After knocking on some 20,000 doors during the last election, Mayor Nolan Crouse could be in store for a much easier campaign prior to the October civic election.
It’s been 27 years since an incumbent mayor, Richard Fowler, ran uncontested. Though there’s still time for a challenger to throw his or her hat in the ring, that window is quickly closing given the amount of effort that would be required to unseat the hard-working, relatively popular Crouse. Though he might not be able to knock on every door this go around, he’s basically run a 30-month campaign just through his tireless approach to the job.
“Sleep is a waste of time,” says Crouse of a leadership style that has seen him attend scores of events, business openings, schools, sports competitions, festivals, galas, ribbon cuttings and meetings — everything short of birthday parties and kissing babies — on top of ‘regular’ council business. With that kind of face time in the community, even he agrees with the notion he’s run an informal campaign while in office.
“In many ways you’re informally campaigning all the time because you’re really trying to make sure that you’re demonstrating your style to the community,” he says. As a business manager in the forestry products industry, Crouse was hands-on with an open-door policy, a style that carried through to his junior hockey-coaching career. As mayor he wants people to know that elected officials are approachable.
“My style as a person is not one to be at home. I’m not one to be secluded, in everything I’ve ever done all my life.”
Although the council term hasn’t been free of contentious issues (the Servus Place deficit and 70 Arlingon Dr. being the most vitriolic), running against that kind of energy will require a strong commitment from any challenger. Any serious mayoral candidate, especially someone without a profile, has a short window to jump into the race before the start of summer vacation season, when the election is furthest from voters’ minds.
Three years ago former mayor Richard Plain declared in February, a full eight months before voters went to the polls. It didn’t help on election day, but it was quite a change in strategy compared to 2004, when as incumbent mayor he waited until late August to confirm his election plans. Other incumbents have waited until late spring or early summer to declare, but Crouse believes he owes it to council and the community to make his position known now.
“Anyone else who’s wanting to run should know what the current mayor is planning. That is out of respect for communicating to the community,” he says.
So far his announcement hasn’t flushed out any challengers, yet given St. Albert’s history of multiple candidates Crouse is gearing up for a challenge. With a full slate of council business, he’s officially leaving campaign specifics until the summer, though there are plenty of hints in the types of issues he sees on council’s plate in late 2010 and beyond. Economic development and growth visions dominate, with the prospect of municipal development plan and land-use bylaw reviews in 2011, the Ray Gibbon Drive extension, along with decisions about potential industrial expansion and the Avenir concept in the northwest.
“I will continue to have a full agenda right through the election. If there’s someone else who’s running, let [voters] make decisions on who I am and what I am day in, and day out.”
Potential challengers will have to do the same.
Bryan Alary is an editor at the Gazette. Read his Civic Matters blog at www.stalbertgazette.com.