SYDENHAM
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith wants to be making the decisions, rather than having them made for him. After the ArtSci ’07 faced bureaucratic challenges trying to start a gourmet panini business this summer, he decided to run for city council. Since then, Erskine-Smith said he has become aware of other issues that reaffirmed his decision to run.
“The student-city thing became a huge thing,” the 22-year-old said. “Researching social issues, you realize that things need to be fixed here.”
To help reconcile misconceptions within the student community, Erskine-Smith said if elected he would organize a “Queen’s in Kingston” committee to look at specific aspects of the University’s relationship with the city.
“I think oftentimes there’s a misperception of students by full-time residents, but also a misperception of full-time residents by students,” he said. “The Town-Gown initiative is great in working towards bridging the gap, but I think … a student representative at the table in the city is important for Queen’s and especially mportant in this district, where we are the majority.”
Erskine-Smith said another issue he would like to improve if elected is Homecoming.
“I know there was dialogue between … Queen’s, the city and the AM S,” he said. “Clearly they didn’t come up with one cohesive plan of tackling the issue, and that’s realistically what I’d like to see.”
Meanwhile, Erskine-Smith wants to see the students who study at Queen’s stay in Kingston after graduating.
“A key way of getting students to stay here beyond their [degree] is to get them to stay in the summer and to get them to realize what the city has to offer off of campus,” he said.
Erskine-Smith said he wants the city to encourage initiatives such as the one which allowed him to start his summer business. “You learn far more by jumping right into things,” he said of his experience.
“Taking part in the process is trying to actually do something that’s more real than what you’d find in a classroom.”
As for his panini business, although it didn’t quite get off the ground over the summer, Erskine-Smith said he still owns the trailer out of which he plans to sell paninis and hopes to run a catering company after graduating this fall.
–Lisa Jemison
Assitant News Editor
Bill Glover
Bill Glover said he re having debates while walking back to his 238 Albert St. house after a
three-hour history lecture.
“It was a tremendous time of opening of doors,” Glover said. “There’s a spirit of excitement.”
Born in Winnipeg in 1952, Glover graduated from Queen’s in 1972 with a history degree and continued his graduate studies at the University of London. Glover moved to Kingston six years ago after retiring from the navy, and is currently doing research in 18th-century navigation and hydrography of Hudson Bay.
Glover said he hopes to change the way the city council is headed.
“The direction of current council, I think, has been putting private interests before public interest. I think [it has] had a skewed sense of priorities,” he said. “There comes a point where you stand up or shut up … the council has created divisions across the city. We need to heal those divisions.”
Glover, 54, said he wants to challenge council’s lack of openness and transparency.
“Municipal politics in Canada, to my knowledge, is non-partisan … yet it’d appear that there’s a very focused partisan effort to advance the interests of a specific lobby group,” he said.
Glover said he won’t accept campaign contributions from unions, companies or organizations, adding that this is the reason he declined to be interviewed for the AMS’s candidate endorsement.
“When you get those sorts of liaisons, there’s a higher probability of a sense of obligation.”
In addition to providing greater transparency, Glover said he hopes to make changes in student housing conditions.
“I’m appalled at some of the housing conditions I see students living in,” he said.
Glover was a member of the Downtown Residential Review Committee, which created a bylaw that requires a certain ratio of common space to the number of bedrooms in the building.
Until laws change at the provincial level to improve housing conditions, Glover said, residents can programs to educate tenants and landlords as to what their rights and responsibilities are. Glover added that a lot of student issues are issues that are common across the city.
“To a large extent, they are two separate communities moving on parallel paths … relations really become an issue when they collide.”
–Florence Li
Assitant News Editor
Alex Huntley
Alex Huntley, a political studies major at Queen’s, said studying politics in school didn’t turn him off participating in politics hands-on.
“I love being able to both immerse myself in the academic study and apply it practically,” the ArtSci ’08 student said.
“Aside from my love affair with politics, I actually want to see quite a few changes with the way students are treated.
“Being a student, I kind of understand the uniqueness of living in a ghettoized area.”
Originally from Fonthill, a small town in the Niagara region, Huntley said he’s come to feel athome in Kingston.
“I want to see this city thrive; I want to see it grow,” he said.
Should he be elected to city council, Huntley, 20, said he wants to focus on six goals: improving the Ghetto’s quality of living, implementing a Green Bin organic waste disposal program, targeting poverty and homelessness, lowering property tax increases, creating a “knowledge-based” city economy and tackling the issue of Homecoming’s Aberdeen Street party.
