Falls needs jobs, opportunity: mayoral hopeful
Mansour wants to bring business touch to top job at city hall
Dinah Lilia Mansour wants to bring a business-like approach to the mayor’s job in Niagara Falls, and says she has the background to do it.
Mansour, board chairwoman at an international trading and investment agency with dealings around the world, registered last week to run for mayor in the Oct. 22 municipal election.
She said the city needs to offer more to residents than it currently does.
“Niagara Falls, as it stands today, we cannot call it a city any more,” she said. “It’s an attraction place, not a city. That’s the problem we’re all facing. There are no jobs, no opportunities” outside the tourism industry.
Mansour, 37, speaks seven languages and volunteers by entertaining children in hospital. Because her father was an international trader, she has lived in numerous countries – Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, Dubai, France and England.
She received her bachelor’s degree in literature from the
American University of Cairo, in Egypt, and later earned a Master’s degree and her PhD in political science from Hertfordshire University in England.
Since 1985 she has lived in Niagara Falls, where she is also vice-president of a private investigation and security agency.
She admits she is not a typical politician but said, “we really need to transform Niagara Falls into a centre for major investment. And that’s my focus. By doing this, we’re going to be able to have a true community.
“I have connections all over the world.
“I say, let’s make this a worldclass city where we can actually say to children, ‘you don’t have to go, you can actually stay in the city and make a good living … today we can’t say this.”
As of late afternoon Tuesday, there were three candidates for mayor in Niagara Falls – Mansour, incumbent Jim Diodati and challenger Kip Finn. The deadline to register as a candidate to run Oct. 22 is Friday, July 27 at 2 p.m. at city hall.