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Whistler has a full slate, and then some

Six vie for Whistler mayoralty, 26 for council
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The nomination period for B.C.'s municipal elections wrapped up on Oct. 14 with a flurry of activity in Whistler. Nine additional candidates joined the race in the final days of the nomination period, bringing the total number to 32 - 26 running for six seats on council and six running for mayor.

That's the most candidates ever for a municipal election in Whistler. In 2008 there were 17 council candidates and five for mayor, and in 2005 there were 18 running for council and seven for mayor.

The mayor's race grew from three to six with the additions of Shane Bennett, Miro Kolvek and Brent McIvor.

Mayor's race

Brent McIvor

Brent McIvor may not have any experience on municipal council but, he said, don't discount his 30-plus years of experience living and working and raising a family in Whistler.

"I think one of the most attacked items around my decision to become a candidate for mayor is the fact that I have no experience as a councillor or as a mayor," said McIvor. "I don't see that in this town as a weakness, I see that as a strength.

"I can come in with a fresh approach. I'm not beholden to anybody."

McIvor was a builder in town in the 1980s and now has a consulting business, McIvor Strategic Alliances. He has a political science degree from the University of Manitoba, with a focus on public administration. His campaign slogan is "It's Time."

"It's time to do what is necessary to keep Whistler healthy for visitors, for residents, for entrepreneurs and employers and for the hard-working employees at the municipality," said McIvor.

He sees there's a real push in the community to make some serious changes to the budget and McIvor would like to see an interim "hold the line" budget before taking the budgeting process to the community at large and collectively exploring some novel ways of balancing the books. That will take some innovative thinking.

McIvor raised two daughters in the area - Ashleigh and Lindsay. Ashleigh won gold for Canada in ski cross at the 2010 Olympics.

He wants to ensure that his daughters can raise families here just as he did.

He was president of the society that built Millennium Place and on the board of the Whistler Mountain Ski Club for three terms.

McIvor said: "I know the issues and I know how to get along with everyone."

 

Miro Kolvek

Miro Kolvek, who owns and operates the Pizza Café on Main Street, said he's running as an advocate for small businesses.

"As a small business owner, I see Whistler dying very slowly," he said. "We have to stop this and start working on business because I'm seeing people losing their businesses and closing down. Next door Quizno's closed after seven years. It's very sad."

Kolvek said that many candidates are too close to local government and aren't seeing what's really happening with the community as a whole. "You have to go outside of the bubble to see inside," he said. "It's the same everywhere, from the White House to the municipal hall, what happens is disconnected from main street. They're disconnected from the real world."

For Whistler, he said the challenge would be to make business year-round, shrinking the shoulder seasons and keeping people coming to the resort 12 months of the year. "Businesses are happy, landlords are happy, everybody is happy," he said. "A lot of candidates don't know how to do that, but it's very easy."

This is Kolvek's second time running for mayor.

 

Shane Bennett

Shane Bennett is a regular fixture in municipal elections and is running for mayor a second time. His position is that the democratic system is broken at all levels and no longer works for the people. "It was Occupy Wall Street, then Occupy Vancouver and it's going to be Occupy Whistler. Whistler will be shut down unless we deal with this," he said. "It's the 99 per cent who know that the democratic system is broken - and some people like it broken because they can manipulate the system."

Bennett already has a long list of ideas, ranging from using WHA to offer zero per cent mortgages instead of housing, voluntary pay parking where money at the meters would go towards non-profit groups, getting rid of bed caps for zero footprint housing, ensuring Whistler's locals have access to legal advice if they feel their person or business is being threatened and creating a municipal police force - and in the meantime ensuring all new RCMP officers to the community meet with council and are told what is expected of them. "It happens in Courtney and some towns in B.C. where every new officer sits in front of council, where they are told what the agenda is and what the priorities are for enforcement in the town," said Bennett.

 

Council

The council race has grown with incumbent Eckhard Zeidler joining the race on Oct. 12, as well as the late additions of Finn Saarinen, Rob LeBlanc, John Grills, Jess LeFramboise and Corinne Allison.

