On October 20, voters will head to the polls in Cochrane, and across the province, to elect their municipal leaders. As summer turns to fall, candidates for Town Council and the mayor’s office have slowly declared their intentions.
Recently, councillor Patrick Wilson, a two-term representative of Cochrane town council, announced his re-election bid. He says he has work that needs to be finished. Will Cochranites return him for a third term on their council?
“I feel like we’re heading in the right direction,” Wilson told the Cochrane Eagle.
First elected as a councillor in 2017, Wilson has been a member of the current crop of councillors that has been in place for the last eight years. He says that growth management is, and has always been, at the top of his list of priorities.
“I feel like we’ve been growing in an unsustainable manner,” he said. “I know for a fact that we aren’t charging appropriately for our growth, and therefore every new house and every new person that moves to Cochrane is making us worse off, and I’m trying to remedy that.”
Wilson said the “unsustainable” growth that has been ongoing in Cochrane sprouted from decisions made by the pre-2017 town council. In the last eight years, council has approved a single residential sub-division, Greystone, which he says he voted against.
“I’ve lived here my whole life and I’ve seen what life was like in Cochrane,” Wilson said. “It’s still a lovely town … there was a time when there was a better standard of living and I’d like to return to that.”
Fellow incumbents Mayor Jeff Genung and Councillor Morgan Nagel have both declared their campaigns for mayor. Wilson has served on council with both and said he won’t be making an endorsement.
“I believe the current mayor has done a great job,” he said. “I’m a big fan of Morgan Nagel’s policies … I’ll be sorry to lose either one.”
