In the event that I am elected to council, as I will be working with seven other council members and the mayor, I do not expect to drive the agenda, and as I cannot predict who I would be working with I find it difficult to make any policy promises.

 

I can promise to work hard, listen, and continue to learn. If there is one thing that I have learned thus far in the campaign, it is that there are very few easy answers and that many simple ideas have unintended consequences. I have a curiosity  to understand why things are as they are, and in my effort to better understand I develop analogous comparisons to systems and concepts that I am familiar with. This often provides me with different approaches to problems that could lead to better outcomes. I  think through secondary and tertiary consequences. I try and anticipate the future we are investing in to make more strategic choices. I am prepared to raise difficult questions.

In the world of retail politics I have seen issues defined in sound bites. We need governance by sound judgment not sound bites if we are to achieve best outcomes. As council members are not whipped to vote the party line and do not have the luxury abstaining from contentious questions put to a vote (unless in conflict) there is a chance to work toward unanticipated improvements.

I am not dogmatically driven, and as a musician I find that by listening, relating to what I have heard before and continuing to learn  I have developed strong  improvisational skills. A musician needs to work well with others to deliver harmony. There are also opportunities to  demonstrate leadership with solos. Musicians are often their own most severe critics as they do not always achieve the ideal they envisioned.