 

Eckhard Zeidler

He's the first council candidate to publicly throw his weight behind a mayoral candidate. And Eckhard Zeidler isn't mincing his words.

He is supporting Nancy Wilhelm-Morden for mayor and is betting she'll be the one to change the culture at municipal hall and the strained relationship between elected officials and those they represent.

"I have been looking for some time for an opportunity to change the culture in the hall and therefore the relationship between the community and its local government," said the two-term councillor. "And I believe that opportunity is now with our new CAO in place and hopefully with Nancy Wilhelm-Morden as the next mayor, assuming she has a strong and supportive team behind her."

He said to host the Olympics the Resort Municipality of Whistler needed to have an aggressive and decisive approach and that may have translated into the community thinking the worst of council's intentions.

"We all built this community together cooperatively and if there are good reasons for the gulf that has opened between elected officials and members of the community, we need to hit those head on and close that gap," he said.

Zeidler said the municipal service review, the first stage of which was presented to council Tuesday, is one way of getting the budget back on track.

"I want to be a part of the team that builds on this very good beginning so when council says we are running an efficient ship with no fat, I want that to be the truth."

As an aside, Zeidler urged caution to council candidates to choose their words carefully when speaking about the asphalt plant issue. The municipality issued a cease and desist order against the owner and operator, which is being challenged in the courts.

"I would like to ask all the other candidates to remember that if they are going to be saying things about the asphalt plant currently before the courts, to please choose your words carefully," he said. "We are enforcing a non-compliance with a rezoning, nothing more, nothing less."

 

Finn Saarinen

Finn Saarinen said there are a thousand reasons he's running for council, and each one of them is a friend who's been impacted by recent decisions.

"I've been here 40 years, and it's hard to see what's going on," he said. "The current administration is really affecting our lives and lifestyles, and the lifestyles of 1,000 friends."

He's held a number of jobs over the years but is a recognizable face at the liquor store where he gets to talk to Whistler residents from all walks of life - and they all have common complaints, ranging from pay parking to rising taxes.

"Everybody has a story: Front line workers who can't afford to park and are thinking of leaving, long-time residents that are talking about leaving town because they can't afford to live here anymore," said Saarinen.

"We're not protecting the dream.

"I have a neighbour who's been coming here from Seattle for 30 years, and he tells me that if they don't get rid of pay parking he's selling his place and he's never coming back.

"Occupy Wall Street? People are ready to occupy Whistler. This town is on fire with an anger that I've never seen before."

If elected, Saarinen said he would vote for the interests of residents 100 per cent of the time.

 

Rob LeBlanc

Rob LeBlanc believes staying balanced is the best way to deal with Whistler's problems.

He doesn't want to see any drastic action taken to solve the community's fiscal problems, opting instead for a measured approach that doesn't radically alter what's been done before.

"There seems to be a lot of negativity and conflict that seems to be brewing in Whistler," said LeBlanc who has lived in Whistler for 21 years.

"I think we've done very well in the last 20 years and my concerns are that there's going to be pressure on us to stray from the formula that we've used over the years.

"I like where we are, I think we have some very good planning policies in our Whistler2020 vision and our OCP, and I would hate for specific interests to kind of rule the day over the next little while."

LeBlanc moved to Whistler from New Brunswick in 1990. Since coming to town he worked at RDC Fine Homes for 19 years and only recently went out to start a business on his own. Beyond that he has also taught snowboarding in Whistler every year since he came here, reaching the highest level of snowboard instructor certification and becoming president of the Canadian Association of Snowboard Instructors (CASI).

As for solutions to Whistler's financial problems, he believes that tax increases over the last four years have been "very hard to take" for both residents and businesses. But, he said, Whistler does have expenses it needs to take care of.

"The reality is, we have bills to pay and limited income to do it," he said. "I cannot see taxes going down. I think we need to balance the budget, that's a no-brainer, you don't have to be a CEO to realize that, but I am in favour of the proposed parking plan that's coming into place. I think we need to give it a try, we have danced around that issue for a while."

