My family I moved to St. Albert this summer. We moved from the Ottawa area to Alberta for work reasons and had the entire Edmonton area to choose from for a place to live.
We looked at all of the various choices from neighbourhoods right in the centre of Edmonton to the outlying towns like Devon and Beaumont. We chose St. Albert after careful consideration of many factors like the general look and feel of the town, schools and recreation. St. Albert is a beautiful and vibrant town and, having just chosen it as our home, we would like to see the town continue on this path.
Having just moved from the Ottawa area I would like to offer the voters of St. Albert a cautionary tale. Ottawa voters decided they wanted a change and voted out the long time, experienced mayor and elected a local businessman. Mayor Larry O’Brien had no public sector experience at all to the point that he couldn’t even chair his own meetings because he did not know how. He also underestimated the complexity and diversity of operating a municipality. In my opinion Ottawa suffered during his term as mayor (higher taxes and still no LRT).
Although it is tempting to vote on a few of the issues, I urge the voters of St. Albert to consider the qualifications of the mayoral candidate for whom they are voting. The City of St. Albert is a $125 million business with 600 employees, multiple diverse departments and has the added complexity of all the public sector requirements. Our mayor should have the necessary public sector experience just as O’Brien should have sought a seat on council first and then stepped up to run for mayor.
Please don’t make the same mistake Ottawa did.
Greg McIntyre, St. Albert
