Thompson mayoral candidate Les Ellsworth says he entered the race to become the head of council because he’s seen the city decline and believes it needs strong leadership to reverse that trend.
The current first-term member of council believes he’s the person to provide it because of a long history of leading and being part of a union and other organizations and the amount of time he will have to dedicate to the job.
“The biggest reason I decided to run is two words,” the 43-year resident of the city told the Thompson Citizen Sept. 15. “I care. I care about this city.”
In the week since he officially launched his campaign, though his intention to seek the mayor’s seat was no big secret before then, Ellsworth says he’s given away almost all of his signs to supporters and knocked on residents’ doors on 15 streets in the city. Based on what he’s heard on those doorsteps, the issue first and foremost in the minds of residents is Thompson’s downtown core. The candidate estimates that’s the first thing 95 per cent of people he’s spoken to have brought up.
“There’s people that don’t want to go downtown anymore,” Ellsworth says.
Drawing upon his working days in health and safety and as president of United Steelworkers Local 6166, which represents hourly workers at Vale Manitoba Operations, Ellsworth says safety and security is his top priority.
“If I can’t bring you and your family home safely at the end of the day from grocery shopping or visiting any other building or business in town, I have not done my job,” he says.
Noting that Thompson has routinely had the worst score in Statistics Canada’s annual Crime Severity Index, except when it finishes second to North Battleford, Sask., despite spending 22 per cent of its annual budget on 38 RCMP officers, a much larger complement than similar-sized communities elsewhere in Manitoba have, Ellsworth says the key is to use those resources strategically.
“The police are saying we need more. They will not get more out of me,” said Ellsworth, noting that the unionization of RCMP officers and the union’s signing of a contract with retroactive pay increases could eat up even more of the city’s budget without a single additional officer on the streets. He takes pains, however, to note that the problem isn’t the police but council failing to meet with them to discuss priorities often enough. “They’re doing what they think is best, not what the elected [councillors] think is best and that’s not their fault. What we need to do is sit down and give direction to them.”
Ellsworth believes improving the downtown core requires better enforcement of laws against public drinking and actually writing tickets for contravening them. He said he understands that the people drinking in public will probably never pay those fines but says the statistics on how many tickets are handed out can be used as ammunition in the battle to convince higher levels of government how big the problem is.
“It’s not about the ability to pay. It’s about being able to say to the government, that’s the issue we have in Thompson.”
Over his four years on council, Ellsworth says he’s seen the elected body do a couple of things backward. It’s reduced public participation in local governance by changing how committees work and put the cart before the horse when it comes to setting priorities.
“Our mayor and council is more driven by administration than the other way around,” he says. “I want to lead and that’s the difference. As a mayor I won’t be taking instruction from my city manager or anybody else. I’ll be giving that along with my team. You need a strong leader during this time in our history at the helm of our City Hall.”
Though mayor of Thompson is a part-time position, the candidate vows to devote his full attention to it.
“I’m involved in a lot of committees in Thompson,” says Ellsworth, who is retired. “They will all be history if I’m elected mayor. All of them. My time, my focus will be on Thompson. What you will get, make no doubt about it, is a full-time mayor with part-time pay. I will be visible in this town in places that people have never seen a leader of this city.”
