Lifelong Hatter Ron Fode has decided to delve into politics in his retirement by running for Medicine Hat city council in the upcoming municipal election.--News Photo Anna Smith
asmith@medicinehatnews.com
Council candidate Ron Fode is hoping to keep Medicine Hat smiling with a clear, optimistic platform for his campaign.
Fode has lived in the city all his life and has been in a variety of positions, from self-employment at his own small business to various union jobs. Now retired, he’s looking to stay busy and do his part for the community which he’s called home all these years.
“I’ve seen how things have changed over the time, and I’ve always kind of liked politics, but never ever gotten into it,” said Fode. “And then finally, I decided I should put my hand in there and see what I can maybe accomplish for the community.”
With a mind for teamwork and accountability, he feels a “glass half full” mentality will help bring the upcoming council some swift wins and work to restore public trust in the local government, a priority for him if elected.
His greatest focus in terms of policy however, is keeping the city affordable to live and work in.
“We have to get this budget down to where it’s affordable for everybody. It seems lately, we’ve been getting 5-6 per cent tax increases all the time. Nobody makes a 6 per cent raise a year,” said Fode. “We really have to get that down. Medicine Hat used to be one of the most affordable cities, and that’s just not the case anymore.”
He acknowledged that this may require cutting some services, but feels there are many things in the budget he would consider a “want,” rather than a necessary expenditure for the city.
“It’s going to be very hard to attract any industry in Medicine Hat if we don’t give major incentives to bring them here,” said Fode. “Every city, town, place in Alberta is looking to attract businesses. What do we have? We’re on both the No. 1 and the No. 3 highways, we’re close to the U.S. border. But again, we’re going to be fighting everybody to get
those jobs.”
Fode expressed concern regarding keeping the industry that is already present, making sure they have access to employees and reasonable cost of business so they don’t have to find other places to set up shop.
He would however, like to investigate attracting larger industries to the city.
“The third thing that I really focus on, is that we do not lose our utilities,” said Fode. “This is supposed to be to our advantage, so we shouldn’t have any sell-offs or anything like that. I do feel that we have very qualified people who work for us who should be able to make these decisions on what’s best for us without bringing a third party in. We have competent staff, we need to be relying on them.”
Fode also expressed an interest in streamlining traffic through construction designed to give swifter, more continuous routing for vehicles, in opposition to recent projects which he feels have slowed major arteries, and investigating the return of a Ward system for council, to ensure each member is directly accountable to a specific part of the city.
“If I’m elected to council, I want to go in with that team atmosphere,” said Fode. “We need to work as a group, to re-establish trust. I would like to see us talking to the community more, to find out what their ideas are and make sure that even when people might not agree – because there’s never a decision everyone agrees with – they can trust us.”
In the weeks leading up to the election, Fode plans to keep talking with everyone he can manage to meet, knocking on doors, putting up signs and visiting as many events as he can fit into his schedule.
“There’s a debate on Sept. 29, I’ll be there. I’m just going to be out in the community and talking,” said Fode. “That’s what I really want to do.”
Fode is one of 18 council candidates for the Oct. 20 municipal election. On Monday, Christien Hamerston-Ellis and Kirsten Spek joined the growing list of candidates for council ahead of the Oct. 20 election. A second candidate for Medicine Hat Catholic School Board of Education trustee has added their name to the list. Richard (Dick) Mastel filed his paperwork, joining Chuck Hellman as the other candidates thus far.
