With the municipal election less than two months away, Westlock County resident Lavern Bazin will let his name stand for the Division 2 seat.
With Albert St. Louis not running again in the Oct. 16 Municipal Election, Bazin is currently running unopposed for the seat. He noted he was running in part motivates others to participate.
“There’s a few people weighing in on running for council and replacing the old guard,” said Bazin. “I’m officially retired, so now I have time to do something like this. I think we need some fresh faces on council, if you do something for 20 to 30 years you get into a mindset.”
Noting that he had owned Westlock Ford for a decade and currently works as a realtor, Bazin said he was well equipped for the job and had a great deal of managerial experience.
A growing frustration on a number of issues motivated him to run.
“I’ve always been of the opinion that if you’re not allowed to complain about something if you’re not willing to do something about it,” he said. “I think council needs some forward thinking people who can think outside of the box a bit.”
Bazin most recently chaired the Boston Pizza Cup committee, which oversaw the largest sporting event ever held in Westlock.
He said he wants to see greater co-operation between the county and the Town of Westlock.
“It always seems like the town and the county are at odds,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of benefits and cost savings that we can work on as a whole community and not just being segregated. Anything that’s good for the town is good for the county and vice versa.”
Should he be elected, Bazin said he’ll probably keep a low profile initially while he learns the ropes.
“I don’t think I’m going to go in there and start blasting a cannon right away,” he said. “There’s a big learning curve in politics.”
While he was mum on major policy positions, Bazin did hint that he would take a business-end approach to the county’s operations.
“The county is a multi-million dollar business,” he said. “We need to be cost effective and manage the taxpayers’ money efficiently. I think we need to do a total analysis of where we’re at and then break it down to see where we can improve.”
