Interviewed by Valerie Franklin.
Since many students will be voting for the first time, what would you describe as the role of municipal politics? What can city councillors actually do?
Well, I think of all the three levels of government — municipal, provincial, and federal — you can probably enact the most change for your community in municipal. That’s where you live. And you’re dealing with land use, you’re dealing with community building, and so as far as quality of life goes in your immediate world, your municipal government is where that all happens. So it’s not as much big-picture government as it is focused on building a sustainable long-term community, and that’s what I think is — that’s the reason I got into it.
Who do you view as your constituents?
Well, my constituents I consider to be everyone who is conceived and not yet even born to the oldest guy in my town who I believe is 96 years of age. And because I believe in a family-focused community, whether you can vote for me or not, I’m interested in making sure Mission is a community that benefits every sector of life, from the cradle to the grave. And I think that’s why I’m excited about talking with you guys today because, for the first time for many of your readers, this is their first time to vote, maybe, or second time to vote depending on how old they are, and so they’re g0nna make decisions, either educated decisions based on the research they do and they’re gonna either not vote because they don’t care yet, or if they do care and they’re not educated in how this works, they may make a vote that is simply just a wild stab in the dark. So I encourage young people to get educated and find out which candidates are looking for the best outcomes for the future, which is what I believe we’re doing at the CRMG team.
Are you doing anything to address the lack of student interest in local politics?
Well, I think one of the things we’re trying to do is educate, and that’s why we put out — we’re the only group that’s put out this much information. This is our third [mailed advertisement]. We have a couple more we haven’t sent out yet. We feel the more information you can put out there in the community about how municipal government runs, what are the issues, the more likely people are going to be to read it.
I remember when I was young, that when you’re a student you’re focused on getting your education and getting work. Those are your priority bases. And politics goes, it’s out there, sometimes we see issues, things we don’t like, so we’re observing things, sometimes even protesting against things, sometimes angry about things, and that’s kind of how we are when we’re younger. And then we think, well, “How can I get involved, what can I really do, I’m 22, I’m 21, who’s gonna listen to me?” And yet I think that the more young people engage and the more they realize they’ve got [a] voice, and their voice is important, as they educate themselves and as guys like me invest into that next generation, which we do, I think that’s a great bridge builder, to say, “Hey, young guys, come on over and engage in this process early,” so that when it does directly affect you in your property taxes, or when you are ready to buy a business or buy a home, you’ve got relationships and you’ve got investment already made in your community and you’ve been thinking about it. It’s all part of dialoguing together and saying, “Hey, come and get involved.”
How did what you were doing at city council change over the past three years compared to what your initial goals were during the last campaign?
That’s a great question, because philosophically it lays a foundation for a team versus individual councillors. Because we were elected as a slate, as a team of people, we had seven votes. So everything that we promised the community we were going to do, we actually did, because we had the votes to do it. So my premise is, that’s why I believe in a team of people running together, because the big question is voices versus votes. If you have seven individual people with seven different platforms, different ideas, different agendas, how do I get my agenda accomplished as one vote?
What I have to do is I have to come to you and say, “Well, you know, I know you don’t really agree with my issue, and I don’t totally agree with your issue, but I’ll compromise a little bit off my issue if you compromise a little bit off your issue. And if you back my issue, I’ll back your issue.” What ends up happening with that is that both issues get watered down just for the sake of getting something done. But when you run as a team, you’ve got the math there, because it’s all about math, okay? You’ve got six councillors, one mayor, seven votes. So if you’ve got the votes as a team, and you get a majority, then everything you promised to get done, you’ve got the votes to do it. It’s a simple mathematical equation. Six votes plus six issues equals six accomplishments. Seven votes plus seven issues equals seven accomplishments. So it’s all about the votes, which is why we feel so strongly with our CRMG team that if we get a second mandate, a second majority mandate, we’ll be able to continue with our program, and our program is basically eight very clear, workable things.
We’re going to move Mission into being completely debt-free, our taxes are going to be sustainable, we’re going to work on our infrastructure maintenance — do you know that most Canadian communities right now, infrastructure’s taken a backseat? So bridges are crumbling, overpasses are crumbling, sidewalks are falling apart, because no one’s spending enough money on infrastructure. So we’ve doubled the budget on infrastructure in Mission. If you drive around in Mission you’ll see brand new paved roads, new sidewalks, we’ve continued to emphasize that. Because in five years when you maybe want to buy a house, you’re going to move into a town that’s got good roads and good infrastructure, and when you flush your toilet it’s going to work. And that’s important, right? And it’s practical. It ain’t all that cool and sexy, but you don’t want cool and sexy. You want a group of people that are going to get the job done.
So we’re going to revitalize the downtown. We’ve put in a ten-step program for revitalizing downtown Mission, which is in process. We’ve now been voted in the top-25 business-friendly communities in Western Canada, Mission is, and we’re developing our West Stave tourism project, which is the whole green space up behind Mission as a green belt tourism destination. And basically we’re going to help seniors get a decent seniors’ centre. We can accomplish that if we get that majority like we did last time.
Do you have a specific project you want to prioritize or bylaw you want to change?
Well, we’ve done some bylaw adjustments for the downtown. We’ve basically been working on relaxing parking requirements for new construction, density improvements, so we’ve actually done quite a bit of work on bylaws for our downtown revitalization program. You know, bylaws are only as good as you enforce them, and so we’ve got a few bylaw issues that obviously we want to keep working on. Downtown parking is one of them, where some folks are not adhering to some of the parking rules and [regulations], but that’s something we have to deal with in the next term.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
