Never say never.
That could be the motto of Mayor Wayne Wright, who once said the 2011 municipal election campaign would be his last. Now, the four-term mayor is pondering whether he’ll make another run for the mayor’s seat in the election taking place in one year.
Wright said he’s been asked by a number of people to state his intentions for the Nov. 15, 2014 municipal election. As long as he has the energy and his family is in agreement, he may decide to take another run.
“That’s my conundrum. That’s the problem. I have a personal life and then I have what I consider my duties for the city,” he told The Record. “What I don’t want to do is hurt that. I am being honest and saying I can’t make a decision yet, but I will work my butt off and bring things forward that I know there will be enough work that nobody is going to be able to stop it or do the wrong thing.”
Wright said he has great respect for the city and wants to keep it moving forward in a positive direction.
“We’ve got quite capable people here,” he said. “We’ve got great staff. Everybody knows where we are going and how we are going. That’s different than in the past.”
Wright said there’s an “unending” number of jobs to do but there will always be unfinished business to tend to.
“You have to see when is the best time, is it the right people. I will know. I want to see who else is going to run. If I don't agree with it, yeah. I could say I'm not going to – and then I am going to. It's not going to take much for people to know what I stand for,” he said. "It's obviously a decision you have to weigh up and say, is there a chance the city is going to go sideways or is there a lot of these things I think are important are going to be put to the side.”
Wright expects he’ll make his final decision by June of 2014, which will coincide with the opening of Anvil Centre.
“At that time, if I think there is somebody I think would be a terrific mayor, I'd support him,” he said.
While Anvil Centre will be done by next summer, Wright knows there’s no lack of work to be done. He cites surplus land sales, development in Sapperton and Queensborough are some of the ongoing issues to be tackled by the city
"There are some biggies,” he said. “There are a couple of things that haven’t' gone my way that I'd like to revisit them. One of them is what is happening in Queensborough with those containers. I hate that. That's not right. We shouldn’t' have done it.”
A site in Queensboorugh has generated complaints because shipping containers have been stacked more than 30 feet high.
While it’s hard to make a decision about his political future because he loves the work of a mayor, Wright said he hasn’t heard any rumblings from council peers who may be jockeying for the top seat in city hall.
"None of the councillors have ever said anything to me,” he said. “For me personally, I look at council and I couldn’t be happier.”
