I moved to Fort Saskatchewan in 1981 to take a job as a reporter with the Fort Saskatchewan Record.
With a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism, I have worked at both the Edmonton Journal and Edmonton Sun as both a reporter and a copy editor during my career. I have also worked extensively at a variety of community newspapers.
As a single person I have never had children to put into sports, culture or community programs but have always had the desire to participate in these activities. My reason for this is as a child, I played sports and acted in plays and was always thankful for those mentors who helped improve my abilities and provide me with skills that would last me a lifetime.
So I wanted to give back and Fort Saskatchewan provided the community where I could do that.
I began as a baseball coach in the 1980s, taking several teams to zone, provincial and western Canadian championships.During that time I also served as a director on Baseball Alberta.
During the 1990s, I slowed down my involvement to take time to indulge in activities for myself, during downtime from work. This meant I was playing slow pitch during the summer months and being part of the men’s darts league during the winter months.
These activities allowed me to meet a wide variety of residents from various walks of life and listen to their concerns about the community they lived in. I totally enjoy these conversations where people can discuss their concerns in a friendly, relaxed manner. These conversations led me to run for a council seat in the early 2000s.
Initially I was unsuccessful, but did win a seat on the council from 2010 until 2013. I sat as a member of the Fort Saskatchewan Public Library Board in the early 2000s. I was happy to be on this board because I, along with my siblings, have a great love of reading. Our parents instilled this love in us from a very early age
During my time on the board, council of the day decided to look into building a new city hall. Or perhaps they could expand the existing city hall. A committee, the Civic Precinct and Civic Building Advisory Committee was struck to hear community ideas on these ideas. I was fortunate to become vice-chair of this group, representing the library board. During our public meetings many proposals were put forward to relocate city hall to different parts of the city. I opposed all these suggestions, arguing if we expanded the City Hall in its existing location the Public Library could also be expanded to better accommodate our citizens.
No proposals outside of the existing city hall location allowed for any expansion of the Public Library. Eventually, my arguments with the support of others won the day and plans were made to expand the City Hall in its current location and to also double the size of the public library.
Once elected to council in 2010, the plans for the expansion were put into place and construction began on the facility we have in our Downtown core right now. To this day our expanded public jewel is a facility everyone in this community should be proud of. A plaque outside on the expanded city hall wall commemorates this achievement and I’m very proud that my name appears on it.
After failing to win re-election I joined the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board. While this group didn’t meet too often, when it did the situations were very interesting and provided some great experiences for me.
I retired from the world of newspapers in 2002 and started a lawn maintenance business in Fort Saskatchewan, along with a graphic arts & communications business. Both were very successful and I sold the lawn and garden business in 2014 along with the graphic arts business which is currently dormant.
For the past several years I have worked as a contract writer for the Lamont Leader east of Fort Saskatchewan, where I cover several municipal councils and write an opinion column each week.
In the summer months for the past seven years I have worked at the Fort Saskatchewan Golf and Curling Club as a member of the pro shop staff. Throughout all this I have never lost my desire to boost this community.
For more than 40 years, Fort Saskatchewan has been my home and now I’m asking for your support to represent our city as a councillor again. I have strong research abilities so I can delve into issues and find the positives and negatives of them.I get along with people and am willing to openly discuss issues to reach consensus, rather than maintain a one or the other manner of reaching a decision. I believe in open discussion and transparency.
I have connections, through my years as a journalist, at both the Federal and provincial levels of government, plus many connections to the municipalities that surround Fort Saskatchewan. As we enter into inter-municipal agreements and various cooperation agreements these contacts will be beneficial.
I understand how our land use by-laws, municipal development plans, and community standards by-laws work. As people have concerns with any modifications to these by-laws and plans I want to hear and will listen to these concerns.
During the next term of council, we will have to deal with a new firehall, a new aquatics facility, and as new subdivisions come on stream more parks and recreation areas are needed.
At the same time we must search for ways to hold the line on tax increases. This is a difficult challenge as more programming and services are downloaded to municipalities from the provincial level.
I’m asking for your support to let me work on these issues to arrive at the best outcome not just for the next few years but for the next ten, 20 or 50 years.
Our future generations depend on decisions that we as responsible councillors make in the next term.
I recognize this responsibility and I’m asking for your support to achieve it.
Fort Saskatchewan is Our Home
Let’s Take Care of it Together
Feel free to contact me on this website, Linkden, Facebook or reach out at john.mather53@gmail.com
If you would like a lawn sign or other campaign merchandise please don’t hesitate to reach out.