For incumbent Castlegar city councillor Cherryl MacLeod, running for re-election was an easy decision.
“I have really enjoyed my time on council,” she says. “I think we’ve done some pretty amazing things and I’d like to be able to continue.”
MacLeod says she ran in 2018 with “some trepidation” as past councils didn’t always get along, and there was a perception it “was not necessarily a great place to be.”
But she feels that over the past four years, council has worked well together to get things done.
“We had great discussions at the council table. It wasn’t rubber stamping decisions. I think we’ve done a good job.”
Among specific things she points to are securing year-round washrooms at Millennium Park and, while she acknowledges it wasn’t the most popular decision, giving the green light to the 54-unit mixed-use development on the site of Bob Brandson park.
“I’m excited to see what the property is going to morph into. I truly believe that with some community input the playground we replace it with will be even better than it was in the first place.”
MacLeod says she can’t think of any decisions that she’d do over. While she wasn’t present for the controversial decision to close the road between the Grandview and Emerald Green neighbourhoods, she believes council made the right call.
She says annual budgeting has proven an interesting exercise, since it requires a balancing act between what the city can afford and how much the tax rate increases.
MacLeod has lived in the Castlegar since the mid-1970s and works at Robson school. She and her husband have raised four kids and now have five grandchildren.
“I have truly enjoyed representing the citizens of Castlegar,” she says. “I feel I’m fairly approachable if you have something you’d like to talk to me about or something to bring forward to council.
“I ran the first time trying to make sure people understood I would ask the hard questions, and I truly believe I’m still doing that … I’d like to continue that. I think I have more to offer.”
