a tribute to his father’s heroism, was a birthday gift from Ker’s wife, Jina.
Encouraged to run by many constituents in Ward 1, he said, but with no political experience under his belt, Ker doesn’t come to council with any particular agenda, and is facing all issues with an open mind.
“I bring professional knowledge and long-term experience in research, along with a familiarity with agricultural and environmental issues,” he said. “I’ve been a specialist accepted by the Ontario Superior Court, and an expert for the National Research Council and the National Energy Board. I know all the fundamentals of agriculture, but also a lot about water and soils in the environment.”
Ker said that what he brings to the council table is “perspective and experience, having lived through the development of agricultural property, seeing urban development and its impacts. But what are the secondary potential impacts? Having worked on a broad variety of projects, I think I bring a unique skill set, being able to speak to the issues and ask the right questions. I offer a different viewpoint.”
Development requires infrastructure to properly support it, noted Ker, adding that residents should be aware that “adding more houses has never reduced taxes.”
Adding more houses has never reduced taxes
An oft-used buzzword is “affordable” housing, but we have to look at “attainable” housing, said Ker, acknowledging that many residents are reluctant to see development in town. He remembers seeing subdivisions built proximal to where he grew up, on prime agricultural land.
“I was apoplectic, seeing that farmland go,” he said. “It’s deep sand, perfect for tender fruit, and it’s covered in houses. And then we have clay fields left untouched, which are not as productive for agriculture. I know that [Mayor Junkin] is advocating for an agriculture committee, and obviously I’d be very interested in that.”
Having observed the evolution of Pelham, replete with “good decisions, and not-so-good decisions,” Ker said that “there are big things coming in the future that we still have to make decisions about. Future projections for population in the municipality are around 29,000, and we need to ask ‘from where we are now, how are we going to get there?’ For example, are we going to be a car-centric community or not? When I traveled through New Zealand and Australia, it was evident that if you lived near the urban centres, owning a car was a luxury. People depended on a mass transit system. Now look at the condo developments around the MCC, where the Planning Act allows 1.2 parking spaces per home. It’s obvious that there will be parking overflow on the roadways. People are going to have to start thinking about not having a second vehicle in that environment.”