Huntley said it’s necessary for council to focus on key issues rather than trying to accomplish everything.
“We just can’t pull a da Vinci, who’s all over the place,” he said. “I want to be focused.”
The way property standards are, it’s easy for a landlord to take advantage of his or her tenants, Huntley said.
“If I was a slumlord or a guy who wanted to make a profit, I would build as many walls as I want and call them rooms,” he said.
Huntley said he wants to improve property standards enforcement and increase the number of property inspectors in the Ghetto, as well as institute a council committee to review student housing in the Ghetto.
Huntley also said poverty and homelessness are important issues in Kingston, and a strategic report due in 2010 that looks into affordable housing isn’t good enough.
“I don’t know about you, but when I look at my watch it’s 2006,” he said.
“What we should be doing is taking action.”
In order for students to be a part of the Kingston community, Huntley said, they should be treated as such by Kingston residents.
“Treat us as residents,” he said. “Treat us as one of your own, rather than transients.” Huntley added that assuming Queen’s students only care about student issues “tokenizes” the role they can play.
“Students are interested in homelessness and poverty and making changes for the better,” he said. “I think it’s about engaging students—reaching out to them.”
–Anna Mehler Paperny
News Editor
Floyd Patterson
Floyd Patterson has lived in Kingston since the 1950s, in the Sydenham Ward district since 1971 and has been city councillor for the district since 2003. He described his experience as city councillor as a lifelong learning experience.
“Every committee you serve on, you’re learning a whole brand new aspect of municipal istration,
about how your town or your city, … [and] how your country is run,” he said.
Patterson, 74, served on nine committees for city council, looking at various aspects of life within Kingston— from municipal heritage to arts and recreation to accessibility.
Patterson said municipal authorities should adopt a policy of consultation, not confrontation, in of student-city relations.
“They should be treated like fellow adults,” he said. “If you have a problem with your neighbour, you go over and discuss it with them, at any time. You don’t call the police first.”
Patterson said students contribute to the Kingston community both economically and socially.
“We ought to express approval of student life, because it’s people coming to Kingston to enrich our
economy,” he said, adding that students also enhance Kingston through their volunteer work.
“There’s a lot of recognition to be given to students for all the charity work they do in Kingston. They raise a lot of money here,” he said.
“Students do charity work with various local organizations … We’ve never had to encourage students to do that.”
Patterson said housing probems arise because students are unaccustomed to managing property.
“In some of the housing they live in, they tend to want to put up with sub-standard housing because they want to live walking distance from Queen’s and therefore they’ll put up with a landlord who’s not fixing things on time,” he said.
Patterson said students need to be more proactive at approaching the city property inspectors in order to ensure the safety of their living conditions. An example, he said, would be to hire more property standards enforcement officers necessary to address housing issues, for students as well as full-time residents.
“One way students can always get along with their neighbours in the family residential areas … is to
make sure they don’t play amplified music out an open window,” he said. “If you control the noise and try to control the litter better, you’ll be more successful.”
–Lisa Jemison
Assitant News Editor
WILLIAMSVILLE
Glenn Barnes
As a current municipal employee and a certified municipal officer (CMO), Glenn Barnes said his experience dealing with city affairs will set him apart from other city councillors.
Barnes, 43, works for the township of Stone Mills as chief building officer, and has worked for the city of Kingston in the past. Barnes took courses through the Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario (AM CTO), to receive his CMO certification.
“My political ions started with getting involved in municipal governance, taking a number of courses,” he said.
“It’s a highly involved certification dealing with all aspects of municipal governance, from understanding how municipalities were born to strengths of managing municipal government.”
Barnes said his interest in municipal politics was piqued at the time of the 2003 elections, but he was not allowed to run for city council because he was an employee of the city.
“When I moved to [work in] Stone Mills, that was then the prompt for me to look at government and council for the next election.”
Barnes said if elected he would like to encourage better ability and openness in council as well as improve representation for the residents of Williamsville district.
“I think we’ve been ignored, certainly, for this last term,” he said.
Environmental, health and safety issues are also priorities of Barnes’.
“There needs to be a better program for recycling in the industry; not residential … but more in commercial industrial institutions,” he said, adding that he is working on stablishing an improved recycling program at Rideau Public School.
Barnes said he would also like to work towards dropping the taxation for multi-residential property, in the hopes that such changes would the savings on to the tenant. He added that it’s important to
encourage students to remain in Kingston after graduation.
