THUNDER BAY -- Ken Boshcoff wants to be a sparkplug for the community's economic engine.
The current at-large councillor, former Liberal MP and mayor from 1997 to 2003 said it's part of the reason numerous people have been telling him for months to run for mayor again, which he made official Tuesday morning.
"It made me think and I realized that with my experience and leadership qualities and some of the other things that really count in a community, energy, drive time management, good organization, that this was time for me to come back in that capacity," he said outside of the clerk's office at city hall.
As mayor, Boshcoff said he can get economic development moving more quickly and better than city council can currently.
"Perhaps it's my business experience that will allow me to take that a little faster, a little stronger and probably more forcefully to ensure economic development happens in the way it should in our community," he said.
He's not looking to cause any animosity with current mayor Keith Hobbs, who filed for re-election in January. Boshcoff thinks the two can run positive, dignified campaigns based on ideas and attributes.
"You don't have to do it in a mean-spirited way," he said.
Boshcoff said he wants to see the community realize its full economic potential. As for the city's major issues, people are keeping a close eye on the city's books.
"For sure it is taxation and the way we do business but also overriding all of that, people understand it's economic development," he said.
When he filed, Hobbs said he was probably the hardest-working mayor in the city's history, which at the time Boshcoff said was insulting and offensive to others who have served.
Boshcoff and Hobbs are also running against Douglas MacKay.
Mackay in 2006 ran against Lynn Peterson. Peterson won the contest with 85 per cent of the vote. Mackay received 1,988 votes, behind Jim Gamble's 2,733 votes.
