Listen to the interview and read about James MacDonald at this link:
Meet the candidates: Running for Ward 3 Councillor | James MacDonald » CHMA
Meet the candidates: Running for Ward 3 Councillor | James MacDonald
CHMA is continuing its series of short candidate interviews ahead of Tantramar’s municipal election on May 11.
This time, Clinton Davis sat down with James MacDonald, one of eight candidates running for one of four Ward 3 council seats. MacDonald spoke about his roots in the community, why he decided to run, and what he would want to focus on if elected.
Listen to the interview below.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Sure. So my name is James McDonald and I grew up in Tantramar. Specifically in Rockport.
I was born and raised there. I left for a few years just out of high school when I got married and moved back in 2010. And I’ve been here ever since. I am currently one of the vice presidents of the Sackville Rod and Gun Club here in town. It’s a super large outdoor group here. And I currently drive truck during the week.
And I spend a lot of time in the community and like to follow the municipality and its happenings.
Why are you running in the municipal election this year?
Sure. So I got really involved in following the municipality and the things that are going on locally just after the amalgamation.
I guess once Sackville and Dorchester and all the other wards and areas became one, it became important to me to follow that and I want my kids to want to stay here. I have two teenagers now, and I just noticed that over those years, there seems to be a lot of questions that should be asked during the council meetings, like when they’re passing bylaws or making changes.
You ask municipality kind of like real world questions I call them. So I’ve just been following that a lot and a few people have encouraged me to run for council and so I decided to put myself out there and do lots of learning, lots of things. And I just felt that it was important to be able to make my place here and make a mark and an impact on the municipality at this time of my life to hopefully develop something that my kids enjoy as well, and encourage them to stay here as they get older.
If elected on May 11th, what is it you hope to accomplish?
Well, I think it’s important that we find a balance.
There’s a lot of things going on in the municipality. Big things are taxes. It seems that, as time goes on, everything in our lives is getting more and more costly and our taxes keep going up every year. And I just think it’s important that we find different revenue streams within the municipality to help balance that out for residents.
So perhaps, you know, we already have economic incentives in town for new developments, perhaps we need to have some things in place for existing, so to refurbish perhaps the lower side of Bridge Street, all of the old buildings that are there. We have some great features that aren’t being used, such as the old theater on top of the Vogue block. The bowling alley is not being used and different things like that. So perhaps we can come up with some incentives within the town to encourage existing buildings to be refurbished to maintain that historic site as well.
I also think that it’s important when we’re reviewing our bylaws that we’re asking important questions. You know, realistic questions. Some things that came up with some zoning over the last couple of years. They just let everything go. But I’m sitting there watching and I’m learning, well, if this wasn’t an issue before and they just want to rezone to put in addition, why are we making them do all these extra things?
So like just asking questions like, so do we really need to do this if it wasn’t an issue? Like, this is just additional cost for this business owner to be able to increase their business and keep it here. Or just different bylaws, like what impacts are these gonna have on the residents when we put them through, especially as we transfer from just Sackville bylaws and expand them into all of Tantramar.
So, yes, this is realistic within, we’ll say like the core of Sackville, but once we reach places like Dorchester Cape or Rockport or Centre Village, you know, do these really need to be impacted? So we just need a realistic view on those things I think.
Well, thank you so much for your answers and for your time. James MacDonald is running for council in Ward 3 in Sackville for the municipal election this May 11th. We sincerely wish you the best of luck."
James MacDonald is a first time candidate! Good luck James!
Contact info here:
| Telephone : 506-878-3328 Email : jameshrmacdonald@gmail.com |
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