Erika Lange is passionate about the people and local small businesses in Cochrane and she's one of 19 candidates running in the upcoming Municipal Election.

Throughout the course of her career, she has worn many hats. She spent 15 years working in the oil and gas industry before venturing out on her own to start a small business. She's a strong advocate for shopping locally and supporting members within our own community.

"I'm a small business owner here in Cochrane and I solely shop within the community," explains Lange. "I'm a huge business supporter and want to fight for making everything accessible here in this community."

Lange moved to Cochrane six years ago and says that in an effort to get to know her new home she attended open house events held by the Town of Cochrane, where she discovered a "passion for land use and the nitty-gritty of the process."  

"Most of those open houses happened to be around land use and new development," explains Lange. "Eventually after the last election, I was selected to be on the Cochrane Planning Commission and giving lots and lots of feedback for the redevelopment of the land use bylaw."

Lange says that being a chosen member of the Cochrane Planning Commission has given her a "strong foothold" and insight into how things operate. 

"The land use bylaw was recently redesigned and updated which is fantastic but what I want to work towards more is clearer guidelines and bylaw enforcement for enacting on the bylaws that we have."

She says that after years of attending Town Council meetings in person and virtually, she is extremely familiar with the Council process and she's ready to be a voice for Cochrane residents.

"Pre-pandemic I was one of those people who would attend all the council meetings in-house," explains Lange. "I really got to know the process of how things work which was then embellished by being on the Cochrane Planning Commission."

Lange is also an active volunteer with the Helping Hands Society of Cochrane and a strong supporter of the Cochrane and Area Humane Society. She says that a large part of what makes Cochrane so unique and special is the large base of passionate people that what to help others.

Lange welcomes questions from Cochrane residents and looks forward to connecting in person. She says that she's at the off-leash dog park every afternoon at 1 p.m. and she's happy to meet there and answer questions.