Red Deer simply being known as Alberta’s third-largest city is not good enough for Tara Veer. The mayoral candidate wants to see the city rebranded as “the City of Choice.”
“In my view, framing ourselves as the third largest city has not been as effective as it could be because we’ve been defining our community identity relative to the urban centres to the north and the south, instead of positioning ourselves as the city of choice,” said Veer.
The three-term councillor running for mayor held a press conference on Friday to announce the fifth and final theme in her platform, to “mobilize our community will to ‘make the possibilities happen.’ ” An important part of that, she said, is to capitalize on the city’s central location in marketing Red Deer to the rest of the province and other levels of government.
“In the absence of Red Deer defining our identity and community image, people fill in the blanks for us,” she said, “There is a perception throughout Alberta of people who just drive by Red Deer and have a perception that their drive-by view of Red Deer is all we are.
“People who have the privilege of living here know that we are certainly so many other things, but in the absence of presenting our best community image, and providing other Albertans with a compelling reason to come here, they will continue to have that perception of us.”
Veer held the press conference in a downtown parking lot west of City Hall Park. The lot adjacent to the City Centre Stage is city-owned, but the current council gave Red Deer College the right of first refusal on it if the land is sold.
She said the lot is a symbolic location of the potential and possibilities that exist for Red Deer going forward. But she said such potential will only be realized if municipal government partners with different sectors in the community.
“We absolutely have to pool our energy, our time and our resources if we are going to make headway on some of the community dreams that exist,” said Veer, stating she is a community mobilizer who can bring people and groups together.
The other four mayoral candidates are Cindy Jefferies, Dennis Trepanier, William Horn and Chad Mason.
mfish@www.reddeeradvocate.com