James Dean Marsh hopes to bring a blue collar approach to city council.
“I’ve been blue collar my whole life and I think that area isn’t represented enough,” said the Red River Ward hopeful.
Marsh, 52, has always lived in Thunder Bay and is the married father of five children. He’s a machinist-mechanic with more than 30 years of experience supplying area mills and mines with turnkey predictive maintenance.
Issues at the forefront for Marsh include improved infrastructure and increased efforts into youth centres and programming.
He believes the city needs a good infrastructure base in order to grow.
“We have to return to being a beautiful city, a destination spot for tourists. Right now everything seems to be slacking off in that area,” said Marsh.
Other pressing issues the city faces include substance abuse and attracting new business.
“I think we have to support new business and streamline startup procedures to enable tax base growth and I think we have to lobby upper government in exploring options at the municipal level to combat both alcohol and drug addiction, which are an ever increasing problem in our city,” said Marsh.
Those issues need to be addressed before the city invests in any wants, like the event centre.
Marsh said his take on the event centre is that now is not the right time but it could be revisited in five or 10 years.
“I feel it’s a risky venture right now. I think we have a lot bigger issues to address,” he said.
Find James Dean Marsh on Twitter: @jamesdeanmarsh
