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John Jackson to run for town council

John Jackson is ready to take a run for town council in Golden.
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John Jackson is one of ten candidates for councillor in Golden.

For John Jackson, the road to running in a Municipal Election has been a long time in coming.

“I had thought about running in the last election but I was running a hardware store at the time. This along with some of the other projects I had on the go made me think I would not have had the time to really put the amount of effort in that the job requires. So this time my wife basically said I think you should do this. After talking to some other people who said the same things snowballed from there and I decided to go and get the papers,” Jackson said.

As for why he has an interest in being a councillor Jackson said, “I have always been interested in politics and I am quite interested in the town of Golden. I have owned property here for 15 years and I want to get more involved with the community. I think it is a good thing to do.”

Going into the election Jackson has some opinions on what the future could hold for Golden and the people who call the area home.

“Quite honestly I would like to see us attract more small businesses to town. Small businesses are the backbone of the Canadian economy. When I look around and see all the empty store fronts I think, what a beautiful place we have here and wouldn’t it be nice if it was economically viable so that we didn’t lose our young people to the city,” Jackson said. “My kids have all moved to cities because they can’t make a living. It would be nice and that would be my push would be to see if we can attract small business and more tourists to town to help get the economy back to where it used to be.”

Jackson explained he remembered when there was a time that Golden was being talked about as the next Whistler or the next Canmore and as time has gone on the scenery has not changed but the gifts that surround Golden have not been built on completely as of yet.

“Once we get the tourists the businesses will naturally follow,” he said.

As for why he feels he would be a good mix on the council Jackson explained, “My background is 35 years of environmental technology. I can speak to areas of air and water pollution and those sort of issues that come up. I am on the Board of Directors for the Kootenay Council for Innovation and a couple of other technical boards as well. This along with owning the business I had in Golden allowed me to get to know many folks in town who I can help out.”

Some of the key points Jackson will talk about during the campaign  will link to the economy.

“I want to get the economy back to where it should be. I think we have to work hard at projects like to Civic Centre. We will get some pretty big name bands which will bring people from the outlying areas to town. There are all kinds of possibilities to this place. we just need to have a bit of drive, a little adapting and a little push,” Jackson said.