“We have a great institution here that brings a lot of good minds to Kingston, so the obvious question is: ‘Why do they get up and leave so quickly?’” he said, adding that because most students are not originally from Kingston, there’s a good chance they’ll leave again after graduating.
“You’ve got to have to target the strengths—health and science,” he said. “If we can promote small businesses, I think that’s where we need to start out.”
–Lisa Jemison
Assitant News Editor
Brian Evoy
Brian Evoy retired from politics when he left city council in the early ’90s to spend more time with his kids.
But the Queen’s graduate and lifelong Kingstonian couldn’t get off the hook that easily: since then, he has organized two mayoral campaigns and participated in both provincial and federal politics.
“I guess politics is in one’s blood,” he said.
Evoy said he decided to get back into Kingston politics when some Williamsville residents asked him to run for city council.
“They asked me to run … based on my prior council experience,” he said. “I guess for this campaign it’s really the current council, dissatisfaction with their actions.”
Evoy said he knows Williamsville well, having grown up and gone to elementary school in the neighbourhood.
“The whole district has changed—I see a revitalization,” he said. “I see new families moving in, renovating houses, which is good.”
Evoy said students are residents like any others, but need to be educated about city issues.
“I’ve asked every student I’ve spoken to, ‘What are the issues?’ and I get a blank look,” he aid. “Many of them don’t even know they can vote here.”
Property standards, especially in student housing, need to be better enforced, Evoy said.
“There are major violations of property standards,” he said. “I could not believe the standard of some of the rental properties.”
Evoy said a lot of the residents he’s spoken with like students, but are upset about street parties associated with Homecoming.
“The aspect of the whole party itself—the illegal drinking and who’s paying the bill,” he said. “Those things have to be looked at carefully.”
Evoy said he wants to improve town-gown relations by having increased communication with the University in the form of regular meetings.
“The city has to work with the University—it has to be a two-way street,” he said. “When I was on council previously, there was an excellent relationship between the University and the city.”
A co-operative program between the city and the University Evoy said he wants to bring back is a “Take a student to dinner” program, which would see non-student Kingstonians hosting Queen’s students for dinner.
“That’s an idea that could be resurrected,” he said, adding that he thinks the city should place a greater emphasis on student participation in the Kingston community.
“I think they do feel part of the community because they’re involved in the community,” he said. “I think Kingston is a richer community because of Queen’s and because of the students.”
–Anna Mehler Paperny
News Editor
Andrew Goodridge
Andrew Goodridge, ArtSci ’07, said the experience he has received by working in the Kingston community in venues such as Fort Henry has been invaluable.
“[Kingston] provided me with an outside of the classroom experience,” he said. “Most people who are 22 years old don’t even think about municipal politics, let alone run.”
Originally from Hamilton, Goodridge only applied to Queen’s in his final high school year.
“It was the only place I wanted to go to,” he said.
Goodridge criticized the city’s current economic policy of attracting business from out of town, saying he wants to focus more on small business and entrepreneurship to boost Kingston’s economy.
Goodridge said this will work in conjunction with a mentorship process he wants to start between Queen’s students and Kingston businesses.
“Why not get some benefit from the students you’ve brought here?” he asked. Goodridge said that, if elected, he would implement a Green Bin organic waste disposal program and wants to look at regions like Toronto and Niagara that have already implemented similar programs as guidelines.
Goodridge said he also believes the city’s town-gown relations need to be addressed. He said he blames a lack of co-operation and communication for tensions between the University and the city.
“A divide doesn’t exist—a misunderstanding exists,” he said.
Homecoming is another issue Goodridge said he wants to tackle as a city councillor by getting the Homecoming party onto campus.
“This year was obviously a first-step in a multi-year process,” he said.
Goodridge said he will also focus on property crime and the need for more affordable housing.
“There are people who were on the waiting list during the last municipal election that are still on the list now,” he said. “I think they’d very much appreciate having a place to live.
Goodridge criticized the current city council for the way it has prioritized city issues, saying that housing should have been looked at before a hockey rink.
“A city council cannot have just seven priorities,” he said. “Affordable housing wasn’t a priority for the last council—it has to be for this one.”
Goodridge switched from King’s Town district to Williamsville at the beginning of September, saying he didn’t want to run against Mark Potter.
Goodridge said he feels Williamsville is a better fit.
“Ed Smith has more competition than any other district in the city. To me that says that people are pissed off.”
