Welland mayoral candidate Clow aiming for change
A Welland activist wants to show city residents that their mayor can do more.
Last week David Clow submitted his nomination papers to city hall ,lining up against incumbent Frank Campion.
At age 41, the Welland born and raised man recently returned to town in the hopes of resurrecting his previous community centre, The Hub, and taking the seat at the head of city council chambers.
In 2015 he ran at the federal level in the Niagara Centre riding for the Green party, his first foray into candidacy after working on several campaigns with various parties, including under Jack Layton and the NDP.
Clow has spent years touring the globe, shooting a documentary on climate change, seeing directly the sites of environmental degradation and those fighting against them, learning first hand how politics impact communities. That life experience is what he hopes to bring to a job he said should be more than making sure roads are fixed, sewers are functioning and industrial development is wooed.
“The problem is now not even this job is being practised,” said Clow, lambasting current city leaders for becoming mired in political debates of the NPCA and Region.
NPCA, he said, should be focused on conservation, with conservationists on its board so the mayors of Niagara can do their primary job of guiding the futures of their communities.
He isn’t without experience in that regard, he had numerous dealings with the city in 2014 pushing for downtown performance opportunities for youth creatives in the community. It was getting stonewalled during that experience, he said, that planted the seed for his mayoral race.
“Running the city can be an easy thing if you are focused on that instead of your political misdealings,” said Clow, explaining the mayor could lead the charge on issues of substance abuse and mental health.
“Our mayor should be visibly working, he should be out in the community,” said Clow, who counts himself as fiscally conservative.
“I need to show people it could be more.”