Mr. McGuire has not been around to our house, so no campaign material at the door, no online presence that we’ve been able to find, and when the mail was checked today …nothing from him there. Perhaps he is relying on name recognition to win re-election to Rothesay council.
When Rothesay Residents go to vote on May 9th at the Bill McGuire Memorial Center, they will no doubt observe that this Rothesay Candidate might have a head start in the race for name recognition. Bill McGuire is, we are told, the son of the late Bill McGuire whose name adorns the polling place for about 1/3 of Rothesay residents. Such is small town politics.
So who is Bill McGuire the candidate and what is his record on Rothesay Council?
From his council bio we know that Bill,
“is serving his first term as a member of Rothesay Council. He has served as a community member of the Rothesay Regional Joint Board of Police Commissioners and the Rothesay Parks and Recreation Committee. Bill graduated from Kennebecasis Valley High School in 1978 and has been employed for the past twenty-two years as a Commercial Sales Representative at Coast Tire. Councillor McGuire enjoys golf, curling and running – he has successfully completed eleven marathons!”
As far as what he did on Council, we have little to add to the biographical note above. Watching from the public gallery in the Council Chamber over three of the last four years, we’ve observed that Councillor Mcguire says little in the public session. Perhaps that’s because he currently doesn’t lead a Town Committee and so has no ongoing reporting function to Council.
Maybe he does his best work in the Council meetings that are closed to the public.
Mr. McGuire has voted for each of the last four town budgets and in doing so has supported tax increases in each of the last two years.
From Council minutes it seems he voted for spending like the Commons Upgrade, Hampton Road “streetscaping”, and the Wells Park and trail. He also supported curbside recycling and has expressed ongoing support for a new $13 million Rothesay Arena project that includes conversion of the old arena to a Fieldhouse.
Perhaps one of the more interesting public comments by this councillor was about the problem of traffic congestion around the Rothesay Common after the rink opened this winter. He’s quoted in a Telegraph Journal article as saying, “It’s a good problem to have because we have so many people out exercising and using the facility”.
Perhaps Mr. Mcguire should spend time in places where they are spending billions to solve this problem because of its negative consequences.
Beyond his support for the new arena, the only cue to what his platform might be is his election slogan; “Let’s continue the progress”, which has the ring of a status quo, stay the course campaign.
Mr McGuire’s support for spending shows little evidence of fiscal conservatism. His support of the last two tax increases have the appearance of tax and spend.
I would put Mr. McGuire on the “steady as she goes side of council. However, being a status quo supporter may be a liability if the public is looking for change candidates. We’ll see on May 9th.