Three years after losing a council seat by just three votes, Roslyn Woodcock is back and ready for another run for council.

On Wednesday afternoon, the 43-year-old announced her plans to again seek a city councillor seat in the Oct. 15 municipal election.

In 2012, Woodcock placed seventh out of 22 candidates for council with 1,531 votes in her favour, just three behind Mike Gladish, who took the final sixth seat as councillor.

She began her announcement Wednesday with a joke about the 2012 results and Gladish’s decision not to seek a second term.

“I don’t want to take anything for granted this time so I have made efforts to secure three new friends who have promised to vote for me this time. Plus, since Mike Gladish isn’t running, I’m a shoo-in.”

Waste diversion continues to be a top priority for Woodcock. It was in her 2012 campaign, and she is looking forward to the city’s plan for a blue box program to collect recyclables.

The venture would see property owners on the city’s waste collection system charged for the program through their utility bills. A request for proposals on the plan is expected to be released later this fall.

While Woodcock would like to see the program move ahead more quickly, she acknowledged “it’s not simple.”

Not being privy to the work that has gone on so far, it’s difficult to say whether it could happen more quickly.

Woodcock is incorporating her commitment to waste reduction stand and community involvement into her own election campaign.

“Rather than printing a ton of signs that will just end up in the landfill or blow around town for months, I am making signs available for download,” she said.

“When a supporter prints out one of my signs and posts a photo of themselves with it on the campaign’s Facebook page, I will personally donate an item to the Whitehorse Food Bank.”

Woodcock opted to take that route with her signs as a visible way to show how making small changes to the traditional way of doing things can have a positive impact on the community.

“I challenge other candidates to look for ways to make their campaign about truly improving our city, and about more than just winning a seat,” Woodcock said.

She offered praise for the work the city has done in moving waste diversion efforts forward in recent years.

Along with waste diversion, Woodcock said she has heard from a number of people concerned about densification of the downtown and the territorial government’s $200-million long-term plans to upgrade the Alaska Highway, including twinning the road through a number of sections in the city.

“Our city should be livable and provide ready access to the outdoors for all residents,” said Woodcock, who lives downtown with her partner and dog.

“Densification of the downtown core is essential to a vibrant city, but it needs to be done responsibly. This means mixed-use planning and taking care of our main street, our river, our green spaces and ensuring access to wilderness.”

While work on the Alaska Highway falls under the jurisdiction of the Yukon government, Woodcock pointed out what happens to the highway affects the entire community.

“I still think the city has both the opportunity and the need to sit down with the Yukon government,” she said of the city’s involvement with the highway project.

Woodcock owns two small business – Plan Write Consulting and Imagine Laserworks – and has volunteered for and worked with a number of community organizations since arriving in Whitehorse in 1999.

She currently sits on the board of the Potluck Food Cooperative and is active with the United Way.

While Woodcock is the latest candidate to confirm her intentions to run, former councillor Kirk Cameron is continuing to ponder whether to seek office again.

Last month, he said he was “99 per cent sure” he would have his name on the ballot.

Today, he said he wants to confer with his three sons before he makes a final decision.

He and his 14-year-old son are slated to make a trip to Ontario this week to visit his two adult sons, and there, the family will discuss Cameron’s plans.

He said there is a lot to consider when running for council. The position can take up a lot of time and is a major commitment, sometimes consuming up to 40 hours a week when there is a major issue to consider.

While Cameron has been twice elected to city council, he has yet to sit for a full term.

In 2011, he was first elected part way through council’s term in a by-election following Doug Graham’s departure from city hall to the territorial legislature.

He was then re-elected to the current council term in 2012, placing third among councillor candidates with 2,363 votes.

He resigned last March over city manager Christine Smith’s firings of Brian Crist and Rob Fendrick, two long-time directors with the city.

When he stated he was considering running again, Cameron stressed he had made his point when he resigned and, if elected to the next term, would like to work to ensure there are “checks and balances” so that something like the firings would not happen without more involvement from council.

He expects after he returns to the territory next week, he will have a better idea of whether he will run in the Oct. 15 election.

See letter on mayoral race.