Three Amigos

Last week I had the pleasure of making 3 new friends, all councillor candidates with very different backgrounds who share a common desire to help make Kingston a better place.

Liz Schell is running in Portsmouth District, she is currently the president of the Domino Theatre, is on the Arts Advisory Committee, the board of the Kingston Arts Council, and was on the Steering Committee for the Cultural Plan. She also gained some campaigning experience helping both Helen Cooper and Beth Pater with their previous municipal election campaigns.

Liz feels that Kingstonians are happy overall and that the “city is running pretty well compared to other councils”. She has been disappointed in the city’s lack of focus on the arts, and feels that there should be an arts “point guy” on city staff. While she still needs to review the EPA studies, Liz isn’t yet convinced that a third crossing is necessary given it’s incredible projected cost, instead, Liz would like to see more services developed in Pittsburgh District to alleviate congestion downtown.

I got an unexpected and much needed boost of energy from Pittsburgh District Councillor hopeful Ryan Boehme. This guy has so much passion, energy and enthusiasm, I half expected him to jump up and start dancing during our interview! His positive, upbeat personality and sparkling smile was infectious, and helped me get even more excited about our wonderful city.

There is no doubt in my mind that Ryan absolutely loves Kingston! He was born and raised here, earned a diploma in Instrumentation Engineering at St Lawrence College and is currently pursuing a degree in Political Science at RMC. Ryan recognizes that we have “a great wealth of knowledge in this city”, he would like to see council tap into this knowledge to help solve some of Kingston’s problems. I loved Ryan’s attitude towards problem solving, he feels good solutions can come from anyone, be they a child or someone living on the street. Regarding the third crossing, Ryan feels that if the community wants the crossing, they’ll bond together and find a way to make it happen.

Going into our interview, I didn’t realize I already had a connection with King’s Town District candidate James Sayeau. I must declare a pecuniary interest with regard to any discussions herein about James, I’m his daughter’s soccer coach! Ok, well this connection can’t really benefit me financially, I’m only paid in smiles, I thought I’d put it out there in case someone discovers this connection and tries to accuse me of using it to acquire more smiles.

At first glance, it seemed like James and I would have only his daughter in common, but by the end of the interview, it turned out that I have more in common with James than I do with many of the other candidates. Both of us are military brats and our parents are very involved with the Legion. James was on the Board of Directors of the Katarokwi Native Friendship Centre for 7 years and served on the Aboriginal Council of Queen’s University. James is an environmentalist, he believes that every insect and bird has a purpose, and that BP’s oil spill should be considered ecological genocide. He likes the direction the City of Kingston is heading with it’s sustainability goals, but wishes that council listened to more groups because “everybody’s ideas count”.