Five candidates have been busy campaigning throughout the city in the past few weeks in a bid to fill the vacant seat on Thompson's city council left by Cory Young when he departed in September.
Young had served three years on council when he announced his resignation on Sept. 22 before moving to Winnipeg, where he now works as agreements co-ordinator with Manitoba Aboriginal and Northern Affairs.
Margaret Allan, Peter Fancy, Khaled Hassanien, Luke Robinson and Erin Stewart are running in the at-large byelection to fill the last 10 months of Young's term before the next general election in October 2010. There are eight seats on council - seven councillors and the mayor.
All of the candidates in the campaign so far have echoed popular themes with the issues they've been talking to the public about, including community safety, youth involvement and a long-term community plan for the city of Thompson.
Peter Fancy, who has lived in Thompson for a year, holds a bachelor of science in biology and molecular genetics from Carleton University and a bachelor of education from the University of Ottawa. He also holds a post- graduate certificate to teach English as a second language. He is an active member of the Advent Lutheran Church and is an elementary school teacher at Juniper Elementary School as well as public relations representative for the Thompson Teacher's Association.
Fancy has taught in a couple of different places throughout the North, including Pukatawagan, Nelson House, and Northern Ontario. He says he started the recycling program in Nelson House and has experience coaching students in soccer and volleyball.
Some of the issues Fancy feels strongly about include a three-pronged approach to eliminate gangs; volunteer ambassadors and a neighbourhood watch committee to increase community safety; creating a procedural change in regards to snow removal to ensure greater visibility and protection of private property; and road maintenance. He also wishes to see English language job training for people in the medical sector; promises to vote against an increase in property taxes this term if elected; and says he is in favour of gasification - turning waste into usable electricity.
One of the things Fancy feels most strongly about is his Christian faith, and he believes he will be able to serve the citizens of Thompson well with it.
"I think I can provide, with my Christian perspective, values and a moral perspective on council that you don't see with other people," he says. "I just am not aware of anyone that's Christian on council."
Fancy also claims that his work on different First Nations communities has led him to have a different perspective on aboriginal issues.
Margaret Allan is a long-time Thompsonite who has lived in the community for 20 years but was born in Aberdeen, Scotland. She had a career in radio journalism at the CBC and has been very involved in business and political activities. She currently owns her own business that she opened up in 1996 as a special events co-ordinator and customer satisfaction interviewer, and has been the office manager for the Thompson Chamber of Commerce for the past eight years. She says she was approached during the city council election in 2006 and asked to run, but declined because it wasn't the right time for her.
Allan has been going door-to-door campaigning and talking to the community about issues that matter the most to her, including community safety, communications and accountability. Allan says she would like to see a more focused crime prevention strategy put in place that would address gang issues and look at encouraging community policy such as setting up a neighbourhood watch or block parent organization. She says she believes residents of Thompson should be kept up to date on city projects and wishes to ensure wise investment in infrastructure and city services without creating a burden for taxpayers. Her other key issues include setting higher standards for the maintenance and beautification of community parks and green spaces and creating a community disaster plan. Allan is also passionate about the youth in the community and would like to see a forum for youth and council to exchange ideas and have a young person sitting in and observing what happens on city council.
"I would like to see a little bit more in the way of engagement with the public in terms of how we as members of the community can empower ourselves and not feel afraid about such things as gangs and the people who hang around downtown," she says. "I also want to make sure that we do have financial responsibility and accountability and make sure that our money is well invested and that the services we get are worth the money that we're investing through our taxes."
Luke Robinson is a mechanical underground worker at Vale Inco and a union steward with the Local 6166 in Thompson. He has been living in Thompson for 10 years and previously lived in the Northern Ontario community of Marathon.
Robinson says he decided to run for city council because, for the past 10 years, he has seen things in Thompson "decline instead of increase." He is strongly opposed the city installing water meters, saying that the underlying issue is actually the water lines that need to be replaced in the community. He says he has also received negative feedback about the city's new waste management system and the new garbage cans they have provided citizens with.
"Before, we could put as much garbage as we wanted at the curb and it got picked up at no extra cost. Today, you're only allowed one garbage can and they've cut two jobs on the truck," he explains. "Less than a year ago the city passed a bylaw that everybody had to have locking lids on garbage cans, and they stipulated a whole bunch of other rules to go with it now they bring in this new garbage can that doesn't even have a locking lid on it - contravening their own bylaw!"
Robinson is also fired up about the reassessment of properties in the community, and thinks the entire system is unfair, and says it is just one more drop in the bucket of things that he would like to see changed in Thompson.
"The negative things about Thompson are just overwhelming like the moving of the monument of the King Miner. That is so wrong. That monument has been there forever. That should never have been moved," he reasons. "Red Sangster's field - he worked hard at putting that there. I can understand business-wise having the University College of the North is a good thing for the community, but choosing where to put it after somebody worked so hard to put that field there - you might as well say he was nobody, and that's not the way it should be."
Other issues Robinson feels strongly about include getting more public input on major decisions the City of Thompson makes; snow clearing; bylaw enforcement; problems with the "transient population"; improper re-zoning areas and more.
Erin Stewart was born and raised in Thompson. She went on to graduate from the University of with an honours degree in political science and worked as an intern at the Manitoba legislature. She currently works for Manitoba Hydro conducting research and negotiations for the company.
Stewart says she was approached by people in the community who wanted to nominate her and decided that running for city council was something that she wanted to do.
"I think going to the community forums the City set up have helped, and I wrote a letter to the editor of the Thompson Citizen and a lot of people approached me after that," she says. "It wasn't my intent, but a lot of people recognized that I want to be involved in the community."
Stewart says she believes she can serve council well as a young adult in the community and bring a new viewpoint to the table. Some of the issues that are most important to her are ensuring the longevity of Thompson; upholding accountability and transparency within city council; and working to make Thompson more appealing to other people in the province and the country.
"We need to work towards developing some kind of long-term strategy towards making Thompson a community that people want to live in, and a community that people want to raise families in and grow up in and build careers in," she says. "People aren't really that interested in politics, but I think that they forget that politics are a part of their every day life. You can't force that on people but at the same time you need to be accountable to them and you need to let them know what you're doing on their behalf."
Stewart says she'd love to sit on council and have the chance to give a younger generation of Thompsonites a strong voice, as well as work in cooperation with all city councillors to do what's best for the community.
Khaled Hassanien was repeatedly unavailable to do an interview with the Thompson Citizen but instead submitted a written piece Monday afternoon detailing the priorities that he is looking to pursue if elected to council.
Hassanien is currently working as a teacher at Juniper Elementary School, but has also taught at Westwood Elementary School and R. D. Parker Collegiate. He lived and taught in Nelson House and also taught at Otetiskiwin Kiskinwamahtowekamik and the Nisichawayasihk Neyo Othinwak Collegiate. He also serves as the president of the Thompson Multicultural Centre, a board member with the Thompson Crisis Centre, is the president of the Thompson Table Tennis Associating and a board member of Crime Stoppers.
Some of the issues he is most concerned with include the labour shortage in Thompson and environmental issues and challenges the city faces. Hassanien ran in the last municipal election in 2006. This time, he says, he has the experience and learning that came from that election.
"The property taxes issue has to be looked at from a different perspective than the one we are having today. This assessment system was adapted by the province and reflects assessment of quality of life," he wrote. "These ones caring for their properties are the ones that have to pay higher taxes with doesn't go much with my logic. That contradicts with the city's beautification strategies."
Hassanien says he is also concerned with infrastructure and development in the City of Thompson.
Advanced polls will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 28 and Dec. 5. Election day is Dec. 9 with polls open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
