Climate Change, Heat, Fires, & the Environment
Energy-Efficient Buildings
Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Walking & Cycling
Culture & Events
Human Rights
Local Government, Planning, & Democracy
Budgeting
Good Governance
Long-Term Plan
Public Engagement
Youth Engagement
Mental Health, Drugs, & Addiction
Reconciliation & Indigenous Nations
Indigenous Languages
Indigenous Schooling
Land Title & Governance
Place Names & Commemorations
Residential Schools
Schools & Public Education
After-School Programs
Artificial Intelligence in Schools
Bullying & Bigotry
Childcare
Indigenous Schooling
Media Literacy & Critical Thinking
Mental Health in Schools
Neurodivergent Students & Support
Student Involvement & Engagement
Traffic Safety Around Schools
Biographie
Eduardo Sousa was born in Lisbon, Portugal to parents Maria Virginia from the Alentejo region and Eduardo Manuel from the Acorean Island of Sao Miguel. He is an Incumbent School Board Trustee for Cowichan Valley School District 79. He is Special Projects Advisor for Cowichan Tribes working to develop a watershed and water sustainability plan for the Xwulqw'selu / Koksilah river in a government-to-government process.
Eduardo has taught at Vancouver Island University's Indigenous Land Management Certificate program and Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas Planning Certificate program. He previously worked as an Advisor with the Indigenous Leadership Initiative which fosters Indigenous nationhood as a way to conserve and manage Indigenous lands. Eduardo also runs a small consultancy, Caminho Do Meio, providing strategic planning and communications, and project management support for Indigenous communities. Eduardo also worked in the conservation sector, helping successfully implement the world renowned and award- winning Great Bear Rainforest Agreements with First Nations, the BC Government and the logging industry.
Prior to moving to the west coast in 2008, Eduardo was also a social justice community organizer, and before that an environmental planner and special projects coordinator for Toronto Parks, working with communities on environmental stewardship projects. He has a Master’s degree in Environmental Studies from Toronto's York University, focusing on watershed planning and community mobilization.
Promesses
Raison de la candidature
I am running for re-election as a School Board Trustee on three priority areas: 1. Care for All (where kids and their families and teachers feel safe and welcome), 2. Climate Readiness (building on our first-ever Climate Action Plan) and 3. Greater Communication and Engagement (improving ways to connect with families and the broader community of which we are a part. As a father of two school-age children I remain committed to serving our community to improve our educational system in the Valley to support a safe and inclusive learning environment for our kids. Over my professional working life — whether negotiating collective agreements, or negotiating conservation agreements with multiple governments (federal, provincial, First Nations) I have been used to working in nuanced spaces, where issues are not black and white, where one is called to see different sides of an issue while also rooted in one’s values (which in this context focuses on centering the kids). This is the approach I have also taken as a Trustee.
I am a reasonably minded and civic-rooted person guided by social scientific and statistical based evidence, by sound financial responsibility, by good consultation processes, by listening, by my ethics of fairness, belonging and social justice especially as rooted in Reconciliation, and by my heart. My approach is not easily reduced to a political spectrum — rather I am guided by these principals that help make reasoned informed decisions that centre the kids. The kids are always at the centre.
The past four years I have learned a great deal about what it means to be an elected official who governs with other board members with kids at the centre of decision-making. It is not always easy as each may have a different way of understanding what centering kids looks like and that is fine — we need diversity on a school board that remains focussed on kids’ wellbeing, and I am sure we will have it with a new mandate.
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