I strongly believe that the most important qualification in all elected officials is trust.
Citizens must be able to trust their elected representatives.
Elections are the ideal forum to link the eventual elected representatives and the citizens who elect them to Council. Now is the ideal time.
Candidates are expected to propose ideas that serve the citizens for which they are intended and who foot the bill.
Citizens should have the opportunity to discuss with candidates the issues that matter and how the candidates propose to deal with them.
Candidates should make commitments to citizens, then respect them once elected.
Candidates should not say one thing during the campaign, then do the opposite once in power.
I have served Moncton citizens for 8 years as a City Councillor, as well as 4 years as an elected local school board member.
During my 12 years in office, I always tried to propose ideas and projects that matched what citizens wanted and needed, based on discussions I had with many of them. This is a difficult task, because I could not discuss all ideas and projects with all citizens and because citizens do not always agree.
I always proposed ideas and projects and always voted based on a simple question:
‘What is the best option for the entire community now and in the future?’
Most of the citizens agreed with most of my decisions, thankfully, but many did not. That is OK. That’s democracy!
What matters is that folks on both sides of many issues told me more or less the same thing:
"We may or may not agree with you, but we trust that you will make an informed decision and the one that is based on our best interests."
I am running again for City Council because, as many citizens have told me over the past 5 years, they no longer trust City Council.
They say that Council too often neglects to perform its due diligence and is too often murky in its decision-making and vague in its explanations.
On May 10, you will vote for several candidates based on the many ideas and projects they present, among other things.
But you will also vote based on your answer to the following question:
Who do I trust the most?