Format for Meeting of All Candidates for Mayor and Council

Town of Gibsons

November 8, 2005

·        All candidates will have 4 ½ minutes to introduce themselves and their platforms.  This can be extended to a maximum of 5 minutes to allow them to finish a sentence or thought.  These remarks will be made from the podium.

 

·        Order of speaking will be by draw.  This order will be continued for responding to questions throughout the meeting.

 

·        Candidates will remain seated for question response.

 

·        All questions must be submitted to the moderator in writing.  Slips of paper will be provided on every chair.  “Runners” will collect the questions.  (Pencils on hand if needed). 

 

·        Responses to questions should be restricted to 2 minutes.

 

·        Candidates will have 2 minutes for closing remarks – these will be delivered in reverse order from the introduction.

Hi, my name is Bob Jones, and I am running for a seat on Gibson’s Council.  Before I get into the traditional speech, there is some old business we as town need to take care of.

 Elections are usually a happy time, but this time around there is an air of sadness.  Barry and Angela are the two hardest working people on Gibson’s Council.  Regardless of the election out come for mayor, we are going to loose an incredibly hard worker and have a very large hole to fill.  I believe we should give them both a big hand of thanks for their work this last term.

 And finally there is another group of individuals we need to recognize.  They take a lot of abuse for things they have no control over,  But when put to the test they came out true heroes.  I have attended a lot of fire debriefings, and I have talked to many of the crew of the Queen of Surrey, the fact that they saved their ship and passengers is truly a miracle.  They came so incredibly close to losing the ship.  Any other crew in the fleet probably would have, but because we have a community based boat and a crew that really cares about their community, that made the difference.  We should have thanked them, we should have at a minimum had a dinner and awarded them medals, but we didn’t.  I want you to take this opportunity to put your hands together and thank them now.

 Thanks

 I want to take another incident that is on no one else’s radar, but is very important to me.  About 2 years ago a picture appeared in the paper showing Bill, manager of London Drugs and our fire chief.  Now I know a lot of you are anti big box, some one even went to the extreme of painting obsentaties on their building will it was being built.  The photo recognized the fact that London Drugs had given the town an important gift, something the town should have provided but rather, Council balanced the budget and gave you what you wanted.  What we needed and only London Drugs recognized this outside of the Fire Department was an automatic defibulator.  What is an automatic defibulator you ask?  Well, you have all seen the emergency shows where some one has a heart attack and they get the paddles out and shock the heart back to health, or simply put save your life.  But the ones on TV require a Doctor or Highly trained Paramedic like they have in Vancouver, and of course we don’t have.  AN Automatic Defibulator was the know ledge of a heart surgeon, and can be used by anyone.  It speaks and tells you exactly what to do to save the patients life.  Well that the ambulance’s job you might say and you are right and they have automatic defibulators.  But there are many times when an ambulance is not available in a 5 minute time frame.  If an automatic Defibulator gets to you with in 5 minutes of you having your heart attack and your life can be saved it will save your life.

If the ambulance is not available, the fire department responds, but with only one automatic defibulator that becomes a crap shoot and I don’t like those odds.  If we spent $80,000 dollars at London Drugs we could buy ten automatic defibulatiors.  That is enough to equip all first response fire trucks in Gibsons and Elphinestone including the chief’s car and leave one for the Coast Guard rescue boat, one for Gibsons Elementary School and one for Elphinstone High School.

 We spend 4.2 million dollars each year on wants.  $80,000 is not much to spend on needs, on saving lives.

 I am not your typical politician.  I care about all the people of this community.  I treat politics as a business and always conduct my self accordingly.  Rather then giving you a pamphlet full of promises you want to hear but can’t afford,  I have given you something I prize far greater, my card.  Keep it safe, because win or loose it tells you how to get hold of me.  Access to a politician is the most important thing in politics, and usually very hardest thing for a voter to do.  The phone number I have given to you rings direct to me.  If I am out it automatically hits my cell.  My availability, as my customers will attest, is probably 90% 24/7.  If you get my voice mail I am ether on the phone or in a meeting that protocol dictates I turn off my cell.  (I have a huge streak of tradition in me.)

 I have lots of free time on my hands and a proven track record.  Please elect Bob Jones.