Thompson city council candidate Chiew Chong is hoping that the third time proves the charm.
The two-time also-ran has once again put his name forward for consideration as a councillor in the Oct. 26 election, having previously done so in 2018 and in a byelection less than six months later.
In October 2018, he was literally one vote way from a seat on council, tying fellow candidate Andre Proulx with 1,009 votes, the eighth-highest vote total. After a recount failed to establish a winner, the two candidates ran again in March 2019, alongside former councillor Blake Ellis. That time, Proulx, who has decided not to seek re-election after three-and-a-half years on council, edged Chong by 46 votes.
Chong, who came to Thompson in 1975 and works as a surface maintenance mechanic at Vale’s T-3 mine, is philosophical about that loss, event though he filed a civl court action regarding the 2018 election that was ultimately dismissed.
“Maybe the other guy or the other person had a better campaign or more support or something like that,” Chong told the Thompson Citizen in an Oct. 7 interview.
Knowing how close he came four years ago, Chong believes he has a shot at making it onto council this time around, saying he heard from plenty of people urging him to run again. He was also encouraged to put his name forth as a candidate in the 2020 byelection necessitated by the death of former longtime councillor Judy Kolada, but he decided to wait until now.
“Even after I lost, some people still ask you to try again in four years, which I’m doing right now,” he says.
As the former owner and proprietor of Wonton Place in Thompson for nearly 25 years, Chong says he is alarmed to see that people who were longtime loyal customers of his are no longer patronizing local restaurants because they have moved out of town.
“There must be something wrong, why people leave town,” he said.
Part of the reason is the frequency of crime, as indicated by Thompson being at or near the top of Statistics Canada’s Crime Severity Index year after year after year.
“I think it’s not acceptable,” Chong says.
If that isn’t enough, then there are property taxes and water rates, over which the city has some control, as well as things like Manitoba Hydro rates, which it doesn’t.
“Our property taxes are high, right, getting higher and higher,” he said. “Then our water bill is higher and higher. This is a cold, cold climate here and it costs a lot of money to use hydro to heat up the house.”
For some people, that rising cost of living is effectively a pay cut that they can never work their way out of.
“When people retire they only have a fixed income,” Chong says.
Good local government depends on a few key factors, in Chong’s opinion: communication, co-operation and effective policies.
“Co-operation is the key to success,” he says, and that means top down management is not the right route. “The mayor is not the person to make decisions, They mayor is the person to support the council.”
That co-operation extends to include making sure that different city departments know what the others are doing.
“The key thing is communication,” he says. “It’s communication between city hall, the administration and the council.”
On the policy side, Chong believes laws and city bylaws are only useful if they’re enforced and if they’re enforced equally. If the bylaw on paper and in practice don’t match up, he asks, what’s the point?
“If that bylaw doesn’t work, why have the bylaw in the first place?” he says.
When it comes to convincing voters to cast their ballots for him, Chong says communicating remains the key.
“I think I have to talk and convince people to understand what my positon is,” he says. “I want you to understand me.”
He doesn’t expect people to look at him as someone who has all the answers, because he doesn’t, but he will provide a way to find a person who does.
