Owen Sound needs a mayor who understands how government actually works.
The mayor’s role is bigger than chairing meetings or attending ceremonies. Owen Sound’s mayor works with City Council, City staff, Grey County Council, County staff, provincial ministries, federal programs, community organizations, businesses, residents, and the media. The mayor also represents Owen Sound at Grey County Council, where many major decisions affecting the city are shaped.
That means the most relevant experience for mayor is hands-on experience with public systems: understanding how decisions move, how staff reports shape outcomes, how councils respond to public input, how upper-tier governments affect local life, and how to advocate effectively across multiple levels of government.
That is the work Andrii Zvorygin has been doing for years.
Experience Across All Levels of Government
Andrii has served as treasurer for a federal campaign and has interviewed candidates in both provincial and federal elections. He has also advocated to municipal, County, provincial, and federal governments on issues affecting local resilience, food security, housing, manufacturing capacity, public cooperation, and the long-term wellbeing of our communities.
He has written to councillors, staff, ministers, premiers, and the Prime Minister. Many of the directions Andrii advocated for were later adopted, funded, advanced, investigated, or reflected in public decisions.
Complex public decisions involve many people, many pressures, and many institutions. Andrii’s claim is practical: he has repeatedly identified important directions early, communicated them across the right channels, and helped move public conversations toward workable outcomes.
That is directly relevant to the job of mayor.
County Experience and Social Cohesion Matter
Owen Sound’s mayor also serves at Grey County Council. That makes County-level experience a central part of the job.
Andrii has spent years directly interacting with Grey County council and staff processes. He has followed County meetings closely, communicated with councillors and staff, raised policy issues, studied reports, and worked to understand how County decisions affect Owen Sound.
He has also been present during periods when County-level relationships were under real strain. During those times, Andrii worked to encourage cooperation, reduce conflict, and help councillors see one another as partners in service rather than opponents across a table.
To Andrii, this is a vital part of leadership. Good government depends on trust. A mayor needs more than policy ideas. A mayor needs the ability to strengthen relationships, support constructive dialogue, and help a council table move from friction toward shared purpose.
Grey County is now in a much healthier and more cohesive place than it was during some of those earlier periods. Many people contributed to that improvement. Andrii is grateful to have played a civic role in encouraging that movement toward cooperation.
Based on his direct involvement, Andrii believes he brings more hands-on County-level experience than any other candidate in this race.
That matters because Owen Sound needs a mayor who can represent the city effectively at the County table from day one, while also helping build the trust and cooperation needed to get real work done.
Co-Creation, Local Manufacturing, and the Makerspace
One of the major directions Andrii advocated for was a local co-creation centre: a place where people could learn, build, repair, invent, prototype, and manufacture locally.
The vision was simple. A resilient community needs the capacity to make things, fix things, teach skills, and turn ideas into practical tools.
That direction later became visible through the Grey Bruce Makerspace, with federal support and County support through space. Andrii advocated for this kind of capacity through emails and public appeals, but many other people carried essential parts of the work. Others applied for grants, organized with the County, helped secure space, hired staff, built programming, maintained equipment, and kept the day-to-day operations moving.
Andrii’s own role has also continued in practical service. When the former treasurer stepped away, Andrii stepped into the treasurer role. He is also helping revamp the website to reduce costs, improve communication, and support the long-term sustainability of the organization.
This kind of experience matters for mayor because Owen Sound needs practical economic development rooted in local capacity, trades, repair, entrepreneurship, shared tools, and community wealth. It also shows how Andrii tends to serve: by advocating for useful institutions, supporting the people who build them, and stepping into practical responsibilities when help is needed.
Food Security, Housing, and Carrying Capacity
Andrii has also advocated for housing and land-use decisions grounded in carrying capacity: food, water, land, energy, infrastructure, and the real ability of communities to support life.
That advocacy has included sustainable permaculture communities, food-producing neighbourhoods, co-operative land models, and development patterns that connect housing with food security.
Grey County has since approved a food-production co-operative model involving homes connected to shared agricultural land. That direction closely aligns with the carrying-capacity and land-based community principles Andrii has advocated for.
This matters because housing, affordability, food security, infrastructure costs, and land use belong in one conversation. Owen Sound needs leadership that can connect those issues rather than treat them as separate silos.
