Q & A with Summerside's Mayor Basil Stewart

                             

In your opinion, is it important for everyone who can vote to get out and vote on November 03^rd?

It is very important. We live in a democracy and we have 160,000 thousand Canadians in

graves overseas who have died fighting for freedom in the world wars and there were many others that were injured fighting for freedom, so its important to vote no matter who you decide you want to vote for. My Dad was a veteran and said to me, “Basil, as long as I am well enough, I will crawl to the poles if I have to and vote because of our freedom and the price that we payed to have it.”

I believe we are living in the best corner of the world. Some countries have one name on the ballet, so it is very important to vote. Watch the International news tonight and see how many places in the world where it would not be comfortable to live. Where they have an army in their streets, bombs, hurricanes, diseases, and starvation. You know that's the world we are living in and if we narrow it down to Summerside, if someone has a pot whole it's not a serious problem compared to what other places in the world are dealing with. Winston Churchill made a comment, he said, “Every people get the government they deserve.”

If they elect a good bunch of people, they deserve that and if they elect people that are not capable of doing it, they deserve that because they put them there. So its important to vote and to know who you are voting for, read their background and what they are for and what they are against. The percentage of eligible voters coming out to cast their vote in Municipal Elections usually averages around 60% to 65 % and although I understand that people who are away or not well obviously can't make it to the poles, I can't understand why everyone else wouldn't want to vote. 

Are there any modes of transportation set up for folks who have mobility issues and no transportation?

Well in my case, we will be providing transportation for people who want to go and vote and depending on what the disability, if they need a wheelchair van we will call one of those. Every pole in the city is suppose to be accessible.

Having served the people and the City of Summerside for 29 years, what would you say are your top 3 highlighted experiences?

I might add a few words to that because I served the people for 14 or so years as a

Police Officer before that. So on November the 3^rd, the day of the election, it will be 43 years since I moved to Summerside. I served the people as a Police Officer and as Mayor and along with that I had 35 years in the housing business. I think I am just one tooth in the cog and I work with the other two orders of government and council.

Now to answer your question. The west end had been bothering people for 75 years and was unsightly but now with the West End Redevelopment Project, we have a beautiful boardwalk. It is lighted now and there is a person-made beach and as a result of that, the area on the other side of the street and newly developed property there have become more valuable and that 200 acres out past the west end is now starting to be developed. That was a great accomplishment. Another is our Credit Union Place. We have the best recreation facility East of Montreal and it is not just for recreation, it's to help the economy of Summerside by bringing in the Elton Johns and others and that brings new money into the city and it's a great promotion for our city.The GST Centre, has a soft spot in my heart. When the base closure was announced I tried to get that tax centre for Summerside and it is nice to go by there now and see 1,500 people at peak time. As a result of that of course, the development of the former base into a Aerospace PEI, there other businesses out there too, and the Atlantic Police Academy. There are more people working at the base now then when the base was there. So that too was a great project.We worked with the wind farm, and that has been another successful project. We got financial assistance from the other two orders of government, got it in place, and the wind farm made a big profit last year. There is a whole lot of new streets and new sidewalks downtown. We upgraded our electric utility in the city. It's an industry right in the city. The jobs are here and anything we need for the city, we purchase locally. We had to replace our City Hall. It was built in 1883 and had very little work done on it over the years, so we made a decision a number of years ago to renovate the old one and put a piece on to it and the new design is similar to the 1883 architecture. We are in the processes now to get a new fire hall as our fire hall is out dated and we need a new fire hall in the city. Read's corner was a problem here for years but we worked with the other two orders of government to put in a new set of traffic lights. We renovated the Police Station and added to it. We did some work on public works buildings and we got to do some work on Central street and the Pope intersection. There is a whole big long list and I can't narrow it down to the top three because they're all important.

In closing, of course I would appreciate your support but regardless of who you vote for it is important to get out and vote because we can and we have a choice.  

Reporters: Joey Blacquiere and Joni Miner