A local councillor is hoping for a chance at a second term with his run for a council seat in the upcoming municipal election.
Cam Ecclestone has always been an avid sports fan, participating in football, his high school swim team and earning recognition for playing in at least five different sports during his youth in Toronto. Married to his high school sweetheart, Ecclestone attended the University of Western Ontario majoring in business and economics before starting a career in business, sales, and marketing.
In 1990 he started his own business called Winecraft, which was franchised in 1992. The business was sold in 2000. At the same time, Ecclestone moved to Collingwood to join friends he and his wife had made along the way, in an attempt to retire.
“Being a Type-A personality, retirement just wasn’t in the cards for me, so I joined a financial planning firm (Investment Planning Counsel) in 2002 and built a very successful practice,” says Ecclestone. He sold the practice in 2016.
Ecclestone first became interested in politics when the cottagers association overseeing his cottage in Gull Lake near Minden contacted him, asking him to run for Reeve in the area to deal with “out-of-control” tax increases.
He was acclaimed to the position, and is proud of the strides he made there.
“The three years I spent as Reeve, the tax increases were kept to 0% and -2%,” he says. “We also instituted a zero-based budget for all department heads and developed some efficiencies with other townships in snowplowing routes.”
Ecclestone’s vision for Collingwood is to nurture a caring environment where residents feel empowered to take action to make life better for all.
“We already have an outstanding number of volunteers who make a big difference to those less fortunate,” he says.
Ecclestone points to youth homelessness as an issue he feels needs addressing. To try to help, he assisted in the creation of the Barbara Weider House before it was turned over to be managed by Home Horizons. He also wants to work to attract more technology companies to the area.
The parks, waterfront, and trail systems are, in Ecclestone’s opinion, the town’s best attributes. He would love to see the iconic terminal buildings transformed into a museum, brewpub, and restaurant that would house pieces of shipbuilding history.
Overall, Ecclestone also sees the need to properly plan for growth.
“We need to build the necessary reserves to ensure we have the funds for a new wastewater plant,” he says. “Current capacity is 68%, but this will change quickly based on our incredible growth. We must build reserves for sewer replacement and waterlines and ensure that we are proactive with this.”
Ecclestone points to many areas that are excelling in Collingwood, including library programming, sports programming, support of entrepreneurial endeavours, arts programs and low taxes, but is always open to hearing from residents on how things can improve.
“As councillors, we must continue to be open-minded to all and truly listen to our residents,” he says.
Ecclestone is one of 19 candidates for councillor in the upcoming October municipal election. Voters may choose up to seven candidates on their ballots for councillor.
The Collingwood Chamber of Commerce is hosting a meet-the-candidates event for councillor candidates on Sept. 25 at 7 p.m. at the Collingwood Legion. Doors open at 6 p.m. The last event was at capacity and some residents were turned away from the meeting.
The chamber will be posing questions received by members of the public to each of the candidates during the meeting. Click here if you have a question you’d like included.
