It all comes back to affordable housing for Randy Collins.

The five-year Whitehorse resident believes that's the biggest issue facing the city, and it's one the next council will have to deal with.

Collins is hoping to be part of the solution by winning one of six councillor positions up for grabs in the Oct. 18 municipal election.

"This place has a lot of promise,” he said in an interview this morning.

A few things need work, he said, and most of them come back to the issue of affordable housing.

As "one of the little guys,” Collins believes he can offer a unique perspective to council and has a few ideas he'd like to bring forward.

As one example, he noted that while on a recent trip to Vancouver, he saw an advertisement showing modular homes offered at $600 per month through a rent-to-own arrangement.

"Why can't we do that up here?” he questioned, after pointing to numerous properties downtown that are underused or vacant.

"We need to get everybody (to the table),” Collins said. He cited First Nations governments and others in dealing with the housing crisis.

Asked about other issues, he said property taxes need to come down – another issue that comes back to affordable housing.

If the affordable housing dilemma could be solved, he said, it would go a long way to dealing with other issues the city has.

Collins, 61, and his wife both love the community, he said, noting they moved here from Edmonton to get away from the big city where they both worked as shuttle drivers.

Having grown up in Edmonton, Collins said he used to describe his home town as a "big city with a small town atmosphere.”

Edmonton had lost that small town atmosphere, so the couple decided to move. While they had never been to Whitehorse, Collins said they decided to give it a try.

While he had pondered running for mayor, the clerk at Bernie's Race Trac and weekend Pizza Hut delivery driver said he doesn't yet have enough knowledge of the entire municipal process to run for mayor.

He'd rather go after a councillor seat and get a sense of how it all works before he takes a run at being mayor, he said.