Sheila Gordon-Payne looks to refocus Council's energies

As the Municipal election campaign begins to gain some momentum this week, the four candidates for Mayor are starting to carve out some niche positions to bring to the attention of the public.

With each candidate looking to grab a bit of space on the political landscape to try and woo the voters with.

For Sheila Gordon Payne, this week provided the chance to expand on her three pronged approach to the issues of the city and perhaps to offer up a gentle nudge, regarding the need to get Council back on track on issues important to the community.

Those at the moment, seem to be the two key concepts which make for the starting point for her campaign.

As we outlined on the blog yesterday, all of the candidates were offered the opportunity to deliver some of their talking points through the CBC program Daybreak North. 

Ms. Gordon-Payne's allotment of time provided for an interesting look at her perceptions as to how the current council has worked over the last three years. And how, if elected, she might look to have it approach civic business in a more focused manner.

As part of her interview with the CBC's George Baker she outlined how at times some on Council have wandered off from matters that directly impact on the City.

That made for a valid observation, as regular readers of the blog might find agreement with. Particularly those who dig deep into our material and have joined us in our journey with the current Council over the last three years through our City Council archives.

From those pages, those that follow our City Council Timelines, will no doubt by now have noticed how Council sessions tend to gain a momentum all of their own.

Sometimes lasting beyond the one and two hour mark, mainly as individual Council members introduce topics for discussion or review. Introducing a number of topics, which at times seem to be more along the line of individual points of interest or concern and could be described charitably as of marginal importance to City operations.

Beyond the need to perhaps bring a little more structure to the list of topics for the twice a month Council sessions, Ms. Gordon-Payne provided a bit of more background on some of her website platform issues.

Highlighting the need to address the city's core mandate of infrastructure issues, as well as to make the city a place families will want to locate in and establish roots in.

She also pointed to what at times appears to be a rather acrimonious atmosphere between the Port Authority and the City, offering up a glimpse as to what her approach to handling those issues would be.

Preferring not to negotiate or send messages through the media, but by way of more direct discussions with Port officials to work on issues of concern.

Would be voters that may want to learn more about her overview of the current council, or to have her expand as to what she would do as Mayor can take advantage of a meet the candidate night this weekend.

Ms. Gordon-Payne is hosting her campaign event on Sunday evening from 7-9 PM at Cowpuccino's.

For more items on the 2014 Municipal election campaign see our archive page here.

Links to candidate websites and social media portals can be found on our candidate listings page here.