–Gillian Wheatley
Assistant News Editor
Ed Smith
Not many people can wax about politics, but Ed Smith can.
“It’s been a fabulous experience,” he said. “You think that you’re going to be giving to the community in this job, but the reality is you get so much more back.”
Smith grew up in Kingston, graduated from Queen’s with an honours degree in commerce and took over the family business—S&R department store.
He later bought, moved and developed Windmills Café. He also became chair of the Downtown Kingston Business Improvement Area. He said he never set out to run for council, but fell in love with the position once elected in 2003.
“It’s sort of hard to express, but it’s a great job … It’s often said that it’s a thankless job, but I found quite the opposite.”
Smith said this past council has accomplished positive projects for Kingston, including Market Square’s reconstruction and addition of a free skating rink, efforts to improve the sewage system’s environmental sustainability, and initiating the Large Venue Entertainment Centre.
“For the last 15, 20 years, nothing was done on council,” he said. “They always bogged down trying to get 100 per cent consensus.”
One of Smith’s goals for the next four years, should he be elected, is to make Kingston more attractive to businesses and improve the city’s job base.
“I think a lot of students would dearly love to stay here after they graduate, but there are difficulties finding work,” he said. “There are great opportunities for graduating university students. Kingston’s a great place to live and work and they know that.”
Smith said he sees student housing and cleaning up the Ghetto as priorities as well.
“I’d like to see some creative plans in how to clean up the front yards and streets of the student living area,” he said, adding that one way to accomplish this would be to designate the Ghetto a “special
needs” area.
Smith said this would mean all residents would be obligated to pay a special levy, money from which would go towards initiatives such as keeping the streets clean or other forms of “neighbourhood improvement.” This program would require consultation with student and non-student residents and would probably take a year or two to implement, Smith said.
The enforcement of property standards is important, but students have to be educated to protect their rights as tenants, Smith said.
“We can’t walk into a house and do an inspection unless we’re invited,” he said. “Our proactive inspections can only be the outside of a house.”
Smith said the residents he has spoken to feel positive towards students.
“Overwhelmingly, they are impressed with the students in the community, with the contributions they make to the community,” he said, adding that residents who dislike the presence of students are in the minority.
“As a group, Queen’s University students aren’t perfect; sometimes they get drunk and do stupid things,” he said.
“As a group, Kingstonian non-students aren’t perfect and sometimes they get drunk and do stupid things. “I don’t think we can eliminate that next term.”
–Anna Mehler Paperny
News Editor
Todd Speck
Todd Speck did not return the Journal’s requests to be interviewed.
“It’s not in the best interest of candidates to do interviews with special interest groups,” he said.
“I won’t be put in a place where … a journalistic source can filter my words.”
The 41-year-old is running for Williamsville city councillor for the second time. He last ran in 2003, when he lost to Rick Downes by 760 votes. He’s married with two children.
His website, toddspeck.com, states that as councillor he would review council spending, institute a one-year municipal property tax freeze at the end of council’s term, create a citywide network of bicycle trails, make crime prevention a greater priority, encourage urban development in the city core and not the banning of cosmetic pesticides.
In August 1994, Speck pled guilty to assault as a third-year political studies student.
Speck was sentenced to 18 months probation and ordered to take anger management counseling and complete 60 hours of community service.
PORTSMOUTH
Kindra Breau
When Kindra Breau was in college, she made it a personal goal to be on city council by the time she
was 25. Now she may get her chance.
“This will satisfy my goal if I give it a good shot,” said Breau, who turned 25 this year. Born in Sterling, Ontario, Breau moved to Kingston 12 years ago and graduated from St. Lawrence College with a degree in social service work last year.
“I always had my opinions on the city and how it’s spending its money and the best way to be heard was to be on city council,” she said. “I want to make sure the city is focused on all community .”
Breau said her main priorities are providing more affordable housing, improving the transit system and setting reasonable budgets. Breau said she wants to monitor projects to make sure they don’t go over budget and to set more realistic budgets to for unexpected expenses.
Housing issues, such as landlord responsibility, are also a concern, Breau said.
“I want to see landlords re-educated on responsibilities and to be held on a closer watch to make sure they’re maintaining their end of the bargain,” she said.
Another point of focus is the relationship between residents and students at Queen’s, St. Lawrence College and Royal Military College.
“They need to rebuild a relationship with each other and it needs to be a team effort,” she said, adding that she hopes to create student-resident community groups to discuss both sides of issues that come up.
