Paul Crierier originally came to Cochrane in 1999 for work and fell in love with the town and as soon as he was able, he moved his family in 2007. His home was the 12th house in Sunset Ridge. It goes without saying that the Crierier family has seen a great deal of change in the past 14 years.

It is his love of Cochrane and some key issues that have driven Paul to run for town council in the October 18 municipal election.

Crierier says, “I love Cochrane, I know it has changed a lot and a lot of people don’t love the direction it's going. But I would like to have a say in some of the issues that I see coming to the forefront. Managing growth and hopefully helping the infrastructure catch with the growth we have already had. So, that’s what got me to initially run and a few other issues.”

One of the other issues top of mind for Crierie is, “I’m very anti-river wave park. I think that almost everybody who moves to Cochrane came here because they love the walkways, they love the river. I think monetarizing the river hoping that it’s going to attract tourists is not a direction Cochrane need to go.”

Another issue that raised Crierie’s ire was discovering that, “Two years ago, town council voted themselves a more than 20 per cent increase in pay, to go into effect October 19 of this year, so the day after the election. They’re giving themselves a raise that I think that under the economic conditions that we have, is not justified. I can’t think of anyone who gets a 20 per cent raise in one year. And so, one of the first things I would like to do is bring forward a motion to cancel the raise.”

Crierie says that it is a simple google search to find out about the impending raise and he further believes that is what is attracting the wrong people to the job. Crierie says, “A few people that are running in the election, have been in Cochrane less than a year. And I am personally baffled by that. I don’t know what you think you know about Cochrane if you’re living here less than a year and I think that the reason they are running is because the wage will be up to more than $42,000 a year which for a part-time job, I think, is pretty excessive. I don’t think that a person working part-time as a town councilor should be making more than a person who works 40 hours a week at minimum wage in our town.”

Other topics that interest Paul Crierie are the fact that Cochrane is still called a town despite having the population of a city, as well as affordable rental housing, which is something he firmly believes Cochrane should have.

The bottom line, Crierie says, “I really would like my children to want to live in this town and I would really like my children to raise their families in this town. Stepping forward I would like to help which is what I see it as. It’s not about money it’s just about being part of this community which I’ve lived in for almost 15 years.”