THUNDER BAY – It’s taken him 12 years but Jim Gamble is ready to put his hat back into the municipal political ring.
Claiming his previous attempt at the mayor’s chair was a last-minute run inspired by the lack of challengers to then-incumbent Lynn Peterson, the 2006 runner-up believes preparation and more time to campaign will work in his favour.
“Now, this is the Jim Gamble that’s getting serious,” he said after filing his nomination papers at city hall on Friday.
Gamble becomes the sixth entrant into an increasingly crowded field vying for the mayor’s office. The other officially registered candidates are Iain Angus, Kevin Cernjul, Mariann Sawicki, Shane Judge and Ron Chookomolin. Larry Hebert in April declared his intention to run but he has yet to formalize his candidacy.
Gamble, who earned 2,733 votes in 2006 to wind up nearly 24,000 back of Peterson, is not a fan of one of the city’s largest projects over the past two decades.
“Look at the marina. Can anybody actually tell me there’s $60-million difference from what it was then (in 1998) to what it is now?” Gamble said.
Also a vocal critic of current mayor Keith Hobbs, Gamble insisted the crime rate has increased, along with the number of homeless and people looking for affordable housing over the past eight years.
“I’m not interested in people’s wants,” Gamble said, pointing to the pursuit of the event centre and the proposed waterfront art gallery.
“No, I’m going to be focusing on what people need. The needs of the people. The needs of the city. The needs of the people who can’t afford to go to the event centre.”
One solution Gamble identified was trying a new approach in the city’s south core along Simpson Street, a corridor surrounded by empty lots and vacant, dilapidated buildings.
“It’s the ideal location to build affordable housing. Safe, affordable housing,” Gamble said, explaining it’s along a well-travelled roadway actively patrolled by police.
Drug use needs to be addressed, Gamble said, though he admitted to being on the fence about supporting safe injection sites.
Gamble doesn’t believe there is systemic racism in the city.
“I walk this city and I talk to as many people who will talk to me,” Gamble said. “When I talk to an (Indigenous person) I ask them this one question. I said ‘Have you ever been a victim of racism in Thunder Bay?’ I’ve calculated eight out of 10 have told me they haven’t. Two out of 10 have but eight out of 10 haven’t. I think the use of systemic is overused, overrated.”
Gamble describes himself as a Type-A personality who is “as driven as the snow is cold in January in Thunder Bay.”
“I intend to address every issue. Listen, if I have to work 24 hours a day to do it, I’m used to it,” Gamble said.
