Medicine Hat Mayor candidate Fisher hopes to be an approachable, strong leader

This is the first time Fisher has run for a position with city council, he said the reason he ran for mayor was he though there were so many great candidates running as councillors already.

“I felt I could be a really good leader for a great group of eight people and I feel that’s what this city needs is somebody that can talk to people, talk to the council, work together closely,” Fisher said.

“I feel like that’s what’s been lacking the last little while is they haven’t been able to work together and my goal would be to bring everybody back together doing what people of the city actually want us to do and not just having our own agendas.”

He has worked mainly in the oil and gas industry owning a company for 10 years before shutting it down a couple of years ago.

Running a company in the city for just about a year, he is still connected with the oil and gas industry.

He also has prior experience as a golf professional in the city.

Fisher said he has talked to a lot of people over the years, and has a lot of idea that he feels he could bring to the table.

“I’m easy to approach, and I really just feel Medicine Hat’s fell back on economic growth and things like that,” Fisher said.

“I really want to create a future here for my kids. I don’t want my kids to have to say, we got to leave Medicine Hat to find jobs and play sports and things like that,” he added.

“I want to really grow Medicine Hat to be a stronger community, and I feel I have a lot of great ideas to do that, and with me guiding council, working with council closely every day, I feel we can accomplish a lot of really good things for this city.”

Fisher said one of his key priorities would be building more multi-purpose spaces.

“Hockey rinks, curling rinks, pools, kind of all together under one building, somewhat like the Big Marble [Go], but maybe expand a little differently,” Fisher said.

“I feel our designs for hockey rinks in this city are very old school. We have to bring in some new looks, new ideas. Building multi-rinks into one building makes it cheaper to run,” he added.

“Having individual rinks everywhere makes it very expensive because you have to have staff at every single one, and so much staff and so much equipment. If you have, say, a fourplex of hockey rinks, you know, you can get away with three Zambonis instead of having four, and your staff would be run a little bit leaner.”

Fisher sees an economic benefit to having a facility like this.

“It would also let Medicine Hat have bigger tournaments and things like that. You’re supporting the economy that way as well with hotels and restaurants and everybody that would be involved,” Fisher said.

“When people come to this city, they love it here, but they play hockey one tournament game up at the Hockey Hounds, then the next one’s at the Kinplex,” he added.

“You know, they’re all over town, where if you can really put that into one area, I feel it’ll just help grow the possibility of tournaments for sure.”

Fisher said he has fond memories of Medicine Hat during his youth.

“One of my greatest excitements growing up in Medicine Hat was when we got to go to Riverside Waterslides,” Fisher said.

“We had great days there as kids and I feel there’s nothing there for these kids really. We have our outdoor pool and stuff, but they’re pretty plain and boring. There’s no excitement to go there. You know, the kids go there for an hour and they’re bored,” he added.

“Henderson in Lethbridge has a beautiful facility, and we actually go there because the kids love being there and they’re there all day.”

If voted in as mayor he said he will take a look at everything.

“Do I think cutting jobs within city workers is the answer right away? I don’t think it is,” Fisher said.

“I feel you have to actually review everything and find more efficient ways to cut down costs without having to let people go of their jobs,” he added.

“Jobs are a big thing right now and being on the city job is a great job and I don’t think just firing people and letting people go is the immediate answer.”

When a new council comes in Fisher said they can learn from what’s been going on with council.

“Learn from things that worked and things that didn’t work and you have to continue to evolve that way,” Fisher said.

He said he wants to make the city beautiful again.

“We used to win Community in Bloom awards and things like that and I just feel, we don’t have that same effect we used to have,” Fisher said.

“You’d come over from Calgary and you’d see Medicine Hat and it was just beautiful and lush and there was flowers and plants and everything,” he added.

“I just feel like we got a little complacent when it came to that and I’d definitely like to bring us back to when it was that place where people were like, oh, this is a beautiful city and want to spend more time here for sure.”

by Jesse Gill

Medicine Hat Mayor candidate Fisher hopes to be an approachable, strong leader

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