A run at the Mayor’s Chair was always in the back of the mind of local Structural Engineer Simon Yu.
“I wanted to find the opportunity to give back to the city that I love,” Yu said.
“After building a successful business, and having a lot of friends here, I just feel that the City, when they try to say ‘we need a rebranding exercise’, maybe the city, we have lost a little bit of energy and vision for all of the great things about Prince George.”
“So I throw my hat in, and see if I can re-inject some energy into the system, and also maybe try to get more immigrants to participate in the democratic process.”
Nearly 50 years ago Yu arrived in Prince George from Hong Kong, carrying only two suitcases.
Yu’s platform revolves around addressing homelessness, developing east of Queensway, addressing affordability, and marketing Prince George as ‘the place to be.’
“We need to really take a look at the east of Queensway, have a development plan, and if we can solve the problem east of Queensway, some of the problems of downtown will be resolved,” Yu said.
Yu added he would like to provide a place for those facing homelessness downtown a place to sleep.
“Not necessarily a humongous home, but we can certainly do disaster relief shelters,” he explained.
For affordability, he wants to attract more people to the Northern Capital.
“When we built the sewage plant, for example, we built everything around a population of 120,000,” Yu said.
“It’s like eight people going to a restaurant to order food for twelve people, that usually have to pay for the twelve people’s dinner, but yet it’s only eight people that showed up, so we need to find the four people and then retain the eight people.”
Yu said in order to attract more people, we need to build more facilities in Prince George, and we would like a coordinated marketing effort to market the city as ‘the place to be.’
Yu joins current City Councillor Terri McConnachie, Businessman Christopher Wood, and Lawyer Roy Stewart in the race to become Mayor of Prince George.
The Municipal Election will take place on Saturday, October 15th
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].
