Born and raised Hatter Nicholas Martin wants to see more post-secondary education available in Medicine Hat.--SUBMITTED PHOTO
Nicholas Martin hopes being part of city council will aid his plans for a university in Medicine Hat.
Born in Medicine Hat and raised in Redcliff, Martin attended Medicine Hat College and became a power engineer. He worked at a facility in town for five years until it was sold. He then became a contractor with a company on new bitumen extraction technology and consulted on the start up of the NWR Refinery north west of Edmonton.
Since then, Martin has turned himself towards a public service career. He has spent time volunteering and working with a smaller federal party on policy creation.
The main point of Martin’s platform is to have a university built here.
“I don’t need to be a city councillor to do that, but it’s going to be a lot easier if I can take a democratic mandate to the provincial government,” said Martin. “If the citizens want it built, it will be a lot easier to get it built.”
Martin says the city can’t exist as a service industry alone and that Medicine Hat isn’t growing like the rest of the province.
“Students are an asset to our city because they’re customers and they’re workers for our restaurants, hotels, etc.,” said Martin. “If you are smart with where you locate the university and the dormitories, you can really take advantage of those students.”
If elected, Martin would study and learn more, something he has already been doing in preparation to run.
“I’d be brand new to a job, so I would be working overtime to make sure I knew what was going on at every level,” said Martin. “It’s going to take a lot of effort to get up to speed and that doesn’t matter who you are.”
“The world that we live in is a world of specialists,” said Martin. “Do you want someone that is really good at something else to be your city councillor, or do you want someone who takes it seriously enough to be an expert at being a city councillor? That’s what I’m offering.”
