Name: Mike Horn
Age: 44
Occupation/background: Care aide for special needs children. Formerly a construction worker.
Why are you running for public office?
I was outraged at the handling of the Colliery Dam Park issue and the city' shifting positions on public safety.
What three priorities are important to you and how do you plan to tackle these issues, if elected?
To provide critical thinking on council: I will challenge assumptions and point out different points of view. I will ask council to stop and think before they pick fights with neighbourhoods and religious groups.
Parks: I want to preserve the parks we have and get community input for future plans
Downtown: we need to get behind the downtown revival.
How do you plan to manage taxes and spending?
We have made many commitments in the last three years. We need to manage these carefully, slow down the rate of new spending and most importantly seek value for money.
What do you think it takes to lead Nanaimo? Describe your leadership or co-working style.
The first goal of leadership is to foster unity. If everyone feels included in the process it will be easier to implement decisions together. My style is to offer people choices and to test the depth of support/opposition before committing to a decision. Once committed I will do my best to explain what we are doing. Implementation gives us another opportunity to accommodate other ideas.