I attended the recent all candidates forum in Trail and was very impressed with the large turnout for this event. It appears to be evident that many people in this city are looking for change in the municipal government. I was very impressed with the calibre of many of the new candidates seeking election to Trail City Council.
I was particularly impressed with newcomer Sean Mackinlay who as a relatively new citizen and businessman in Trail expressed enthusiasm about living in this City and voiced fresh ideas about bringing this City back to life and giving the City more exposure. I feel that this young man would be a great addition to council and with the addition of several other newcomers perhaps this City will be able to move forward.
It surprised me that there was little, if any, mention of reduction of municipal residential taxes in light of the fact that municipal spending, or overspending, took up a large amount of the business at the recent UBCM meetings.
An article in the Sept 27 edition of the Vancouver Sun reports that an Angus Reid poll revealed that 73 per cent of polled British Columbians want municipalities to hold spending increases and 53 per cent thought that municipal taxes are too high and a whopping 83 per cent want to see independent oversight to ensure that tax money is well spent by municipal governments.
I would hope that we have a large voter turnout for the election on Nov. 19th.
Bruce Taylor
Trail