Who I am
I grew up in Ireland. I met my wife, who is Canadian, while we were both studying abroad, and I came to Canada in 2018. We got married at the Sunshine Coast Botanical Gardens in 2019 and moved to Gibsons in 2021. Our two boys are two and four and have never lived anywhere else. This is the place I want them to grow up in, and most of what I think about council comes back to that.
I am a lawyer on Gibsons Way, where I practise real estate, business, wills and estates, and employment law. I am a volunteer firefighter with the Gibsons department. I have been involved in youth lacrosse here for five years, and before that I played international lacrosse for four years, competing at World Championship level on multiple occasions. I spent five years in the army reserve. And I sit on the board of the Sunshine Coast Chamber of Commerce.
Between the fire hall, the lacrosse box, and a law practice that deals with people's houses and their businesses, I have had a lot of conversations in this town with people on days that were not going well for them. That is most of what I would bring to a council seat.
What I have actually done
Ferry advocacy that went past complaining.
I have advocated publicly for a better ferry service and have proposed real solutions. That has meant sitting down with BC Ferries communications managers, with the opposition transportation critic and with the Minister, and making the case on CityTV, CBC and Global. None of it fixed the ferry. What it did was bring more provincial focus to the problem.
Regional governance.
I led the Chamber's push to get Gibsons, Sechelt and the SCRD to look honestly at how local government is structured here. Not because any particular answer is obviously right, but because I did not think the alternatives had been properly costed.
School District 46 Trustee Remuneration Committee.
I chaired the School District 46 Trustee Remuneration Committee, where I successfully pushed to have childcare and caregiver costs reimbursed so that a parent is not simply priced out of serving. It is a small change that alters who can realistically put their name forward as elected officials should be representative of the diverse communities they represent.
Five years with the Sunshine Coast Lacrosse Association.
I have been involved with coaching and organizing youth lacrosse here for five years.
Values
If someone asks for help, you help them
That is the rule I was raised on, and it is most of what I have got. A council should work the same way. When someone brings it a problem, the first question ought to be what can be done, not whose responsibility it is.
Openness should be the default, not the exception
Disclose a conflict before anyone has to ask. Explain why a meeting is being closed rather than simply closing it. Give the reasons for a decision, not just the decision.
A lot of what makes people distrust local government is not wrongdoing. It is the sense that things were worked out somewhere else, before the public part started. It is the sense that things were worked out somewhere else, before the public part started.
Most things get done with people, not to them
On a five-person council, one vote achieves nothing by itself. Persuading four other people is the work, and it is not the same skill as being right.
The same holds outside the chamber. Anything that changes a street, a business or a neighbourhood should involve the people already there while the plan can still change, rather than once it is finished.
Principled, but willing to change my mind
Some decisions are unpopular and correct at the same time. Where those two things part company, I will take correct, and I will give you my reasons for it.
I would rather take the backlash and be able to explain myself than take the easy position and have to defend it later. Changing my mind when the facts or the argument change is not weakness. Taking an easy position simply because it is popular is.
Fewer people should be priced out of serving
Local government makes better decisions when the people making them look more like the community they serve. At the moment, the cost of serving quietly rules people out, parents and carers most of all. That narrows what gets considered before anyone even sits down at the table.
Serving your community should not be something only people with the time and money to spare can afford to do.
