rosalindaforcouncil.ca www.rosalindaforcouncil.ca
Partager ce profil
1. Community Built For Living
New city minimums are 86 sq/foot bedrooms and 60% maximum for studios and 1 bedrooms
What I’ll do:
- Advocate for more 2 and 3 bedroom homes in every development, with larger bedrooms
- Hold firm to commitments for parks, healthcare, schools, and community spaces to match growth
- Push developers to build livable spaces that guarantees quality of life, not just unit count
- Build co-op and non-market housing options into how every neighbourhood grows
- Champion a housing mix that lets families move up in Coquitlam, not out of it
A city's housing should fit real life, not the smallest unit developers can get away with
2. Smart Investments in Growth
Too much red tape, long permit processes, and confusing budgets
What I’ll do:
- Champion the small businesses and entrepreneurs that make Coquitlam home
- Invest in the community infrastructure that helps people and businesses thrive
- Communicate clearly with plain-language budgets
- Cut red tape, not the frontline workers who keep this city running
- Push for a fast-track permit stream, proven in Surrey and Toronto without cutting standards
- Allow modernized multi-story buildings on industrial-zoned land to make room for the jobs we're recruiting
People should be able to build in Coquitlam, not wait months for a permit to do it.
3. Coquitlam Works
Building a more diverse local economy that eases the property tax burden
What I’ll do:
- Give economic development its own dedicated team to recruit employers directly
- Hold developers to consistent office space near every SkyTrain station, not just when forced
- Push the city's Economic Development Strategy to set clear targets, sectors, and timelines so residents can track real progress
- Build investor-ready data packages for site selectors, not just marketing pages
- Market QNet fibre and recruit engineering, architecture, clean energy, and tech firms through direct outreach
- Check in regularly with existing employers so we don't lose the jobs we already have while chasing new ones
Attract the jobs to match the SkyTrain, fibre, and housing already in place.
4. Canadian Technology, Canadian Control
Every contract the city signs is a choice about who controls our data.
What I’ll do:
- Champion a Coquitlam data residency policy, modeled after Toronto’s
- Advocate for city technology contracts to prioritize BC and Canadian companies first
- Push the province and federal government to protect Canadian data
- Call on the city to get ahead of AI’s impact on local jobs, not behind it
If it runs our city, it should answer to us, not a foreign shareholder.
5. Protecting Coquitlam’s Green Spaces
Growth is paving over the parks and forest canopy that make this city livable.
What I’ll do:
- Push the province for real wildfire prevention funding
- Plant fire-resistant trees like aspens in wildfire buffer zones across Coquitlam
- Smart stewardship of Pinecone Burke Park for the next generation
- Protect our urban tree canopy and neighbourhood green space
- Fix stormwater, creeks, and contaminated sites before they’re a crisis
- Keep data centres away from Coquitlam’s drinking water supply
Protect it now, or explain to the next generation why it's gone.
6. Safety You Can Actually Feel
Crime stats look fine on paper. That’s not what residents are telling me.
What I’ll do:
- Advocate for better street lighting near parks, trails, and transit stops
- Champion safer sidewalks, trails, and roadways
- Call for outreach and mental health response paired with policing
- Fund bylaw officers who crack down on vandalism and harassment
People should feel safe in every part of Coquitlam, not just the parts that already do.
7. Fighting for Coquitlam
The Province passes on expenses and it’s your property taxes that pick-up the tab
What I’ll do:
- Demand funding that matches what Coquitlam actually needs
- Push for real support on mental health services
- Advocate for a mix of low barrier and high barrier shelters for the homeless
- Collaborate at regional and provincial levels as a strong voice for Coquitlam
- Push to expand BC's internationally-trained doctor program to Coquitlam, cut red tape for new clinics
Coquitlam residents deserve real support, not more costs passed down.
8. A Council That Listens
Big decisions land better when residents help shape them from the start.
What I’ll do:
- Act on repeated traffic and parking complaints, you know your neighbourhood best
- Bring residents into the conversation early, not after
- Show up in every neighbourhood, not just city hall
- Base my votes on what residents actually tell me
- Keep my decisions and donors fully open to the public
If it affects Coquitlam, Coquitlam should have a say before it's decided.
Trois principaux enjeux
Biographie
Rosalinda Thorleifson is a lifelong resident of Coquitlam, where her family ran a small business for nearly 30 years. She holds a Bachelor of Communications from Simon Fraser University and has spent over 15 years in B2B marketing and growth leadership, building departments and teams from the ground up at both enterprise companies and fast-moving Canadian tech startups, including helping companies enter the Canadian and American markets. Her most recent role was Marketing Manager, North America at WISI America.
Beyond her career, Rosalinda has served for years as president of her strata council, gaining hands-on experience in budgeting, infrastructure planning, and long-term savings strategy. In her spare time, she works with opals and natural stones as a silversmith, tends a balcony garden, and enjoys kayaking and cooking.
Highlights of her platform include:
- Community Built for Living - more 2 and 3 bedroom homes, with services, schools and parks that keep pace with growth
- Smart Investments in Growth - champion small businesses, and advocate for a fast-track permit stream modeled on cities like Surrey and Toronto
- Coquitlam Works - recruit employers near SkyTrain and to industrial areas like United Boulevard, building a more diverse local economy that eases the property tax burden
- Canadian Technology, Canadian Control - keep Canadian data on Canadian soil
- Protecting Coquitlam's Green Spaces - fire-resistant trees, wildfire buffer zones, and smart stewardship of Pinecone Burke Park for the next generation
- Safety You Can Actually Feel - better lighting, safer streets, real mental health support
- Fighting for Coquitlam - fight provincial funding cuts to shelter and outreach services that are being backfilled by your property taxes
- A Council That Listens - real transparency, more hearings, and follow-through on what residents raise
Raison de la candidature
Building Teams From the Ground Up
I've spent my career leading marketing and growth functions at both enterprise companies and fast-moving Canadian tech startups, building departments from the ground up and managing large budgets with the fiscal discipline those roles demanded. I've helped companies enter the Canadian and American markets, and learned along the way how to make every dollar accountable to a result. That same rigour is what Coquitlam's budget deserves.
Governance Experience That's Already Tested
Before I ever considered running for council, I was already doing the work of local governance. As president of my strata council, I've led budgeting, infrastructure planning, and long-term savings strategy for a community that depends on getting those decisions right. That same discipline, building consensus and planning years ahead, is exactly what I'd bring to the council table.
A Strategist Who Knows How to Communicate
My job has always been the same at its core: take something complex and make it clear enough for people to understand, trust, and act on. That's exactly the skill this city needs at the council table.
Why I'm Running Now
Not enough young people, millennials and younger, are stepping into local politics. Decisions about housing, transit, and how this city grows are being made without enough of us in the room.
New Perspective, Real Ideas
Coquitlam deserves a council that reflects the full range of people who live here, different experiences, different life stages, different communities. I'm not here to fill a seat. I'm here to bring the strategy, the ideas, and the drive that this city's next chapter actually needs.
rosalindaforcouncil.ca www.rosalindaforcouncil.ca