Candidate Lois Laing has launched her campaign for mayor of North Battleford by releasing her platform on her campaign website.
The indication is that Laing will be campaigning on a pro-business, limited-government platform focused on increasing economic opportunities in the city. “Electing Lois Laing for mayor is electing the most pro-growth, pro-business and pro-people mayor ever!” reads the statement at her website at loislainggoldenticket.ca.
Among her planks is a pledge to increase opportunity in the area.
“The answer is simple and always the same: In order to reduce crime, increase wages and grow as a community we must have a surplus of opportunities. There needs to be entry points into the economy but there also needs to be upward mobility points in the chain.”
Her platform calls for “limited government”, “lower taxes” and “more competitiveness”.
She has pledged support for a “realistic tax-based incentive to repopulate the downtown core. Bricks are not working. In fact, the downtown project has, no doubt, cost local businesses revenue.”
Her platform also calls for support for mental health and addictions, and for addressing the crime issue, stating that community safety officers “are not an appropriate force to deal with gang crime.”
“We know: we must evaluate our plan to fight the types of crime that are plaguing the residents of North Battleford and making us notorious in the media. We MUST find a more successful approach.”
Laing has lived in the Battlefords for over 40 years and has been involved in a number of business interests. In speaking to the News-Optimist on Monday, Laing explained that the reason she decided to run for mayor had to do with what she had seen in the community over the last few years when she lived in Warman.
"As the years went by I was coming back here more and more and more," said Laing, who moved back to North Battleford a year ago. "I was devastated to see what had happened to this city in the past few years and how the people seem to have lost hope and there's so much anger and division."
"This can't go on. I thought, I'm going to run for mayor, the buck stops here," said Laing. "We are going to turn around the economy, we are going to find successful addictions services, and we are going to bring this back to the thriving, happy, connected community that it was before."
As of Monday there are three candidates officially in the race for mayor, including former North Battleford and current Battleford finance director David Gillan and the incumbent Mayor Ryan Bater. Nominations continue to be accepted until 4 p.m. on Oct. 7. The municipal election is on Nov. 9.
