A Nanaimo florist now has a budding city council campaign.
Jim Turley has announced that he will let his name stand for city council in this fall’s local government election.
Turley, born and raised in Nanaimo, was owner of Turley’s Florist until January, when he and his wife sold the business.
“It’s very difficult for a small business person to run for an elected office, because not all your customers agree with your political point of view,” said Turley.
Now, he’s received the blessing of the new owner of the flower shop and he also has the time and interest to devote to something new.
“If [city council] is not a full-time job, it’s probably close to it if you’re going to keep yourself up to speed on everything,” he said.
Turley still works part-time at the shop, but it’s not enough for someone who likes to keep busy. Over the years, he has been involved in the community in numerous ways, having chaired a United Way campaign and served as president of his Rotary Club and the Nanaimo District Lacrosse Association. He has also been involved with the Vancouver Island Symphony, Nanaimo City Centre Association and floral industry bodies.
“I’ve touched on business issues, I’ve touched on social issues, arts and culture issues through my inolvement in different groups, so I’d like to think that I would bring a bit of a broader perspective to the council,” Turley said.
He said he knows most of the current councillors and he’s been “distraught” over the in-fighting and resulting legal bills, adding that it isn’t the way he would wish to resolve city issues.
Turley talked about governance as a focus of his campaign, stressing the importance of trust among council and staff and ensuring that the city’s directors and managers have autonomy in decision-making and day-to-day operations.
Turley has been in favour of a downtown business association and said the city should have some role in helping merchants there, not through marketing, but by providing safety and security and encouraging residential development in and around the downtown.
“Downtown areas of the city kind of define the city, in my opinion,” he said.
Homelessness will be discussed on the campaign trail and while Turley doesn’t think it’s necessarily a city issue, he does see the importance of partnerships with other levels of government and local agencies.
If there are differences of opinion among councillors, Turley said he will bring his experience of many years refereeing lacrosse and coping with upset coaches. He refereed this past season so that he could say he did it in his 70s, and now he wants to see what kind of a difference he can make in one term on Nanaimo city council.
“If I don’t do it, I’d always kind of wonder, maybe I should have,” he said.
To read interviews with other city council candidates, bookmark this page.
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