Electors in Gibsons have three candidates for mayor to choose from in the 2022 local government elections. Coast Reporter spoke with candidates Leslie Thomson and Phil Yeung (candidate Silas White was profiled in an eariler article).
Thomson
Candidate Leslie Thomson is taking a second run for the mayor’s seat in the Oct. 15 local government elections. In his first attempt in 2018, he and two other first-time mayoral candidates collected just under 400 votes. Incumbent Bill Beamish, who is not seeking re-election, claimed over 1,300.
Thomson said “leadership” is a key issue in this election, with a need for a mayor to head up “planning of a path forward for the next 30 years, keeping the big picture in mind while promoting dialogue and making sure input is being listened to and put into practice…Any plan has to be accepted by the community at large.”
To accomplish that, he said that, “Council needs to bring people together talk and find where we can help each other out rather than coming up with regulations and laws that may not be inclusive of everyone in the community.”
“Transparency is always important so that everyone knows what is being done before it is done.”
He views the mayor role as a link with other levels of government and interest groups. His motivation for seeking the office was to help ensure Gibsons remains a liveable community. He said that includes “keeping our property taxes, if not the same, trying to reduce them. That would be in everybody’s interest.”
“The official community plan has to be relooked at. Gibsons is a small place, not a big city. People appreciate being a small town where they don’t have to worry about security, water shortages, fires in the area or our medical system failing because we don’t have doctors in the community.”
Thomson stated he would like to see the town help with the “affordability issues” facing local medical clinics and encourage medical specialists to provide services in the community so that patients don’t have to travel via ferry to seek treatment.
“We don’t want to be chasing doctors away, but it is also about town landlords being able to pay their bills.”
He also said that municipal attention to issues of affordable housing, homelessness and families struggling to put food on the table were important to him.
A Coast resident for the past 13 years, Thomson has a background in aviation industry and moved to the area to start his own business.
Yeung
Mayoral candidate Phil Yeung, was unable to provide Coast Reporter with details on his platform before press time. In a text message on Sept. 13, he stated he had attended the first meeting with his campaign team, commenting that “six hours of brainstorming was a wonderful experience in setting up the framework” for his run for office.
Coast Reporter will publish more information on candidates in the coming weeks. Find all of Coast Reporter’s election coverage at www.coastreporter.net/2022-civic-election.
