Dallas Haywood running for Yellowhead County Mayor
If I was asked what one thing would I most want to accomplish as Mayor it would be to finally bring our County together as a community. We currently can best be described as a rural group of rugged individuals, with an over-tendency toward self-sufficiency, loosely connected by geographical area.
A community is as strong as the social fabric it has woven. At this time in our history, we can start weaving with awareness and purpose, or just keep weaving blindly without and then wonder why we are not reaching the heights we could.
We hardly know our neighbours any more. It would be well to discover them and our common ground without first going through a disaster together. (Speaking of which, an emergency disaster plan would go a long way toward building unity in our little part of the world. Do we all have family and neighbourhood plans or are we relying on fate and destiny?)
Further to the social fabric, it will benefit us to be more aware of demographics that we are trying to attract and retain as residents: young families and seniors. Both have unique needs and desires and contribute to the community in their own ways, without which we would be less than we are. Seniors provide a perspective of experience that aging brings, while youth, at its best, is the spring from which creativity and innovation flow. Both groups contribute best when feeling secure and supported as their inclusion in community planning indicates.
More seniors are needing different kinds of care than ever before and we all agree that we should be providing QUALITY care, especially in those fleeting later years. This shows we value elders and want them living here.
Young people are harder to generalize about. They’re often on the move, focused on getting established and can appear uninterested in their immediate physical surroundings. However, there are many examples to show that when feeling secure about their futures and their children’s’, this is a generation of givers; pay it forward their mantra. This is the stuff that great and lasting communities are made of and we want more of these among us.
What do THEY want? INTERNET, amenities, good schools, other young people. They want to have a say in all of the things that concern them and tools to succeed. More and earlier entrepreneurial and other training collaborations of all types, will inevitably lead us to success. More skilled and trained workers are required to service the population we have (and which will increase in the near future if I am Mayor). We want our reliance on HUMAN and natural resources to be more balanced.
To experience and know about ourselves will lead us to our collective identity, without which we have no calling card to give the world, which we need as there is a lot of competition out there for residents and tourists alike.
Taking initiatives toward these intentions takes leadership I feel I can provide. Visit my Facebook page Dallas Haywood for Mayor and then I hope you will give me your support in the Yellowhead County municipal election October 16.