I wouldn't be here without publicly funded arts education.

I'm Jack Henry,

I am a Peterborough-based graphic designer, writer, and civic advocate. I run Loon in the Mist Creative, a design and communications studio serving tourism businesses, community organizations, and local campaigns across Peterborough, the Kawarthas, and Northumberland.

I'm not a career politician or political staffer. I'm a community member who pays attention, does the work, and says what I think. That's what I'll bring to the board.

Design is my career, my livelihood, and the thing I built my life around in this community. I can trace it directly back to publicly funded arts education in a public school. The classes, the teachers, the space to develop a creative identity? That didn't happen in a private studio or an expensive after-school program. It happened in a classroom that a school board chose to fund. Not every kid has access to private lessons or specialized arts training. For a lot of students, what the board funds is the only door that opens. I walked through that door. I know what's on the other side. I'm running because I want to make sure it stays open.

That's the personal reason. Here's the civic one.

I've spent years helping organizations communicate clearly, translating complex ideas into language that people can actually use. I've done pro bono design work for local campaigns and community organizations, written extensively about Peterborough's civic life, and advocated on issues ranging from transit and housing to urban planning and civic accountability., I founded PARA, Peterborough Alto Rail Advocates, to fight for this city's place in the high-speed rail conversation. I know how local government works, and I know what it looks like when it doesn't.

I'm also autistic, and I'm navigating a formal neurodivergence assessment as an adult. That experience has given me a direct, personal understanding of what it means to move through systems that weren't designed with you in mind, and what a difference it makes when someone in the room actually advocates for you. Arts education was part of how I found my footing in school. Mental health supports are part of how a lot of kids find theirs. I want to be the trustee who fights for both.

I'm running because I've done the homework, read the budget documents, the Auditor General's report, the board minutes, had the conversations at the door across every ward in Peterborough. I know what this board is getting right and I know what needs to change. I'm running because I chose this city deliberately and I intend to be here for every year of this term, at the board table, in the community, at the door.

Two seats. One of them should be someone who shows up before they're required to, pays attention before it's convenient, and fights for students even when nobody's watching.

That's the trustee I intend to be.