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Homelessness, Canada Winter Games top priorities for Matt Chapin

Matt Chapin admits, when he first ran for city council in 2007, he did it because he was bored.
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Matt Chapin admits, when he first ran for city council in 2007, he did it because he was bored.

But, four municipal elections later he said he’s caught the political bug. He even sought the Progressive Conservative of Alberta nomination in the 2015 provincial election.

A prep cook at Moxies in Red Deer, Chapin hasn’t had the electoral success he hoped for in those elections. But that hasn’t stopped him from trying again.

“Council is doing a good job in my mind,” said Chapin. “But they focus a lot on homelessness, but don’t necessarily talk about the mental health issues and how it contributes to homelessness.”

Another issue Chapin sees on the horizon is how the city will manage the upcoming Canada Winter Games.

“I’m worried with it coming soon, council might spend too much for a short term event,” said Chapin. “They need to think about how we’re going to pay it off in the future.

“It will do good to bring people to Red Deer for those three weeks, but after that how are we going to maintain the capital assets.”

Chapin said his experience with the Red Deer Royals taught him how to represent the city as he travelled around the world.

“I’ve represented the city internationally and I loved, when I was in Italy, Germany, Australia, representing Red Deer,” said Chapin.

“For me, yes I was representing Canada, but I felt I was representing the City of Red Deer.”

Chapin is also running for Red Deer Public School Board trustee.

In 2007, Chapin ran for mayor and earned 559 votes, losing to Morris Flewwelling who had 7,019 votes.

In 2010, he ran for city council and school board trustee. He received 1,625 votes as a council candidate and received 2,439 votes as a trustee candidate. In 2013, he garnered 1,163 votes as a council candidate.



mcrawford@reddeeradvocate.com

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