Interviewed by Kodie Cherrille.
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?
I think a city councillor’s job is to listen, and then act. Students, youth, young adults — they want to be empowered, they want to have a say, and they want to lead, but they aren’t given an opportunity. I was a youth worker for many years, and a recreation co-ordinator for parks and recreation in Mission. It’s about empowering people that want to be involved, and listening to them. If there’s any hand-holding needed to get through the regulatory process — as it’s often stupid, full of barriers and loopholes — a councillor would help people through those things, and within a decent timeline. Someone might get good ideas, but if there’s so much red [tape], they’ll lose interest. If it takes four years to get a project up and running, people will lose interest. And then, the motivation that started sparked these ideas vanishes.
I’d motivate and facilitate citizens to get active, and guide them through this process. I helped build all the skate parks in Langley, sitting down with skateboarders. That’s where it starts. Listening, guiding them through the process, and then making it happen. That’s the role of a city councilor: to empower people. If it’s needed to move projects forward in a quick fashion, the city councillor can implement policies that remove barriers. Elected officials have a very short time to work on such kinds of projects with people.
Who do you view as your constituents?
My demographic is family. Kids, teens, and parents are the biggest. I was a youth worker, a recreational programmer, and I built and sold three businesses from the ground up. One of those businesses was a talent agency for athletes, for film, commercials, and motion-capture work. The genesis behind that idea was that the Canadian government does not support our athletes. So, maybe I could get them a job in a commercial where they can make approximately $15,000 in two days, and they don’t have to be a barista over the summer, instead [they can] train. My personal motto is “to be successful is to make others successful.”
Local government has nothing to do with me, it has everything to do with the population — the constituents. I advocate families because I have a family, I’m married, and that makes up a good deal of people who live in Mission. I understand families best.
City councillors need to make themselves more available to the public. I’ve talked to youth workers in parks and recreation, and they’ve invited councillors to sit in at youth groups. From what I’ve heard, there hasn’t even been a single response, let alone any actual visits. You [need to] let staff know that you’re available — this is UFV staff, this is city staff, this is local business — and that they can contact you.
For those who might not be self-defined as within a family, let’s say the homeless: You can easily contact them. Just take a walk to the Tim Horton’s on 1st. They sleep under the alcoves at the Scotiabank. Once again, it’s just a matter of taking the time to go down there and talk to them. They’re pretty amazing people. They all have a story, and they’re all people. They’re usually just down on their luck. And you can easily get your input from them that way.
Are you doing anything to address the lack of student interest in local politics?
When you start running — I’ve never run before, it’s a huge learning curve, a little scary, actually — you’re told to go after the people that vote, which are the older people. You aren’t told to chase down the youth vote. People just want to be elected. Rick Mercer said something to the effect of, “You should never want this job, you should feel obligated to take this job.” This is a tough job that doesn’t pay very much money. But, obligated to take it: that means, for me, not just chasing the vote. Looking at council now, and how old they are, I wonder how they represent me. I’m in my 40s. So how do they represent someone in their late teens and 20s? How do students allow this to happen?
I understand that politics are made to look extremely boring, to keep people that are hard to influence out; this includes young adults. I don’t think they can be influenced by a bunch of older people. I think people are scared of the youth vote because they can’t control it. Me, I think we need younger people, more diverse people. It scares me to have a slate of people that are all like-minded.
If you look at the time between putting your name in the ring [for election] and getting elected, it’s 30 days. You usually have another job. It’s a fantastic question, and it goes back to the fact that students need to be interested in the first place. I know that’s a horrible answer. But how do you motivate the unmotivated in 30 days?
If elected, how would what you want to do as councillor be different from what council is already doing?
If I were voted in, I’d love to be part of committees that bring youth together, and stay in contact with them. Give me four years, and I bet we’d have the highest number of young people voting that we’ve seen in a long time. It’s hard to do that in 30 days, but to empower our youth over the course of four years, that would be amazing. It would be a personal highlight.
Do you have a specific project you want to prioritize or bylaw you want to change?
First thing, right off the bat, I’d want to create a more liveable community. We should make an inventory of the municipality — by that I mean seeing what we have — and finding out how we can make what we have better. There are a lot of community parks in Mission that are just grass. There’s 900 registered dogs, there’s probably 3000 dogs in Mission, but there are two dog parks. One’s a really long drive, and then a 10-minute walk to get there from the parking lot — Hayward Lake. And there’s a split fence; any dog can get in and out of it. So if there’s an area that doesn’t have a dog park, let’s put one in there. If there’s a bunch of kids in that immediate area, let’s put in a pump track or a small skate park. Let’s see what things we have, and create value-added propositions. When I worked for parks and recreation, and when I worked in a union position, we were just told what to do; we didn’t have any input. Even though we ran the teen centres, and saw the problems that were occurring, and had solutions, we were never asked. So, by “inventorying,” I mean we can ask city staff that are already hired, that are probably really good at what they do, how to make things better.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
