How long have you been living in Thompson?
I was born and raised her. I spent a short period of time in university and overseas in Japan. But most of the rest of my time has been here in Thompson. I’m guessing that’s 40 years or so.
What do you do for a living?
I’m an environment officer [for the province]. We do environmental law enforcement in the north. Things like waste disposal grounds, sewage treatment plants, emissions from the mine, water quality coming out of the mine and sewage treatment plants.
Why do you want to be on city council?
I think that I bring a certain vision to the table that most people aren’t bringing. If you ask other people what their vision is for the city or what their top things are they’ll tell you that it’s crime and the usual stuff. We’ve had a number of organizations stress the importance of food security here and I believe the city signed a food charter. [But] you don’t see anything. I’ve spent the last seven years developing my own experimental farm just south of Thompson, trying to find out what works, sharing my conclusions and the results of the work that I have publicly, and so I want to implement some of this stuff or give people the freedom to explore on their own in the city. Of course, I’ve thought about the usual [subjects] of crime and vandalism and homelessness and cleaning up council, fairness, transparency, but I have other bigger goals.
What is the biggest local issue you want to address if you’re elected?
I believe I’m the only person who said a firebreak is the absolute priority for the City of Thompson. Anyone who doesn’t see that as a priority is missing what’s going in other northern communities in Canada. It’s fine to deal with crime, it’s fine to deal with the optics downtown, they are important issues. But for me, of utmost importance is that we still have a community to clean up and having a firebreak to protect us from the north and the west is an absolute must for me.
Why should someone vote for you over the other candidates?
I’m not going to be a part of any block of voting on council. I refuse. I’m going to be a complete independent and think for myself and think for what’s best for Thompson. I have no political organizational or business ties here that would make it difficult for me to vote in the best interest of the actual community itself. I think that’s a big difference.
Anything else you want to add?
I’m very happy that I have the opportunity to serve the community. But if not elected I think one of the takeaways from me doing this campaign was that I’ve reached out to a number of candidates, other candidates, and I’m feeling very optimistic, because a lot of the people that are running, all of them that I have met, are very passionate and want to see the city grow and change for the better.
