WHITE ROCK - The race is on for the White Rock mayor's chair.
While current Mayor Wayne Baldwin seemed poised to win by acclamation going into the 2014 civic election, a quick filing of paperwork Thursday led to a new challenger arriving on scene.
That challenger is David Bradshaw, a resident who's appeared before council in the past and wasn't satisfied with what he saw at city hall.
"Democracy is all about choice and I think the community deserves a choice, that's why I'm running," he said. "If there's an acclamation it means the electorate agrees with what you're doing and that can't happen because there's so much disagreement out there, so we'll have a good old-fashioned democratic process debate."
Baldwin said he fully expected someone else would come forward to challenge him.
"In the past that's always been the way it has been, I don't think we've ever had an acclamation that I recall," said Baldwin.
"Somebody's always come in at the last minute."
Bradshaw appeared before council earlier this year to question the city about their policies protecting residents from worksite contaminates
such as silica dust, asbestos and the like. At the time, he was concerned with the lack of response from the city after he and his neighbours' homes were inundated with particulates from a nearby construction site.
"That's what kind of got me going, the more I dealt with the city the more I realized how disorganized and confused they are and how they do not have the level of service in relation the number of taxes people pay," he said.
Having moved to White Rock two years ago, Bradshaw's professional past includes being president of a provincial union, manager of Vancouver's police union and having run an independent workers' compensation law practice.
cpoon@thenownewspaper.com