Candidate profiles: Countryside District

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The Whig-Standard’s Elliot Ferguson profiles candidates for city council and mayor in the 2018 municipal election, Monday, Oct. 22.

Countryside District

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Candidate profiles: Countryside District Back to video

Louis Cyr

Louis Cyr decided to run in this election the day after losing last year’s byelection in Countryside District by 10 votes.

Almost as soon as the results were in, supporters, including his son-in-law and Pittsburgh District Coun. Ryan Boehme, started encouraging him to run again.

During the past 17 months, Cyr said he has reconsidered his snap decision to try again. But he said he has become increasingly frustrated with what he calls a lack of action in the district.

“Countryside is huge, it’s big, it’s unique. From my perspective, nothing is being done,” Cyr said.

“Since May 2017, with the byelection, what has changed, what has happened? Have you been engaged? Have you been informed? Was there the creation of committees? How about a vision? How about a plan? Categorically, the answer has been no,” Cyr said.

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A graduate of Royal Military College and former deputy commander and acting commander of Canadian Forces Base Kingston, Cyr spent 20 of his 37 years in the military based in Kingston.

Having resonated with voters last year, Cyr’s campaign again focuses on getting Countryside a higher priority within the city’s strategic planning process.

Cyr said the city’s overall strategic plan, while an excellent document overall, largely ignores the needs of Countryside District residents.

“It has been status quo for Countryside since amalgamation,” he said. There has never been a plan for Countryside. There has never been a vision for Countryside.”

If elected, he said it would be a priority to get Countryside priorities in front of the rest of council, and to do so he would establish three citizen committees — one for the west, one for the east and one for along the shore — to advise him on priorities that countryside residents would like to see addressed by the city.

“We’re kind of the orphan out of the 12 districts,” Cyr said. “I think the issue is not that city council does not want to help Countryside; I think truly they don’t understand Countryside.”

Gary Oosterhof

Seventeen months after first being elected in a byelection, Countryside incumbent Gary Oosterhof said he is still getting used to sitting in a seat around the council table.

While he admitted that he is much more comfortable speaking with small groups or in one-on-one conversations, Oosterhof said the last year and a half has been a steep learning curve.

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“It’s like drinking from a fire hose,” Oosterhof said. “I’m still learning to communicate around the council table.”

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When he first ran for office in 2017, Oosterhof campaigned on themes of fiscal responsibility, better road maintenance and economic development.

The city is putting together a plan for the district’s low-volume roads, and council earlier this year approved a new traffic light at the intersection of Unity Road and Highway 38.

Having spent months on council, Oosterhof acknowledged that progress on some issues, like roads, can be slow in coming.

“There are legacy issues on the roads. This has been going on for many councils,” he said. “I’m not going to be the saviour here, but I know I am very intentional about it and we are going to get the needle moved.”

The same could be said for rural concern about taxation. A complaint long voiced by rural residents is that while they pay equivalent property taxes, they are not getting the same services as urban residents.

“It’s a constant issue,” he said. “Since amalgamation, people are concerned about it.”

On economic development, Oosterhof said the rural district has been underappreciated and undervalued, and he said he supports the creation of a business park in the district to house companies looking to build.

Such a site could have prevented a conflict that has recently flared up with the construction of a large spa in Glenburnie, which he said has upset residents in the area.

Jeff Scott

Jeff Scott was unavailable for an interview with the Whig-Standard.