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Candidate hopes for focused and balanced city council

Darcy Olsen is running for Nanaimo city council
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Darcy Olsen recently announced her candidacy to become a City of Nanaimo councillor.

A Nanaimo city council candidate would like to help balance a council that she says needs to change.

Darcy Olsen recently announced her candidacy to become a City of Nanaimo councillor.

“I believe that there will be change,” she said. “I believe that people are looking for a more focused and balanced council.”

Olsen works in a federal government office and also has experience working within the provincial government. She ran for council twice in 2011, first in that spring’s byelection and then in the general local government election. She has continued to follow municipal politics closely, hasn’t liked a lot of what she’s seen and feels she could do better as an elected representative.

“I want to make sure that the people of Nanaimo are heard, and truly listen to the needs of the public,” she said. Our city has been at a standstill for four years and humiliated nationwide by the behaviour of several councillors with an agenda.”

Olsen said some of the city’s troubles came because council wasn’t listening to the public and she suggested the conflict was unnecessary.

“If a vote goes in my favour, fantastic. If a vote doesn’t, I accept the fact that that’s the vote and it’s on the record as saying that I didn’t support it,” she said. “But it doesn’t mean that I would hamper or stop the process. I think it gets left that day and we move forward.”

Affordable housing including supportive housing are among Olsen’s top priorities, though she doesn’t foresee a quick fix and thinks updated zoning and incentives for developers are a good start. Working on the transportation plan and supporting responsible economic development are other platform items she mentioned, as well as a re-evaluation of city committees which she called “the voice of our community and the voice of the people.”

For Olsen, a run for council is another way to be active in her city; she feels that participating is a way to understand the community and be a part of it.

“I want to see healthy growth and get Nanaimo back to business and I will put Nanaimo first,” she said.

To read interviews with other local government election candidates, click here.



editor@nanaimobulletin.com

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