THUNDER BAY – Former two-time mayoral candidate and CBC journalist Shane Judge will seek an at-large seat in the 2022 Thunder Bay municipal election.
Judge becomes the 12th candidate seeking one of the five available seats in the at-large race. To date only one incumbent, Mark Bentz, has filed for re-election.
Coun. Peng You is running for mayor, while Couns. Rebecca Johnson and Aldo Ruberto have announced they are retiring from city politics. Coun. Trevor Giertuga has not yet confirmed his plans, though has stated it’s unlikely he will run.
Judge finished in fourth place in the 2018 municipal election, picking up just over 12 per cent of the vote.
In a release, he said he’ll be running on a platform of fiscal responsibility, adding he wants the city to take a new approach to the spending of taxpayer dollars.
Judge said he favours a private-sector solution for an indoor turf facility that calls for a bubble to be erected annually over Fort William Stadium, and wants the city to revisit its commitment to a proposed $60-million police station replacement.
He also wants more attention paid to Thunder Bay’s roads.
“In the short term, I also believe we need to get a better handle on the state of our roads, especially our main arteries. I would like to examine the option of in-house roadbed repairs and re-surfacing to see if cost savings could be achieved over strictly using contractors. I will also move to quickly implement a complete revamping of our stop-light system to improve the movement of traffic along our main arteries,” Judge said.
Judge said he does not plan to reduce taxes, but instead wants to hold the line against future tax increases by finding more efficient ways of delivering services while setting aside the annual Tbaytel $20-million dividend for 25 years to fund large-scale infrastructure projects, including a replacement for Fort William Gardens.
Judge, who had not filed his papers as of 3 p.m. on Thursday, is one of several new candidates seeking election on Oct. 24.
Brian Tsubouchi filed on Tuesday to compete in the at-large competition.
Kathy Suutari, who ran for the New Blue Party in last year’s federal election in Thunder Bay-Superior North, joined James Dean Marsh, Jason Veltri and Michael Zussino in the Red River Ward race. Zussino turned in his nomination papers on Tuesday.
Incumbent Brian MacKinnon, first elected in 2006, will not be seeking re-election in 2022.
Stephanie Danylko made it a three-way contest in McKellar Ward, going up against Lori Paras and incumbent Brian Hamilton.
The English Separate School Board trustee race got a little more crowded this week too, with Tony Romeo, Eleanor Ashe, Adam Shaen and Dina McFarlane submitting nomination papers. McFarlane, Ashe and Romeo are incumbents. There are currently nine people running for seven seats.
Angele Desbiens added her name to the French Separate School Board trustee ballot this week, one of three candidates running.
Nominations close next Friday.
