By Michael Connors
Newly re-elected Somerset Coun. Elisabeth Arnold says her first order of business will be to make sure the new city is a compassionate one.
Support for the disadvantaged played heavily in Arnold’s Nov. 13 victory speech to supporters after she won the race to represent Centretown on the new city council. She took 76 per cent of the vote in the election, receiving 6,517 votes to Olivia Bradley’s 2,084.
Arnold joins the new council for her third term as the representative for Somerset Ward, while Bradley, a newcomer to politics, promises she will be back for the next election.
“I look forward to the next three years,” Arnold told supporters. “I think we have a great opportunity to create a city that is not only more prosperous, but also more compassionate for every single person in our community.”
Arnold said the most compelling moments of the campaign came when she visited shelters for abused women and the poor.
“I have to tell you that those experiences were the most heartwarming and poignant for me out of this whole campaign . . . because they reminded me why I got into politics in the first place,” she said.
“Even when we are in a time of economic boom, like we are now . . . we must remember that unless the most disadvantaged in our community are supported and given an opportunity to have affordable housing, to live in a safe community, to have the support that they need to live a life of dignity, then we have all failed.”
Arnold’s biggest challenge on the new council, as she said throughout the campaign, will be to make sure downtown concerns are heard in a council that includes many suburban and rural councillors.
But she is optimistic, Arnold said in an interview. Many of the new councillors are strong supporters of downtown issues, she said, as is mayor-elect Bob Chiarelli, who defeated Claudette Cain in the mayoral race by about 40,000 votes.
“I think that Bob will be somebody I can work with,” she said. “In fact, he was the only mayoralty candidate to respond to the Downtown Advisory Council questionnaire (on the downtown revitalization plan), and he was very positive about it. I think he understands downtown needs.”
Bradley said she was pleased with her showing, given that it was her first election. She ran on a platform calling for lower property taxes, improved policing and more downtown parking.
“I think the best support I got was through people that I met,” she said. “Businesses strongly supported me because they’re really ticked with higher taxes.”
Bradley said she learned a lot about politics during the election and plans to run again in three years. Until then, she will keep pressuring the city to address her concerns.
“(The council has) to hold the line on property taxes,” she said. “There’s a lot of middle-class people who are really struggling to pay the bills. If they intend to increase property taxes, what is that going to do to normal working families?”