“When I moved to Guelph in 2003, I fell in love immediately. The city, the people and atmosphere was amazing, I am lots of friends here. Both my children were born in Guelph and I am still raising them in Guelph. Guelph has grown tremendously and lots of things have been happening in a good way and making the city better. I see Guelph as leading city in the world in terms of affordability, safety, great services.”

Why do you want to be mayor?

I am running because i believe Guelph’s next chapter requires practical leadership focused on the issues residents experience most directly. I want families to be able to build a future here, seniors to feel supported, businesses to have confidence investing here, neighbourhoods to feel safe and City Hall to be easier to navigate.

My campaign is built around three priorities: affordability, safety and service — and a simple belief that local government should be judged by the results residents experience in their everyday lives.

What’s your background and experience and how do you think that will be relevant to the job?

My background is all Leadership roles. I have managed small to big budgets, lead teams to deliver results required to be successful. Built a team that is focused on one vision. I have worked as a leader in Hotels like Sheraton and Delta Hotels, big box retailer like Staples, Future Shop, Walmart. I am a strong leader with a vision, not afraid to walk the path less travelled, I believe in full transparency in everything I do, I know how to manage success but more so how manage my failures, I work with integrity and I succeed with integrity. I own a small business a pizza store and I am a realtor as well.

There will be a lot of expectations on the new mayor to make affordability a priority, and that means reducing the burden on property tax payers. Since the budget is the mayor’s responsibility, how do you propose to hold the line on funding the services the city needs and holding tax increases to the level of inflation?

I know that we cannot only freeze the taxes and not increase it for few years but we can possible decrease it. It managing the budget efficiently, reducing unnecessary spending on things that are anything other than the basic needs of the city. There are tons of examples of cities around us that have managed to not only increase the property taxes by a little bit but in some case freeze them for 2-3 years and still manage to provide the services that the city needs. Learn from those cities and implement in our city. Right now we are making the life of the people in our lovely very challenging and it needs to be fixed immediately. Build more houses by getting builders on board and the city can generate more revenue from those new homes rather that increasing the property taxes of the current home owners.

In 2023, the Mayor of Guelph was granted Strong Mayor Powers by the Government of Ontario, if elected do you intend to use them and how?

Yes I will use them. I will use them to ensure it benefits the city and the residents of this city. Every decision will in benefit, progress and well being of the city and it’s residents.

Candor and transparency are concerns among voters, how do you propose to make council meetings and city hall decision making more transparent and inclusive?1 response

Simple post the decision making process on the website, social media and local news outlets. If the council members vote against a decision that was for the betterment of the city and residents, the people who they voted made false promises and stood against the favour of the city residents. Involve people and have feedback sessions. Use technology to get opinions and feedback from the residents.

The mayor is one vote out of 13, how will you build consensus with the city councillors who may have entirely different takes on the issues than you?

We have to look at it what’s better for the city and people living in the city. We all have to have one vision which benefits the affordability, safety and better services. Built strong relationships with the council. Isn’t the role of a leader is bring the team together and follow a unified vision. This is what leadership is about. People will have different opinions and standing and as a leader one needs to bring that all into one vision and one dream.

Former CAO Scott Stewart said that there needed to be a “new deal” for cities to better reflect modern challenges and develop means of sustainable funding. What does a new deal look like in your estimation?

To me “New deal” is generating revenue for the city from other means not just property taxes. We can’t run a city with same sources of revenue stream. We have to think outside the box and generate other forms of revenue to ensure that we have an affordable, sustainable community. Not only we have took at other streams of revenue but also reduce some of the expenses. Like for example how much does it cost the city to run street lights??? Why don’t we spend money and make them all solar lights this was it will reduce the electricity bill that city has to pay. One crazy idea, have Solar bus kits that are lighter in weight on top of electric buses that can help with running the internal auxiliary systems like AC and dashboard electronics. This reduces a load on the main engine or battery, saving fuel and reducing emissions. Just one of the thoughts…

The mayor is a main point of co-ordination between the city and the provincial and federal governments, how will you petition them for the support Guelph needs balancing urgency and diplomacy?

As a Mayor, you have build relations with provincial and federal governments. Good relations help everyone reach a unified goal.

I have done sales all my life and part of that convincing people to buy what I am selling. It’s all about negotiation, how it will benefit everyone in the deal. It’s how you present it.

What’s one issue that you think is important in this election, and why should it be part of the conversation during the campaign?

Biggest issue is affordability. If the affordability is out of control, people will leave, businesses will leave. We want the growth of the city not a reduction. The more affordable the city becomes the more people want to move in, more development and job opportunities will come in. This way less property tax burden on everyone living.

How do you want to mark Guelph’s bicentennial, both in terms of where Guelph has been in the past, and what it can be in the future?

When I moved to Guelph in 2003, I fell in love immediately. The city, the people and atmosphere was amazing, I am lots of friends here. Both my children were born in Guelph and I am still raising them in Guelph. Guelph has grown tremendously and lots of things have been happening in a good way and making the city better. I see Guelph as leading city in the world in terms of affordability, safety, great services. I see Guelph the number one city when think where to move. I see Guelph to be way advanced in terms of technology and what it provides to future residents. I want the young generation to see themselves living here instead of thinking to move to some other city.

Is there anything else you want to tell voters as they make their decision?

Yes, please come out and vote. Don’t let 25% voters to dictate the fate of all. Choose carefully, people who have been in power before and running again, please be careful. It’s like I say, if you follow the same recipe everytime and result is distasteful, it means something is wrong with the recipe and its needs to be changed. It’s time for a new recipe…