The ward 1 Councillor Elect is 'speed dating' with the other five new members of council

News 100 redBy Pepper Parr

November 1st, 2018

BURLINGTON, ON

 

Kelvin Galbraith took the ward 1 city council seat by a decent margin given that there were 11 people on the ballot.

Kelvin Galbraith headshot_Super_Portrait

Kelvin Galbraith – about to learn that being a member of city council is a full time – and then some job.

His connections based on his leadership of the Aldershot Business Improvement Association proved to be what gave him the edge.  The woman who serves as the BIA Executive Director was also a ward 1 candidate – she will now work with Galbraith to grow the commercial sector

Solid Gold replacement

One of the bigger challenges coming down the pipe for the Aldershot community is the planned development on the Solid Gold property just east of Waterdown Road.

He has worked at any number of small business initiatives that included power washing driveway and plowing snow.

He has owned and operated the Fitness Firm located just west of the Plains Road – Waterdown Road intersection on property that someone is going to buy and develop at some point.

Many suggested this would put Galbraith in a conflict of interest – and it will. His answer to that is – “it certainly will put me in a conflict and I will recuse myself from any council vote.”

Galbraith takes the position that just because you own a piece of property doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be running for public office. You just have to let people know the facts and be transparent.

Station West A sign

Is Kevin Galbraith going to succeed where retiring Council member was not able to – in getting a small supermarket into the community. The Adi group are not known for being easy to deal with.

Galbraith is the kind of guy who flowered at doing door-to-door sales work. He is a consistent booster for the community: Thinks the Marina should be improved even more and that some way should be found to include a restaurant on the site. He’d like to see more in the way of restaurants in the community and like everyone else wants to know when there is going to be a supermarket in the west end of the community.

Galbraith has gone a little further than anyone else and is in conversations with the Adi people who are in the process of constructing the Station West development further up Waterdown Road. They, the Adi people see the need for a supermarket.

Galbraith, a graduate of the Business program at Brock University, wants the community to have more than just a Tim Hortons and a MacDonald’s in the way of coffee ships; “these are the only options we have at this point”.

The Fitness Firm Galbraith has owned and operated for more than 15 years has been restructured which will give him the time he is going to need to serve as a council member.

Galbraith said he would meet with constituents at his health club offices – he may find that isn’t going to make some people feel very comfortable. People feel that public business and personal commercial work should be separated.

While Galbraith has solid experience working with the commercial community in Aldershot he hasn’t seen much of city hall. This will be a new experience for him. His common sense and understanding of the street level needs of the Aldershot community should give him a bit of an edge in dealing with budgets and smaller developments.

He gets his first meeting on how the Region works when he takes part in an orientation at the Region later in November. “I’ve already gotten calls from people in Milton and I’m doing the ‘speed dating’ with my fellow Burlington council members.

He has had his first conversation with Paul Sharman, the holdover from the outgoing council.

Aldershot BIAWhere Galbraith will fit in with the crowd that has tended to focus on the downtown core is anyone’s guess – the one thing that was evident during the interview was that Kevin Galbraith is a leader – not a follow the herd type.

He got through university with a nickel of debt. He had a number of part time jobs that put beer money in his pocket and cash in the bank to pay for books and tuition.

Expect that same fiscal prudence from this man at city council.

Return to the Front page
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

6 comments to The ward 1 Councillor Elect is ‘speed dating’ with the other five new members of council

  • Perry Bowker

    Not sure if Pepper is endorsing Kelvin or not … a lot of strange comments about his education and work history. And this one: “Where Galbraith will fit in with the crowd that has tended to focus on the downtown core is anyone’s guess.” IMHO, everyone should be focused on the downtown core because it is the downtown for ALL residents, and what happens there eventually metastasizes to the rest. Indeed, one could be suspicious that the former council gang were quite happy to vote for over-development there as a sort of ” Thank G*d it’s not in my ward” move, and the only one who cared was the former ward 2 councillor and now deservedly mayor-elect.
    But – Kelvin — do get yourself an office somewhere else! There are lots of empty storefronts along Plains Rd. and elsewhere!

  • Jim Young

    Perhaps Mr Galbraith should be speed dating his constituents. Getting to know what they think so he can represent them more than just ABIA or other ward councillors. The only things you will learn from other councillors is that they are busy speed dating their constituents right now. Trying to formulate solutions to their concerns. Time to be a councillor Mr Galbraith. You dont have to sell W1 to Wards 2,3,4,5 and 6.

  • B.C.

    Meet at his health club offices? Here we go again. Dennison did the same. Many found it off-putting to meet him there. Dennison’s business cards were literally double sided. Cedar Springs on one side & C.O.B. Councillor on the other. Do they not supply Councillors with offices at City Hall? Part time work?

    • Roger

      I am not his the councilor’s ward but the city hall 8:34 – 4:30 monday to friday – if the councilor is willing to meet after hours and on weekend – YEAH – I wish my councilor would have met out side of city hall

  • Bob Wilson

    This article highlights the focus of Ward 1: Aldershot.

    Fine.

    Then make the Maple community of Ward 1 part of Ward 2. An 8 lane highway separates Maple from the rest of Ward 1. Ward 2 shares Maple Avenue and is a continuation of the same kind of neighborhood and residents. This will given Kevin one less thing to worry about and help solidify Ward 2 as a collective whole of all neighborhoods.

    Editor’s note: The difficulty with this is that ward 2 currently has more population than any other ward. for the Maple community to slide into ward 2 a re-alignment of all the wards would be necessary – and that isn’t going to happen during the first three years – maybe the 4th.

    • Jim Young

      There is also a major highway splittjng off Tyandaga frkm Aldershot and Maple. Ward 1 tends to be 3 distinct communities. Any incoming councillor will have to realise its not all about Aldershot and certainly not all about Plains Rd Commercial ventures. Full disclosure. I live in Aldershot on Plains Rd.