‘I’m open to opportunities’: outgoing mayor
Whitehorse is guaranteed to have a new mayor this fall.
Photo by Whitehorse Star
THE START OF THE REIGN – Bev Buckway, seen with nine-month-old Tori Vollmer, watches municipal election results roll in on the evening of Oct. 19, 2006. She defeated then-incumbent Ernie Bourassa for the mayoralty.
Whitehorse is guaranteed to have a new mayor this fall.
Mayor Bev Buckway confirmed to the Star Tuesday evening she will not seek the mayoralty a third time. That leaves the door open for a new candidate to take on the role after the Oct. 18 election.
“It’s time for somebody else to take the chair,” Buckway said in an interview Tuesday following the evening council meeting.
With a new city manager, Stan Wesby, starting work at the city in August and initiatives around zoning and other matters coming forward, Buckway said she believes it’s time for someone else to take the mayor’s chair on council.
As she pointed out, she’s been on council for nine years. The former owner of Barbers II began with her first term as a councillor in 2003, when she took the most votes of any council candidate with 2,945.
In 2006, at the age of 52, she defeated incumbent mayor Ernie Bourassa by 530 votes, with 1,874 residents electing her as mayor. Ray Kitz and Bob Barry were also defeated in their run for mayor that year.
When she announced her candidacy for that election, Buckway said she wanted to improve accountability and communications; offer more recycling initiatives, improve roads and infrastructure and make the Canada Games Centre a success.
‘I’m looking towards strong leadership, and a different type of leadership if I’m successful for mayor,’ she said at the time.
In 2009, Whitehorse voters again chose Buckway as mayor with 2,540 votes compared to 1,580 for her only competitor, local businessman Al Fedoriak.
Her campaign that year focused on the experience she had on council, which she argued was needed to lead the city into 2012.
Asked what she feels she’s accomplished during her nine years on council, Buckway pointed to Official Community Plan rewrites, the development of the new Public Safety Building which replaced the fire hall at the top of Two Mile Hill and the anti-smoking bylaw (later replaced with the territorial ban), among a number of initiatives.
As she recalled, the public smoking ban the city implemented in 2004 seemed like “the end of the world” to opponents of the new law at the time.
Through her years on council, the body has also been dealing with huge growth in the city and following its sustainability plan at the same time, she said.
Buckway was also at the city’s helm when Whitehorse played host to two major sporting events: the 2007 Canada Winter Games (which also marked the first time they were hosted North of 60) and, more recently, the 2012 Arctic Winter Games.
Working with the Association of Yukon Communities (including a stint as its president) and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities has helped build territory-wide and national connections for Whitehorse, she said.
“So much of the job is building relationships,” Buckway commented.
As for what the mayor will do after a new council is sworn in this fall, she’s not sure.
“I’m open to opportunities,” she said, adding the Yukon is full of options for her to explore.
She won’t be going into retirement-mode though, she said, commenting that she’s too much of a “doer” to end her working career.
Rick Karp, the president of the Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce, has been the only person to announce plans to seek the mayoralty this fall.
During an interview this morning, he congratulated Buckway on her time with the city, noting she’s left her mark on Whitehorse.
Her plans won’t change anything about his campaign though, he said.
“As I said before, it is time for change,” Karp said, adding he’s looking forward to the coming months.
Lloyd
Jul 4, 2012 at 5:27 pm
Your tax hikes and failure to develop housing lots has closed the door for generations of young families to develop any traction or equity.