Jake Skinner

Jake Skinner (born August 21, 1979 ) is a Canadian Politician and elected Thames Valley District School Board Trustee from London, Ontario. Jake Skinner is currently running for the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party nomination in London West.
Background
Jake Skinner grew up in London, Ontario with his three siblings. He attended Westminster Secondary School in London, Ontario and has earned a Bachelor's degree in Political science from the University of Western Ontario. Skinner holds a Master's Degree in American Studies from Western University and is currently a Doctoral Candidate at Western in the area of Education Politics. Skinner has worked as an Adjunct Professor teaching public administration and was elected to the Thames Valley District School Board in 2014. He is currently a nomination candidate for the Ontario PC Party in London West.
Career
In 2014, Jake Skinner ran in the Ontario Municipal & School Board Elections and was elected to become a Thames Valley District School Board Trustee in London, Ontario. Skinner won on a campaign focused on improving the school achievement ranking of London public schools relative to surrounding municipalities. Skinner gained notoriety in the 2014 election for being elected as a school board trustee despite choosing to homeschool his children although he explains the choice was based on health related reasons.
As Trustee, Skinner has been influential as a STEM leader advocating the addition of coding and computer science to the Ontario elementary curriculum and has strongly supported FIRST Robotics teams at the Secondary level by providing additional funding to Thames Valley District School Board robotics teams. School Boards throughout Ontario have followed his lead urging the province to add coding to the elementary curriculum. Currently, British Columbia and Nova Scotia are the only provinces in Canada providing coding as part of their education; Skinner hopes that Ontario can follow in the footsteps of these provinces to allow the youth of Ontario to get the same opportunity as those in British Columbia and Nova Scotia. Currently, Ontario will need to fill around 76,000 ICT positions over the next five years. and over 52,700 by 2019 in the Toronto area.
Skinner was also influential in supporting the Municipal Government of London Ontario in lowering the speed limit in school areas from 50 km/hr to 40 km/hr. This was another issue he campaigned on and succeeded in implementing. A staff report has shown that the risk of fatal injuries drops around 70 percent at 50 km/hr, to less than 30 percent at 40 km/hr, and the risk drops to 10 percent at 30 km/hr.
Skinner currently serves on the Budget Advisory Committee, the Policy Working Committee, the TVSDSB/City of London Liaison Committee, the Alternative Learning Committee, and the Ontario Public School boards Association Committee.
Jake Skinner is running for the Ontario PC Party nomination in London West.

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