High school, door to door on Muskrat Street, HooDoo Lounge

Yesterday was an extremely busy day. 

We had a morning candidates forum at the high school -- kudos to candidate Erich Mende and new socials teacher Mr. Skinner for organizing this.  The students were extremely well-prepared with thought-provoking questions.   As always when I am at BCHS, I was impressed with the attentiveness and courtesy of the students.  I have spoken at other high schools, and I know that the atmosphere at BCHS is something special.

After a few hours of my normal work (with a pleasant break chatting with Stavros Karlos, as he was door-knocking on Grizzly), I went door-knocking on Muskrat Street.  Lots of people were home and I had some great discussions focussing on affordable housing, the rec centre, and even the interesting joys and perils of re-visiting an earlier career. 

One householder made the very good point that affordable housing is even more of an issue for single people who wish to remain in Banff throughout their careers and then retire here.    She pointed out that ownership of even a small apartment-style condo is challenging with one income, and felt that the Housing Corp has concentrated on families, to the exclusion of the large group of singles and childless couples who make Banff home.  This is a point related to a discussion at the Forum, so it's definitely coming from more than one source, and we have to incorporate this viewpoint into our thinking about the future. 

I also had a discussion with another householder about potential barriers in the development process to the creation of affordable housing by private developers, and also about the astonishing lack of maintenance and upkeep on some of the rental properties -- something that I have certainly observed firsthand and up close over the past few weeks.

A really original idea that I heard yesterday was the idea of "community bonds" -- borrowing by the municipality from its own citizens, to be paid back with interest.  Of course I'm familiar with federal government bonds, and I knew that big cities have issued bonds, but I had never thought of it in conjunction with Banff.  I love the idea of people being able to invest in their community.

I had 10 minutes to get changed after door-knocking and I was off to the HooDoo Lounge for the candidates' meet-and-greet.  I really enjoyed the opportunity to discuss the proposed parkade, the pedestrian bridge, my paperless campaign, LEEDS building standards, tourism marketing and the visitor experience with the folks who turned out.  Huge kudos to Jeff Hines and Mike Mendelman for their hospitality and their commitment to encouraging the younger voters.