Corey Janzen is running in his first municipal election campaign against two other mayoral contenders, Jeff Kohler and Aidan Frederick.
Janzen has lived most of his life in St. Thomas and attended Parkside Collegiate Institute. For the past 20 years or so he has worked for Warren Gibson Ltd., of Alliston, Ontario as a truck driver.
He credited former St. Thomas mayor and MPP Steve Peters with sparking his interest in politics.
When he was 22 in the late 1990s, Janzen ran as an independent candidate provincially and admitted, “I got crushed or whatever, but it was a really good learning experience.”
As for what prompted a return to politics several decades later, Janzen was blunt and responded with two words: Jeff Kohler.
“I have nothing against the guy. I think it’s great if he’s running. I wasn’t confident in his platform, and it just didn’t seem like he was gonna appeal to enough people.”
And Janzen referenced Kohler’s term as mayor between 2003 and 2006 when Kohler was embroiled in a credit card controversy.
An issue that was resolved, the money owed to the city was repaid, and all credit cards issued to members of council were no longer valid.
Case closed, it would appear, but not to Janzen, who, 20 years later, still is of the opinion it is a factor in this mayoral race.
“We need someone in city hall that we know is going to root for us, going to fight for us. A lot of local politicians like to really cheer about their accomplishments, often like rushing to the finish line. And they don’t really provide a lot of specifics to the public.”
Janzen pointed to the PowerCo EV battery plant as an example. Specifically, asserted Janzen, how will this impact our utility rates?
He took issue with the city’s website and lack of information, along with the fact it is decidedly not user-friendly.
“A lot of this information, I think, can be made more robust, more up-to-date, more detailed. You can see a summary, but then you’d probably find a place to click very easily and then ask for more information.”
On the issue of housing, Janzen pointed out, “I know they brag about the new houses that are going up and these nice new neighbourhoods that are going to be built, but I don’t feel that I’ll ever get one of those houses.
“Most people I know have no aspirations or hopes of ever getting one of those houses.”
And, the city has to get its financial house in order, suggested Janzen.
“So we can bring down expenses, halt the rising taxes, and help jobs keep filtering in so people have options about what kind of job they want. So having a variety of these jobs coming in is really important.”
Janzen explained he has not geared up his campaign at this time due to health concerns.
“I’m doing this because I want people to have a choice. So this is not meant as not taking it seriously, but I do have my health, some health stuff that I’m working on right now. So I’m probably not going to be doing a lot of door-to-door. I’ll probably have a website and put some stuff on social media.
“And again, it’ll be mostly about my principles. It has to do with accountability. You need someone in city hall who you can trust to take these issues seriously. Right now, it’s very easy to say, well, there’s homeless people. I’m very concerned about them. Oh, there’s people on drugs, and that’s terrible. That’s easy to say.
“If I won, I would be walking away from my career, and I’d be doing this full time. This would be my focus.”
Janzen does not have a website at this point, but he can be reached through email at iknowmycreditcard@hotmail.com
Written by Ian McCallum
