People want change, council candidate says
Jim Russell, a social worker and the CEO of the United Way, is running for a city council seat in Town Ward.
Russell made the announcement on Monday afternoon at Riley’s restaurant on George St. He said politics still matter particularly at the local level.
“I still believe it’s an honourable calling,” he said.
Russell also said he’s spent time asking citizens for their take on city council recently.
“Quite honestly people want change,” he said. “They want less acrimony and more civility. They don’t want business as usual they want new voices, new leadership around the council table.”
Russell, 57, is a Toronto native who moved to Peterborough seven years ago to take the job as CEO of the United Way of Peterborough and District.
He will run for a seat in Town Ward against incumbent Coun. Dean Pappas, as well as Kemi Akapo.
Russell said he “fell in love with Peterborough” more than 20 years ago: he would visit friends here, he said, and considered the city a home away from home.
He told the group at Riley’s that he started thinking about running for council a few years ago when he saw yet another 6-5 vote.
It was “troublesome” to him that the same six councillors seemed to always vote together, against the other five - and he started to wonder what it would take to break what he saw as an intransigeance.
He said his campaign theme is “Listen. Then lead.”
Truly listening to another person is “a powerful experience,” he said.