Phil Mooney: encouraged to run

PLEASE NOTE: The Vanguard's editorial department, as a group, interviewed the two candidates for mayor, Charles Crosby and Phil Mooney. Reporter Michael Gorman, who covers town council for this newspaper, wrote the stories from the two interviews. Charles Crosby's story also appears on this website.

By Michael Gorman

THE VANGUARD

NovaNewsNow.com

If there's one thing Phil Mooney learned from his first stint as a town councillor years ago it's that the role is a full-time job. This go around, as Mooney campaigns for the mayor's office, he says he's ready.

During an editorial board meeting with The Vanguard Mooney said he thought long and hard before throwing his hat in the ring. He says the run is serious and one that started with the encouragement of the people around him.

"People said, 'you know, Phil, it's about time you step up to the plate and do something.' I thought about it a couple of years ago and I said if I'm going to do this I might as well do it right," he said. "I've got some good people on my team. I don't know if we're going to win, but we're going to give him a good run for his money."

"Him," of course, is Charles Crosby, Yarmouth's mayor for the last 20 years and a councillor for 17 years before that — including when Mooney sat around the council table as a 25-year-old. Crosby is as entrenched as any incumbent in this race. For Mooney to win he will need to chip away at some of Crosby's strongholds, including the south end and seniors — two areas with which Crosby is traditionally popular.

Mooney says he has the team and connections to make that happen.

"Half of the kids on Kempt Street caddied for me at the golf course one time or another and the other half come into the drug store. So I think we can do quite well in the south end."

The drug store in question — City Drug Store — is the place from where Mooney has watched much happen in Yarmouth through the years. Mooney has become a Main Street fixture while working at what was once the family business. From this vantage he, of all people, should have developed a sense of what's ailing the downtown area. Mooney says it comes down to one thing — red tape.

"When I decided to run I thought the biggest issue was going to be taxes," he said. "I've come to find out the biggest issue right now is the signage bylaw. People just say that Yarmouth . . . has too much red tape (for doing business). From trying to get their business going to actually starting to work on it, it's been nine months to a year. So I'd like to get through the red tape a bit.

"Businesses know how to run business. What we have to do is get out in the business community and say, 'what do we really need.'"

Part of the problem with the downtown, says Mooney, is the number of organizations in place to help them. With the industrial commission, the regional development authority, the YDC and others, Mooney says it's time to consider streamlining the process and the groups.

"We have seven or eight different committees and organizations. Maybe we should streamline them. Maybe the waterfront commission and the downtown development should go in together and expand that district from fountain to fountain."

Fountain to fountain is a key talking point for the Mooney campaign. With the new justice centre nearing completion in the south end, Mooney says it's a prime time to start talking about the expansion of the business district to include Main Street from the Argyle Street fountain to the horse fountain in Milton. As an example, Mooney says lawyers should have the option to locate an office near the new justice centre.

Another key campaign point for Mooney is transportation.

Talking about the quality and lack of links in this area, Mooney, whose father started the process of getting highways between Yarmouth and Halifax when he was the Minister of Transportation, says he wants to put more effort towards this matter, which extends to the need for a new ferry terminal and the establishment of some kind of air service.

But for any of this to work, says Mooney, it must come with the support of the federal and provincial governments. He says he'd like to see the possibility of a major destination distinction for the airports in Yarmouth, Halifax and Sydney.

Mooney says the need for an air carrier is there, although perhaps only three or four times a week as opposed to every day. But Mooney stopped short of saying whether or not he thinks the money going into the airport to this point is well spent.

"Me not being on the inside, I'm not sure. I know the Yarmouth town cannot do it by itself."

Indeed talking to Mooney it's clear he has plans. During the interview Mooney said he would be rolling out his platform in the coming weeks, although he did not expand on that during the interview.

But the office of mayor in Nova Scotia towns and cities is not what it is in towns and cities in the United States. The mayor is not all-powerful. The work of the mayor, perhaps, centres more on the role of ambassador and negotiator. When a business or group from away comes calling, you can be sure it is the mayor they will eventually want to see and meet and deal with.

With that in mind, if Mooney does win and it happens that he is the only new face at the table, it could be difficult to bring in the change his campaign trumpets. He says he hopes sitting councillors would take his win as a sign of the people's wishes.

"People can't go out and promise that I'm going to lower taxes, I'm going to pave every street in gold — it's an impossibility," he said. "People are actually talking change. And if I do get elected, I think people at the council table are smart enough to know that maybe this guy, we should work within his framework."

Change is indeed in the wind. Part of that is in the form of the number of people running for council. Besides the six councillors who are all reoffering, six other people are running for a seat at town council. Two of those people — Neil MacKenzie and Danny MacIsaac — as well as incumbent councillor Byron Boudreau, have made no secret of their support for Mooney's campaign.

However Mooney stopped short of calling it an alliance. Although he's pleased to have the support, Mooney says his decision to run for mayor was his own just as it was the decision of MacKenzie and MacIsaac each to run.

"To run a campaign interspersed with those guys is not happening," he said.

That being said, Mooney is calling for change as much as anyone. One of the biggest problems he sees with things as they are now is a sense of staleness. Many of the town's committees are filled with the same people who have been there for years. Without changing those faces and roles from time to time, says Mooney, there is no possibility for new ideas or thinking.

Mooney is using a number of tools to get as many ideas and people involved in the campaign process as possible. Mooney's website and Facebook group have been in full swing for some time, proof of his efforts to enlist more people in the political process. Last month he held a rally to educate young people on proxy voting and to make sure they know how to vote.

Mooney says his regular involvement with young people has helped him see that many of them feel their needs aren't being met. There is a need for a youth health clinic, for example, he says. Young people tell him they don't feel involved with the town. An easy starting point to solving this problem is electronic voting, he says. Many people are going to be excluded from the voting process because they have returned to university and will be unable to return home to vote or make arrangements to cast a ballot by proxy.

But if Mooney has found a way to encourage greater involvement when it comes to the campaign and election process, the greater challenge still awaits — how to get people interested in the regular business and happenings of council after the votes are counted and council is in session. Mooney says he's working on that, although one easy solution could be to hold regular forums between council and the public to allow more interaction between the two and encourage more involvement.

None of this will be easy. Not engaging the public, not increasing voter turnout, not even getting elected. But Mooney, who predicts a difference of just 100 votes between he and Crosby when all is said and done, says he will pound the pavement for every possible vote in hopes of reaching his goal.

"I'm working this campaign like I'm one vote behind."