“There’s a growing concern from residents in regard to students,” she said. “I also know what it’s like to be a resident; I see both sides of it.”
Breau said a lot of the attention surrounding Queen’s during Homecoming was caused by the media, but the community involvement during the weekend ran smoothly.
“The town just starts talking … A lot of it is media-fueled,” she said, adding that the ment campaign by the University during Homecoming was effective because Queen’s was promoting students to be good neighbours.
Breau said she hasn’t given much thought about being one of the few women running for council, but she thinks it’s excellent that many candidates are under 30.
“I’m from a younger generation and I have the future of Kingston in mind,” she said. “Kingston hasn’t always been an appealing place to stay and work after graduation.”
Breau said she’s not an expert on civil affairs, but believes this will give her an edge because she’ll keep an open mind.
“I’m going to be learning as I go,” she said. “I’m not the same person following the same line of thought.”
–Florence Li
Assitant News Editor
Mark Gerretsen
Having played three very different roles in Kingston throughout his life, Mark Gerretsen feels he’s
well-prepared to address studentcity issues.
“I’ve been a student, I’ve been a resident … and I’m also in property management, so I’ve seen the three different angles of it,” he said.
Born and raised in Kingston, Gerretsen attended St. Lawrence College and Queen’s University. He’s now a landlord of student and non-student housing throughout the city. Gerretsen, 31, said he became interested in municipal politics about five years ago.
“As I would talk with more and more people about what was going on in Kingston and at city hall, I just gained a much stronger interest,” he said, adding that his involvement on the affordable housing committee also increased his interest.
If elected, Gerretsen said he will focus on smart, sustainable economic growth, preserving and enhancing the waterfront and promoting a healthy relationship between the city and its post-secondary institutions.
Previous city councils have alternated between not doing enough and doing too much, Gerretsen said.
“You have to … promote the economy and promote healthy growth without neglecting infrastructure and social responsibilities.”
Gerretsen said he would also like to see increased co-operation within city council.
“One of the things I’ve noticed in this city council is they never really got along,” he said.
“Some of the city councillors tend to bringtheir ill feelings from previous feelings and let those affect how they’re going to debate the next issue, but I think it’s important to realize that everybody is coming to city hall representing their particular district and at the end of the day everybody has to work co-operatively to enhance the city.”
Revitalizing the underused waterfront area in the Portsmouth District is also a priority of Gerretsen’s.
“We have to revitalize it to make it again what it used to be—a place where families would enjoy and there was always something for everybody to do there and that didn’t cost a lot of money,” he said.
Because two large groups of students—St. Lawrence College and the University’s West Campus—are
within the Portsmouth boundaries, Gerretsen said working towards a healthy relationship between students and full-time residents is a priority.
“I think that the city needs the University and the colleges, the educational institutions in Kingston, just as badly as the educational institutions need the city, so I think it’s really important to have a healthy relationship there.”
–Lisa Jemison
Assistant News Editor
Moe Royer
Moe Royer brings an interesting field of experience to his candidacy for city council: he used to work
on mediation programs for Corrections Canada.
Originally from Ottawa, where he worked at Corrections Canada’s headquarters, Royer moved to Kingston to create a mediation program here between inmates and staff.
Royer, 60, said his experience with mediation will come in handy working in local politics.
“Mediation and working with different levels of government as well as talking to people,” he said. “It helps you understand the world of politics and the world of governance … All that kind of stuff is very helpful.”
Now retired, Royer said his reasons for running are simple.
“I want to help my community and serve my community,” he said. “We forgot that word, ‘serve,’ and politicians are there to serve their community. “It’s not about oneself; it’s about all of us.”
This is Royer’s second municipal election race; he ran in the 2003 municipal election for the Cataraqui
Ward. He lost to Sarah Meers by 105 votes.
Royer said that, if elected, he hopes to make council more financially responsible, and keep better track of where the city’s money is going.
“I also want to know where we’re going in of our economy and our seniors and those who are having difficulties,” he said. “We really need to look at the social programs and see where people are going and what we can do to help.”
Royer said he thinks both students and the city are “getting a bad rap” from each other, and the city should take advantage of the students in its midst.
“We get talent here—we’re missing out on this talent,” he said.
“We’re not tapping into this.
“We’ve got to work with the University … how can we help students, and how can students help us?”
Royer said students can contribute to Kingston on a range of municipal issues.