 

Corinne Allison

Twenty odd years ago Corinne Allison was a weekend warrior but there was something about Whistler, aside from the obvious beauty, which drew her here permanently.

"The other thing we really enjoyed was the entrepreneurial vibe in Whistler," said Allison. "In order to make a living in Whistler some creativity was required and both of us (her husband Bob and herself) being business-minded and up for the risk and challenge of starting new businesses in Whistler, it appealed to us."

Among her endeavours, Allison has been executive director of the Whistler Blackcomb Foundation, co-owner/operator of the Great Wall Climbing Centre and is now is co-owner of Core Climbing & Fitness Centre in the village.

While that young entrepreneurial vibe is still alive and well in Whistler, Allison said it's more challenging to get businesses going these days. The municipality can help by not only cutting red tape but by keeping things affordable.

"It affects all of us when we have such a high commercial property tax rate," she said.

That's one of the reasons this mother of two teenage boys is running for a seat on council. She's concerned about long-term affordability for people who live here now and for future generations.

She wants the municipality to refocus on the economic leg of the sustainability stool. Budget shortfalls are going to be an immediate priority for the next council.

"Shortfalls need to be addressed not by deferring expenses and expenditures to the future but by implementing long term policy and procedures that reduce costs not only this fiscal year but in future years."

Allison also said she is encouraged by the number of candidates in this election.

She said: "It's a strong indicator the community is demanding a higher level of engagement with municipal affairs and that changes are afoot."

John Grills

John Grills has been coming to Whistler for more than 35 years, moving from seasonal worker to weekend warrior to lifer in a matter of years.

He's running for council this year because he can - his kids are older and the construction project he has been working on at the Chamois is nearing completion. He also got out of the restaurant business a few years ago, though he's still the landlord and advisor to the restaurants occupying his spaces at Town Plaza and in the Upper Village.

"I have a long history, and a lot of business experience and skills that I can use to help some of the other strong candidates that have put their names forward," he said. "I can be part of that team and maybe change the direction a little."

While there are a lot of candidates in the running, Grills said that most voters and candidates are clear on the issues and often on the same side. The difference, he said, is experience.

"The issues have been listed quite clearly, and I think the community is very up to date on what they're concerned about and frustrated about, and I think my list is very similar," he said. "The key issue for me is that voters take a good look at the candidates ... voters have a responsibility to put the best group into place that has the skills and background to do the job."

Grills said any changes at municipal hall will depend on getting finances in order.

"A business works around finances, and if your finances are not in good order then you can't do much else," he said. "The number one priority is to get your finances in order and in control so you can take care of all the other issues."

 

Jess LaFramboise

Jess LaFramboise, a Garibaldi Highlands resident and real estate agent with Squamish's Tantalus Mountain Realty and Management, is also running for a seat on council.

The owner of a property in Gondola Village, he said he wants to bring more financial accountability to the council table, as well as a focus on transit - specifically, restoring funding to the Squamish Commuter service that travels between Whistler and Squamish, the community where he's a full-time resident.

"I would restore funding to the Squamish Commuter bus so we can get the hundreds of workers up to the resort in a safe and environmentally friendly manner," he said. "The Squamish Commuter was established following a tragic collision, five people were carpooling following graveyard shifts, and by Whistler council deciding to scrap it, it may only be a matter of time before there's another crash."

Though a Squamish resident, LaFramboise emphasized that he's very much a part of Whistler. He moved to Squamish in 2004 to take a job at Mountain FM and has lived there ever since with his wife, who must commute to Vancouver every day for work downtown.

"I bring an interesting perspective, whereas I am a quasi-visitor, quasi-local," he said. "I see it through more of a visitor's eyes, but sometimes you say you can't see the forest for the trees. It could bring a fresh perspective to have someone live in the corridor but not in Whistler on a day-to-day basis."

The complete list of candidates is posted online at www.whistler.ca. Do a search for "election candidates."