Candidate name: Les Andrews
Occupation: Chief Financial Officer, Big Clic Inc.
Position on council: Deputy Mayor
Contact information: kran123@msn.com
Social Media:
Campaign Website: www.lesandrews.ca
Biography (500 words)
As a graduate in Business Administration from Ryerson University, I have spent my career in the business sector.
My first position was as a computer programmer/ presales systems analyst for Honeywell, then a major competitor of IBM.
Within two years I was transferred into sales and had a very successful five years selling mainframe computers.
For the next fifteen years I held a number of sales and marketing positions within the Information Technology Industry, my last position was in financial leasing, of goods and services, to Fortune 500 companies.
In 1989 I was approved by McDonald’s Canada, to acquire the McDonald’s on William Street, in Cobourg, as Owner/Operator. Over the course of the next twenty-five years, I expanded the market and added the Port Hope and Walmart locations.
Upon retiring in 2014 I decided to try my hand at Municipal Politics and successfully ran for Council.
Having had so much fun over the ensuing four years, I ran for Council again in 2018 and was subsequently appointed Deputy Mayor.
Identify one hobby or guilty pleasure you do that is not related ton or politics:
I have two passions, exercise and golf. I spend six days a week at the Cobourg YMCA and golf twice a week, weather permitting.
I have sat on the YMCA Board for twenty-five years ,sat on the Port Hope And District Health Care Foundation for fifteen years and have sat on a number of other committees and foundations,
Please answer each question clearly and concisely in no more than 500 words.
1.Why are you running for council?
Port Hope is a special community, mainly rural in nature with a vibrant historical core. It is unique in its relative degree of charm, friendliness and sophistication. It blends the “old” with the “new”.
I want to ensure that we grow, with the best interests of our current residents in mind.
For a small community we have major issues to deal with. The low level radiation waste cleanup, ensuring we maintain the Port Hope High School. assisting the businesses on Walton Street during the Walton Street infrastructure upgrade, just scratch the surface of what your new Council will have to deal with.
If we are to grow and develop economically, we will have to both attract business to locate here, but also, provide and house a trained workforce.
Attainable/affordable housing is required. Additional Residential Units will help somewhat, but we need to think on a larger scale to tackle the housing problem.
I could go on with a whole host of other area we will have to address, best I leave you with the above thoughts for now.
2. What is the single, primary reason you are running?
For the past eight years, two successive Council’s have been attempting to right the “Municipal Ship”. We have been somewhat successful but have much more work to do. I want to be part of the ongoing, problem-solving team.
3. What will you do to address this issue?
4. Identify one success of the previous council?
How about a negative success? We had the opportunity to build a 196 bed, Long Term Care facility to replace the existing inadequate facilities at Hope Terrace and Regency Manor. Council voted 6 to 1 in favor of, not allowing Southbridge, to build at 64 Ward Street. I consider this a failure on Councils part, in that we did not put the emphasis on the Long Term Care Residents, but on a building and a piece of property.
5. Identify one criticism of the previous council?
5. How will you address the one issue you identified from the previous council?
6. Why should voters select you over others?
First and foremost, I am not a politician. When with McDonald’s, I did not manage my restaurants through consensus, but rather, by practicality, what made sense to our customers and staff. We were adaptive, not tied to the old way of doing things.
The Public sector operates differently, it is not so fluid, trade-offs are made, decisions are made more on appeasement than on what is the sensible, maybe not popular, path to take.
I can best serve you by being independent of political outcomes and more so, by putting forth and championing ideas free from political pressures.
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