“These are all issues tudents areinterested in—what’s their take? What can we learn from them?” he asked.
“You welcome them to work with you, you encourage them to meet with other residents of our community.
“There are a lot of areas where the students could help.”
Royer said he sees housing as an important issue for students.
“I’ve been in some of the residences and it’s not pleasant for students,” he said. For the most part, Royer said, the students he has spoken with are engaged in Kingston and like living in the city.
“Every time I talk to a student about Kingston, they love Kingston,” he said. “I think very highly of our students, and I think you’re our future, and we should never forget that.”
–Anna Mehler Paperny
News Editor
KING’S TOWN
Rob Hutchison
“I always a time when a friend and I lived by the railway tracks in [Winchester],” he said.
“We were playing with a few toys and I realized they were all mine and I thought there was something
wrong there.”
Born in belleville in 1950, Hutchison came to Kingston in 1969 and graduated from Queen’s with a double major in english and Philosophy.
“My involvement has always been about bringing students in the community together,” he said.
Hutchison said his emphasis on the improvement of community services will benefit students as much as other residents.
“I want to reorientate the city’s priorities towards an improved neighbourhood and community services that can not only benefit citizens every day, but also serve as a basis for economic development,” he said, citing the need for improvements in childcare, affordable housing, park equipment and other public services.
Hutchison said there’s currently an emphasis on bigticket items that benefit only a few council .
He said he’s not against a Large Venue Entertainment Complex (LVEC)—which city council approved to be built downtown near Food Basics—but he believes the way in which decisions were made wasn’t the way to conduct open government.
“We should not have gone ahead with the LVEC, which ignored citizen concerns, which caused a tremendous amount ofresentment,” he said. “The attempt to sell off the memorial Centre for the LveC caused unnecessary divisions in the community.”
Hutchison said he sees students as residents that should be treated as such.
“Most people respond to the way they’re treated and students deserve to be treated as well as any citizen,” he said.
“Clearly, all students aren’t a problem. The vast majority are just fine.
“Students need to feel that they are going to be heard by the city government and by opening up city council to citizen input, it will alsobenefit students,” he said.
Hutchison said the city has provided the infrastructure to involve students in the community, but students also have to look for opportunities themselves.
This week, King’s Town’s third candidate, Sean molloy, dropped out of the race and threw his behind Hutchison. Hutchison said he was surprised when molloy dropped out, but could see why he told his ers to vote for Hutchison.
“Many of his concerns are my concerns,” Hutchison said.
“It was a natural thing that he would turnand me given the affinity of our platforms.”
Mark Potter
Mark Potter has hockey to thank, at least indirectly, for his bid to be a city councillor.
The 46-year old Kingston native has written a book on the Kingston’s hockey history. He’s the international Hockey Hall of Fame president, and he co-chaired Kingston’s Hockeyville bid.
“It was really after Hockeyville that a lot of people started asking me to run for council,” Potter said.
Potter’s hockey projects are a self-described hobby; he currently works as a TD Bank investment advisor in downtown Kingston. Potter said the issue of property standards is one of his biggest priorities.
“There are too many landlords that have Queen’s students living in deplorable conditions,” he said.
As well as economic development, Potter said too many Kingston residents have moved away. Potter said he hopes to change things by attracting more business to the community.
“We have a whole generation who we’ve lost, and unless things change, we’re going to lose another one,” he said. “I think I have a vision of Kingston in of quality of life here.”
Potter said he wants to focus on keeping Queen’s students in Kingston after graduation or after they’ve lived in other places and want to come back to start families.
“There’s a whole little market there of Queen’s graduates who would want to come to Kingston,” he said.
Potter describes himself as the‘economic man’ in his race, saying he wants to attract more business to Kingston and push for better jobs for students so they’ll becomemore involved with the city.
“It would probably be nice if more students could stay here during the summer,” he said.
Potter s the construction of the Large Venue Entertainment Centre, which he said has been the source of most of the contention he encountered during the election campaign.
“We just don’t have an adequate facility in Kingston,” he said. “If we were to [cancel] that, it would ost
taxpayers millions and millions of dollars,” he said.
Potter said former candidate Sean molloy’s dropping out from the race won’t affect Potter’s own votes, despite molloy’s decision to throw his behind rob Hutchison, who is now Potter’s only opponent.
“I think he was a fringe candidate anyway,” Potter said.
“It won’t have any material impact on the ultimate outcome.”
All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s) in Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be ed, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to [email protected].