Frank James is running for the vacant council seat in Saint John's Ward 3. (Submitted/Frank James)
A fourth-generation Saint Johner is one of seven people vying for the vacant Ward 3 council seat.
Frank James says he has been thinking about being a municipal politician for many years.
“I’ve been in an around elections, either working on the provincial/federal side,” said James. “I have been an MLAs assistant while Carl Killen was a provincial MLA, I ran his office on Germain Street.”
James said Ward 3 is not the most engaged population in the city, which is why citizen engagement is one of his top priorities.
“If you are worrying about a roof over your head and food on your table, city politics is not the first thing on your mind,” he said. “You have to find a way to translate the problems that the city is facing as a whole and make it meaningful to people in this riding.”
James said it is no surprise Saint John’s fiscal situation is at the centre of many of the city’s problems, but all solutions need to be full spectrum and done in an incremental way.
“You can’t just raise taxes to solve a problem, that will not lead to stability,” he said, “and it will hurt, in particular, Ward 3, which already has a high poverty level.”
Voters will head to the polls on May 6.
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