By CHAT News Today

Meet the Candidate: Leslie Rath

Oct 5, 2017 | 1:28 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — For city council candidate Leslie Rath, there are several issues that are at the forefront of his mind.

The 65-year-old retired machinist is running for public office for the first time in this fall’s election, and says spending, taxes and jobs are his priorities if elected.

“What I want to do here is give people honest government and I’m tired of every time you open up the tax bill, it’s up 100 bucks of 50 dollars every year, and I want to find out what we can do to slow this tax thing down,” he said.

Rath says the issue of spending was what finally made him want to run for council.

“I think the spending is out of control,” he said. “The amount of money that they’ve spent on downtown, and if you look at the downtown of any other city, what do you find? Nothing. It’s a dead horse’s behind.”

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As for jobs, Rath wants the city to provide incentives to businesses to set up in Medicine Hat. He says he remembers a specific company trying to set up shop in Medicine Hat 15 years ago, but says they didn’t receive any help from the city, choosing instead to set up shop in Lethbridge.

“What did Lethbridge’s mayor do to get them? He gave them 10 acres of land for free, and five years free taxes,” he said. “That’s the way this city should be going, but when you go into City Hall and talk about land, they want x amount of dollars per acre, and there’s no talk about deals of any type.”

Rath says the same thing happened to him when he wanted to set up a shop in Crescent Heights. He chose to set up in Redcliff.

Rath says his accountability and being approachable will help him stand out in a packed field of councillors.

“I’m honest, and I’m willing to really work hard for my constituents, and that’s on every little thing,” he said. “If you have a broken sidewalk or a curb, I will try and do something about it.”

Election day is October 16.