Where are you from and what is your background?
I was born the last of five children to a family that operated a small business in the heart of Belfast, Northern Ireland. I was a green-grocer’s daughter. I immigrated to Canada at the age of 18, became a Canadian citizen 51-years ago, and moved to Kings County 48-years ago.

I am a lifelong learner. I hold a Letter of Accomplishment from the Institute of Canadian Bankers, an Honours degree, a Masters degree, and Certifications from Dalhousie University and Simon Fraser University.

I entered my first political race in 2012 at age 58, when I ran against a popular incumbent and won a seat on the Municipality of the County of Kings council by a narrow margin. At one of the first doors I visited in that campaign, I met a constituent who warmly told me he would vote for me because I was not typical of politicians who had knocked on his door previously.

I was re-elected with a 74 percent majority in 2016. I credit hard-work, enthusiasm for the role and the close ties I built with community organizations, businesses, and developers across my district among the reasons I received such staunch support.

Why have you chosen to run for office?
I did not re-offer for council in 2020, but I have been watching council for the past four years and staying connected with the hopes, concerns, and frustrations of community members. The importance of effective local government has pushed me to ask for the honour to be your next Mayor.

What strengths would you bring to Council if elected?
Changes are needed. Without bold leadership that cannot happen in a timely fashion. I can bring that type of leadership to council.

All the Mayoral candidates bring their own experiences and brand to this race. A full set of experiences within my eight years of municipal government and a rich life outside politics marks mine.

During paid work, I held executive roles and responsibility for million-dollar budgets, branch offices, and staff teams of up to fifty-two members.

Volunteerism is also key to who I am. The drive to care for others and to create effective policies and practices started for me at age fourteen, and has led me to leadership roles in local, provincial, and federal boards. With humility, I note that my effectiveness has been recognized through many prestigious awards.

What do you feel are key issues in this election and how would you address them?
I have four key issues.

1. Budget review. Our aim needs to be getting full value for every dollar spent on behalf of taxpayers, program by program and department by department.

To address this… As your Mayor, I will champion a zero-based approach to annual budget review and approval. I know our finance department staff members have the talent, time, and skill to perform the tasks required.

2. Land Use. Council got the Municipal Planning Strategy right. But our Land Use Bylaw (LUB) has led to angry disagreement, community division, and costly court cases. This is no help to anyone.

To address this… As your Mayor, I will lead your new council to fix our LUB to make it work better for all of us.

3. Climate Action. We all love our children and grandchildren and so must act now to do everything we can to face up to the realities of climate change.

To address this… As your Mayor, I will work with individuals, communities, and businesses to help us do that, to make our municipality notable in its commitment to climate action in small and big ways; to have the necessary action-oriented, conversations now and to take the actions we can all take now.

4. Leadership. Council needs to improve its capacity to get those things that are important to our residents, communities and businesses accomplished in a timely manner.

To address this… I will use my proven record to improve the capacity of groups to get excellent work done by the group of councillors you will elect this October. Real differences will undoubtedly exist when we come together. With me as your mayor, council will have a leader that can build healthy working relationships among councillors, our villages, our growth centres and with the towns.

What is one message you would like to send to voters?
Kings County is fortunate because we have everything we need to be better. We just have to work at it, deliberately, carefully, week by week and month by month over the entire term entrusted to us as your elected representatives.

Find more details related to this snapshot of who I am on my website, on my Instagram site as well as the Facebook group page launched under my name for this mayoral campaign.