Intergovernmental Advocacy
Local problems often involve multiple levels of government. Municipalities deal with many impacts of decisions made provincially and federally, especially around housing, infrastructure, food systems, energy, health, and social services.
At council tables, people sometimes say, “someone should tell the Province,” or “someone should raise this federally,” while the practical path forward remains unclear. Who should be contacted? Which ministry is responsible? Should the issue go through an MP, MPP, minister, association, staff channel, delegation, public consultation, or grant program?
That is an area where Andrii already has substantial experience. He has worked with local MPs and MPPs, engaged with the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, written to premiers, the Prime Minister, ministers, councillors, and staff, and developed familiarity with which offices and public bodies are relevant to different issues.
Andrii has repeatedly appealed for stronger cooperation between federal and provincial governments, especially where municipalities are left dealing with shared problems that require shared responsibility. Canada has since seen stronger federal-provincial coordination through the Team Canada approach, where the Prime Minister and premiers meet together around major national challenges.
During public debate around the notwithstanding clause, Andrii also drafted and circulated a clarification to interested parties at a time when provincial leaders were asking for clearer explanation. After that clarification was circulated, those public calls for clarification appeared to subside.
Complex public decisions involve many people, pressures, and institutions. Andrii offers these points as examples of alignment between his advocacy and later public movement, rather than as claims of sole causation. The practical point is this: Andrii understands how to communicate across levels of government, how to frame issues for the people with authority to act, and how to keep local realities visible in broader conversations.
Respecting Jurisdiction and Using Local Power
Andrii also understands that each level of government has its own responsibilities, tools, limits, and opportunities. Effective leadership means knowing which level of government can do what, and where local action belongs.
That matters because Owen Sound and Grey County already have enormous ability to solve local problems with local resources, local relationships, local land, local institutions, and local people.
Appeals for more outside funding may have their place, but they cannot become the whole strategy. Some candidates focus on asking other levels of government for more money so external systems can solve local problems. Andrii’s approach is different. He is willing to work with our own resources to provide for our own people, strengthen our own institutions, and solve our own problems.
Grey County has been recognized as one of the most innovative counties in Ontario for many years, reflecting the remarkable people, businesses, farmers, builders, staff, organizers, technologists, and community leaders who live here. Owen Sound can draw from that strength. We can solve local problems here, then set an example others can learn from.
Global Awareness, Local Readiness
Local leadership also needs foresight. Many challenges arrive locally after beginning somewhere else: energy costs, food insecurity, supply chain fragility, housing pressure, infrastructure strain, and economic transition.
Andrii hosts a monthly international panel of scientists and engineers focused on resources, energy, transition planning, and long-term viability. That work keeps him connected to global trends while also helping some of the greatest minds in the world work together constructively.
This matters for Owen Sound because communities that pay attention early can prepare early. Andrii wants our city to anticipate risks before they become acute, choose the best long-term viable direction, and avoid being blindsided by problems that were visible years in advance.
The Experience Owen Sound Needs
Some candidates may have experience in elected office. That is one kind of experience.
The mayor’s actual work also requires:
- understanding City and County processes,
- working constructively with staff and councils,
- knowing how to advocate to upper levels of government,
- understanding which responsibilities belong municipally, provincially, and federally,
- knowing which offices, ministries, representatives, and public bodies to contact,
- mobilizing local resources instead of relying only on outside systems,
- communicating clearly with residents,
- identifying practical policy directions,
- building institutional cooperation,
- connecting housing, food, infrastructure, energy, and affordability,
- anticipating long-term risks before they become acute,
- and helping ideas move from public concern into public action.
That is the experience Andrii brings.
He has spent years doing the work around government: listening, studying, writing, advocating, organizing, communicating, building relationships, hosting serious policy conversations, and helping practical ideas reach the people with authority to act.
Owen Sound needs a mayor who can work locally, represent the city effectively at Grey County, advocate to the Province and federal government, and help residents understand and participate in the decisions that affect their lives.
For the actual work of mayor, Andrii believes he brings the most relevant hands-on experience in this race.
As mayor, Andrii would bring that experience into public office in service of Owen Sound: transparent government, meaningful participation, practical compassion, food security, local resilience, and cooperation across every level of government.