This is a time of year for reflection and setting goals and priorities for the year ahead.
This past year certainly had its high and lows, ups and downs, and was not without its share of controversy. It’s like that many years, but certainly 2014 brought more controversy with it being a municipal election year.
Residents on the Sunshine Coast sent a strong message with the results of Nov. 15 and have given our political leaders a mandate and a direction for 2015 and beyond. It’s now up to our leaders to take that direction and run with it.
Although it is still very early in this new term, we see a lot of positives at the Sechelt and Gibsons council tables, the Sunshine Coast Regional District board and at School District No. 46. And that positive tone is also reflected in several New Year’s messages provided to us this week from SD46 board chair Betty Baxter, Gibsons Mayor Wayne Rowe, Sechelt Mayor Bruce Milne, SCRD board chair Garry Nohr, Sechelt First Nation Chief Calvin Craigan and at the provincial and federal levels from MLA Nicholas Simons and MP John Weston.
All are preaching and pledging a better level of collaboration, cooperation and partnership, of growing relationships and working together to make the Sunshine Coast even better.
We applaud all of these sentiments. Yes, each of these leaders and their respective councils and boards all represent different residents and communities on the Sunshine Coast and other communities in our riding and constituency at the federal and provincial levels, but every resident shares in common interests, desires and wishes for a better overall community.
We may live in Gibsons, Sechelt, Pender Harbour — but we all collectively live, work and play on the Sunshine Coast. When all our governments work together, work hand-in-hand, the Sunshine Coast can be an awesome place to live, work and play. We are always much stronger working as one rather than separate communities.
With that is mind, we encourage all of us — political leaders and residents — to work together in 2015. Let’s encourage debate and dialogue. Let’s encourage ourselves to be better in the new year and continue to make the Sunshine Coast a place we love to call home.
Best wishes to us all for a positive 2015!
