Angus to run at large

Another member of city council wants to keep his seat as Iain Angus filed his papers for the upcoming municipal election Thursday.

Angus will be running for his third term as councillor at large. He said he wants to continue working with Mayor Lynn Peterson, who he is endorsing after she filed her papers to run again earlier in the week.

"We work well together. We don’t always agree but I’m part of her team and I want to continue that relationship," said Angus.

While Angus admits he did consider running in the mayoral race, he said he didn’t want the added travel miles a mayor has to log.

"Any politician who ever says they don’t think about moving up the ladder isn’t telling you the truth. We all think about it," said Angus. "But I’m quite happy at the level I’m at now."
Angus said he thinks his place in council is as an at-large member where he can focus on city issues.

With the local economy being hammered in the last five years, Angus said he wants to continue trying to restart the forest sector and expand the growing health-care sector that he has been fighting for during his time on council.

Although those two sectors are largely under provincial control, Angus said it is council’s job to lobby senior levels of government on the city’s behalf.

Angus said he and Peterson have spent time on the Ontario Forestry Coalition doing just that.
With Queen’s Park so far away from Thunder Bay, Angus said Northwestern Ontario can sometimes be forgotten.

"There are things that we can do at this level in order to make sure that the government of Ontario, which is more than just 1,000 miles away it seems to be light years away in a lot of cases, pays attention to the needs of the Northwest," Angus said.

The municipal election is Monday, Oct.25.