Name: Mike Brew
Age: 33
Website: www.brew4mayor.com
Occupation: Intranet design & content coordinator for Whistler-Blackcomb
Last book read: Robert’s Rules of Parliamentary Procedures for Dummies
What music are you listening to: Everything local.
Favourite recreational pursuits: Skiing, biking when I can get a rental bike.
1. Why are you running for mayor?
It’s funny because I’ve been asked (that question) a lot. I decided to run when Hugh was here and I wanted to offer a choice that was different from the business owner in town and the lawyer. I wanted to be the voice for the people like me that are in town – from the newbies that just rolled in to the people that have been happily underemployed in Whistler for years and are still doing what they can to make it work. I want to be their voice.
I’m surprised by the reaction that I’m getting from a lot of people that say "I wasn’t going to vote until I saw your name in the paper." They don’t feel that they have a voice so (they usually) let somebody else make the decision.
2. What are the biggest issues facing Whistler?
I think the biggest issue this year is going to be the economy, definitely. And of course housing is always an issue with 500 people on the (wait) list. Those are, I think, the two biggest issues right now.
And the Olympics. There’s going to be a lot of change and a lot of new structures going up and it’s going to change the face of Whistler as we know it, and we want to make sure that we have lasting legacies that we can be proud of and still use well after the Olympics have come and gone.
3. What needs to be done to address those issues?
I think they all fall into the same umbrella for me. It’s all part of the process. Whistler’s economy seems to be based on the weather. When the economy’s good rents are high and everybody’s products cost more. As soon as the weather is bad everything’s on sale and everything costs less.
When you see something good everybody wants a part of it and nothing changes to support the downside. So I think the entire process needs to be looked at again and figuring out the process for everything from the environment to housing to the economy all as a whole will solve all those issues. I think addressing everything one issue at a time is something we’ve been doing for a long time and we need to look at the way everything affects everything else.
The process is everything. I think it’s all encompassing. If you get the environmental issues under check, the economic issues will come under check all under the same umbrella.
4. How will Whistler 2020 help us?
Whistler 2020 is the community vision. It’s a group vision. It’s important to have that group vision but at the same time we need to have everybody in town aware of the vision. It’s got to be a collective vision. It can’t just be the current people at the time that are going "hey, look this is our vision, a whole group of us got together and put it together."
We need to all focus and align our personal visions with the group vision.
I think the majority of people in town have heard of the document. I think there are (also) a lot of people that haven’t read it. I think there’s a lot of people that would still be wondering what you were talking about if you said "can you tell me a little bit about Whistler 2020."
They need to be involved. If everybody’s working together, we are unstoppable.
5. Name three things you expect to accomplish in this council’s term.
Unite the councillors that come together, get through some issues and make decisions, and have the community well prepared for the Olympics coming up at the end of this three years.
I believe that with me in this position we’d get more feedback from the people looking at the 2020 document and having a personal vision of their own that aligns with the group vision. I think we’ll have more community buy-in from the demographic that don’t feel they have a voice in the current government and find out what they want for the Olympics and where their plans are (for) the future.
