ESTEVAN - Stephen Daniel is relatively new to Estevan, but he is already taking a shot at Estevan city council.
Daniel moved to Estevan last year because he found Estevan has a strong conservative-minded population. But after a while, he started questioning whether city council shared those beliefs. He became concerned when he started reading about the downtown revitalization project and the policy council approved in August on diversity, equity and inclusion.
"I do have a lot of political knowledge," he said. "I spent the past 25 years reading up on politics and stuff like that, and I truly believe there is a strong conservative population, but the council is not doing things in favour of the conservative population; they're doing their own thing," said Daniel.
A friend of his was pushing Daniel to take a shot at running for council, so he decided to take a shot.
Daniel said he has also heard a lot of concerns about the city's budget and the lack of fiscal transparency. There are some things he believes council hasn't been completely honest about.
"I'm also concerned about growth, and … this is a problem with all small towns, is the young people moving away, so I definitely want to talk to people and figure out if there is something that council can do to attract more businesses," said Daniel.
Reducing business taxes would help bring investment to the community and increase prosperity.
He knows there are also concerns about the future of coal in the Estevan area, and he said he wants to learn more about the issue.
"My understanding is that energy is a provincial jurisdiction and not federal … so people are talking about closing down the plants, but they're being pressured from the Liberal government," said Daniel.
When he lived in Eastern Canada and worked in Ottawa for Transport Canada, he was the financial agent for the Conservative Party's riding association where he resided. But this marks the first time he has run for an elected public office.
"I'm a firm, firm believer in majority rules. In my opinion, this is part of what democracy is. The majority rules. I keep telling everybody all the time, it is impossible, 100 per cent impossible, to please everyone in society … and so the best you can do is to please the majority," said Daniel.
There will be some people who won't agree with that direction, he said, but Daniel thinks it's probably the best way to govern.
