A fourth member of our community has announced his candidacy for Mayor in the upcoming election.
Allan Grandison is a long-time resident, moving to Fort McMurray in 1984 for work Grandison, raised his three sons here and has been involved in the community for many years. He has served on many boards including the Regional Recreation Committee and was the president of Fort McMurray minor baseball, has past experience working for the municipality and is currently a realtor with RE/MAX.
He will be running against lawyer Don Scott, Councillor Al Vinni, and steamfitter Anthony Needham.
Grandison thinks his experiences demonstrate the primary things he can bring to the table as Mayor.
“I have a large background in leadership, decisiveness and the ability to look at the whole picture, to be a creative problem solver and to respect the options of others and work collaboratively to a common solution,” said Grandison.
His platform centers on collaboration and he believes that as mayor and council as a whole, have to create an open door policy of some kind and look at opportunities to make sure residents have a voice and that they feel their concerns are being brought forward and that municipal government is delivering quality services.
“Working collaboratively with council and all partners and stake holders, I think that is a key element to moving forward is providing leadership and working together and certainly dealing with the local economy and recognizing that we have to work with our industry partners,” said Grandison.
The downtown revitalization is a project that Grandison strongly feels will require a lot of collaboration.
“I think the land acquisition presents some very unique challenges in that the property values have changed in Fort McMurray, said Grandison.” “We have existing business that are trying to make ends meet in a downturn economy and I think addressing the downturn revitalization and the vacant land that we now have sitting in downtown is going to be a complex issue.”
“I think we have to look at making our downtown user friendly and as vibrant as possible.”
In terms of the bag ban, Grandsion sees it as a non-issue and that Fort McMurray has grown accustomed to it, and it is not high on his radar.
“I’m also a big strong believer in our seniors. I think that our elders and our seniors bring decades of experience and they really offer an import context to today and moving forward,” said Grandison.
“I think our community should be built so people can live their entire lives here and have all of the resources, tools and quality of life opportunities they can while in the region.”
Another hot topic in the community, especially as we go into the election is fly in and fly out and Bill 21. Grandison strongly believes that as municipal government it is certainly not their role to decide how industry operates their business.
“I think they have done it for a lot of years and I think they do it very well,” said Grainson. “I equally believe that if we work with industry and with community as a whole and small business and everybody else and promote a region first approach I believe that we can start to address some of the realities that will come out with Bill 21.”
Leading up to the election Grandison plans to be out in the community campaigning and talking to constituents as much as possible.
His full platform can be found on his website and constituents can connect with him through his Facebook page.
The municipal election is on Oct. 16.
