Maggie Laidlaw (Ward 3) - Candidate Questionnaire

If re-elected, Maggie Laidlaw will be the longest serving member of city council, a political career that she started 20 years go when she was first elected school trustee. She was then elected to council for the first time in 2000, the start of an auspicious and occasionally controversial tenure around the horseshoe that has, regardless, seen her re-elected three time by now. Laidlaw was born in Scotland, but her family has deep roots in Guelph. The grandparents of her husband David (who was my high school art teacher by the way) owned a grocery store on Ontario Street for years; the future Mr. and Mrs.  Laidlaw met while taking part in a cross-Canada bicycle tour to promote the Olympics in Montreal. Settling in Guelph, the couple raise their two children here in the Royal City where Laidlaw still works as the Director of Scientific Affairs at Nutrasouce Diagnostics Inc., a private sector contract research organisation. Although she plans on retiring from her day job in the next couple of years, she remains dedicated to her work on council, and to help prove it she now asnwers the Guelph Politico Candidate Questionnaire.

Laidlaw Not Retiring After All

...And then she changed her mind. Despite reports to the contrary, including mine, it seems that Maggie Laidlaw will not be riding off into the political sunset at the end of the current term of council. The often controversial Ward 3 councillor had said that she would not be seeking re-election in 2014 after taking into account both her pending retirement from her day job in 2016, as well as her husband's pending retirement from teaching. But it looks like Laidlaw spoke too soon. 

Farbridge Campaign goes Online

Further evidence that election season is now upon us, Mayor Karen Farbridge has launched her re-election campaign's website, which can be found at farbridgeforguelph.ca

On the site is the usual bios, pics and campaigning material. The Mayor's vision is split into three different areas: Your Home, Your Work and Your Community. Two of those, interestingly, mention the Hanlon Creek Business Park directly, with the Mayor saying that the develpoment of the HCBP "will help us attract the kinds of high paying, long-term jobs we need to grow sustainably."

So one gets the impression that the Mayor foresees the HCBP being a big issue this election cycle. But then the website says in another area of the site to keep in mind that "only about 10 to 20 per cent of City resources are dedicated to high profile projects, like the Hanlon Creek Business Park, a new main library or a South End community centre."

Additionally, the Mayor will be chronicling her re-election in the blogosphere by posting at karenfarbridge.com The only thing there right now though is the text from her speech announcing the start of her campaign. Still, light years ahead of anyone else running for Mayor. Any takers?