It’s nearing the end of his third try at a council seat, and George Dickenson keeps putting his name on the ballot because of his hometown pride.
He is running for one of seven councillor positions in the Oct. 24 Collingwood municipal election.
“I’m a regular, stand-up citizen who cares about where I live,” said Dickenson. “I care about what goes on and I want to make the time to be involved with that … and make decisions on the issues.”
Dickenson was born and raised in Collingwood, and was an active volunteer in local minor baseball and hockey while his kid was playing sports.
He’s a member of the Collingwood Collegiate Football Alumni, and works in the area in the HVAC industry.
“I don’t have any kind of a hidden agenda,” said Dickenson. “I’m a small-town guy. I just want to bring a common sense approach to the table.”
He said he’s heard one main issue loud and clear on the campaign trail, housing is unaffordable.
“Rent is crazy … the price of houses are crazy,” said Dickenson. “We have to brainstorm and find some ideas on what we can do. Maybe turn old buildings or warehouses into housing.”
“This is 2022 and, in Canada and Collingwood we shouldn’t have homeless people, we shouldn’t have these problems.”
The other issues he’s heard come up are general maintenance matters, such as improvements to the town’s infrastructure, and water and sewer treatment services.
“These are vital, so I have to support those issues, and we have to take care of that stuff,” said Dickenson. “It’s like putting brakes on your car.”
The life-long Collingwood resident doesn’t foresee any cruise control in council’s future, and instead predicts the constant growth in town will make navigating the road ahead difficult.
“I don’t think anything will be easy,” said Dickenson. “We need to make the habour a nicer place for everybody … we need to increase bike lanes, and get the infrastructure in the water and sewage treatment plants taken care of … but that’s going to be a long, drawn-out process.”
He’d like to see the next council address housing, preserve parklands, and promote town growth.
He thinks some high density growth will help, but isn’t convinced of the need for 12-storey buildings as proposed by the current draft official plan update.
“Maybe three, four, or five-storey buildings, not impeding anybody’s views, and out somewhere by the hospital on donated land … that takes care of some affordable housing right there,” said Dickenson.
He has a dream that apartment buildings might take shape following the model of Habitat for Humanity, with community volunteers helping to build the units and future tenants can put in sweat equity to live there at discounted rates.
“It’s a utopia, but something has to happen, and some kind of ideas have to come forward,” he said.
Dickenson supports both a multi-use recreation centre and an arts centre, and maybe even a hybrid of both.
“One of the reasons I ran in the first place was because I wanted to support a multi-use recreation centre and be involved with it,” said Dickenson.
A former CCI Fighting Owl football player and minor soccer coach, the Collingwoodite keeps his town pride on his sleeve.
“I love it here,” said Dickenson. “It’s a great place to be, but there are some things that we’re going to need to work on.”
This is Dickenson’s third time running for a council seat in Collingwood, but he hasn’t been elected.
There are 12 candidates running for the seven available councillor seats for Collingwood in the 2022 municipal election taking place Oct. 24. The candidates include: Christopher Baines, Steve Berman, Ian Chadwick, George Dickenson, Deb Doherty, Cam Ecclestone, Brandon Houston, Kathy Jeffery, Steve Johns, Steve Perry, Chris Potts, and Rob Ring.
You can find out if you’re on the voter list by visiting the town website here.
Advance voting started Oct. 8 with internet or paper ballot voting options available. You can vote at the library in-person starting Oct. 8, or online anytime after Oct. 8 at 10 a.m. Library voting will take place Saturday and Wednesday, Oct. 8-22 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and on Oct. 24 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Voting will close on election day, Oct. 24, at 8 p.m.
