By Pepper Parr
October 17th, 2018
BURLINGTON, ON
He knew his stuff.
He had done his homework.
Some of his solutions for the city were a stretch – some made you wonder if had had gotten ahead of the cannabis legislation.
But during the ECoB debate when he pulled out some of the campaign material he used for the 2014 election – when he ran for Regional Chair – he was able to show that everything he said in 2014 had come true in 2018.
Does that mean he would be a great Mayor for the city?
Probably not – but Greg Woodruff has certainly made a significant contribution to the quality of the debate. There are solutions he was championing that were superior to those of Marianne Meed Ward who shared the debate events with him and the two other Mayoralty contestants: Rick Goldring and Mike Wallace.
He argued for nothing above six floors throughout the city and points out that no one ever challenged him on the position. The debate Q&A format didn’t really allow for much in the way of a challenge and for the most part the other candidates didn’t take him seriously.
Traffic barriers in place on Lakeshore Road – making them wider isn’t going to do anything for traffic congestion. – more road just means more cars. expensive and not really used. The event was poorly attended.
On traffic, which everyone agrees is a serious problem Woodruff is blunt: there is no way to resolve it. The 100,000 people that are going to be added to the population are going to have to use the already congested streets which everyone says cannot be made any wider.
Transit as the solution – difficult for a city council that has never properly funded transit and for a budget that is already strained – how much high than 4% annual increases can the tax payer put up with – to pay for buses they don’t want to ride on?
Burlington with a population bigger than the province of Saskatchewan? Boggles the mind.
Woodruff has the ability to make a point in language that can be understood – by 2041 the population of Burlington will be greater than that of Saskatchewan. Sort of puts Burlington’s growth in perspective doesn’t it?
Woodruff has a problem with the “I’m for reasonable growth” line being parroted by the other three candidates. They don’t define just what they think reasonable is.
Woodruff came to Burlington when he was in grade 10 – attended Nelson high school for the first year and the moved to MMR. Before Burlington he lived with his parents in Campbellville.
His graduate studies were done at Ryerson where he did computer studies. He earns a good living creating web sites and applications for commercial clients.
Woodruff sounds cranky when he points out that the current Mayor talks about the Official Plan that was passed and how it aligns with the Strategic Plan – but “no one ever mentions the impact of the Official Plan.” The public is told there is nothing to worry about.
The Planning department is already snowed under with development applications. Woodruff believes that once the OP clears the Regional government new development applications will come rolling in. He maintains there are property consultants earning a decent living telling people how they can get in on this bonanza – especially in the downtown core.
The planners think many of the plazas in the city could handle a lot more intensification.
This man with a lot of common sense doesn’t believe there is really vision for the city that has been clearly explained and that has the support of most of the residents. He wants to know: what will the place look like. Condominiums on every one of the plazas in the city?
Why is he running when there isn’t much of a chance that he will get elected? He wanted the public to be aware that there are other options – his six stories max for Aldershot is one of them.
Is growth really necessary? Woodruff doesn’t think so. But the province says we have to grow – “it’s all set out in that Places to Grow document isn’t it ?”
We can say no – we can push back – we can keep up the pressure maintains Greg Woodruff.
He says he believes in growth – we just aren’t doing it right. “I am the only person who is saying that growth is not the best idea.
There is a short video with Woodruff doing one of the Smart Car Coffee Confidential interviews that gives you a sense of where he is coming from. Worth looking at. Here’s the link.
Woodruff got 12,344 votes in the 2014 election when he ran for Regional Chair. 5,812 of them were cast in Burlington. He can expect at least that this time around. What if he were to double that number – and THAT is possible. He could make October 22nd very uncomfortable for someone.
Related news stories:
How Woodruff thinks he could become Mayor.
Getting back to good policy that respects the people who live here now.
Greg is unfortunately stuck on Aldershot rather than the whole city. However his comments about traffic and how if the city tried to do something about it, then we may be back at the same problems. Greg would have made an excellent Ward 1 Councillor.
It’s too bad that he didn’t run for council first. He obviously has much to contribute but needs to start at “entry level.
That would be ideal, but I was in 6 debates with the other mayoral candidates. That the New Offical Plan affects people outside the downtown and around the GO stations was not mentioned by any other candidates. Not one – not once. The current Mayoral candidates all sound exactly the same to me; they are only arguing over minor differences in speed of development or minor height differences downtown. I would have gladly run in a ward under the wing of a Mayoral candidate selling some sort of sanity around growth. However, all the current Mayoral candidates say the same thing; they are for growth and for intensification just not “here” but some other magical “there”. I felt compelled to offer the people of Burlington a voice explaining what is going on and an actual way to turn this ship around. The other candidates don’t offer a change in course, just a reduction in speed.