I grew up here in Halifax. I’m a proud graduate of Queen Elizabeth High School and Dalhousie U, and like so many of my peers at that time, after graduation I left for job prospects elsewhere.

But it wasn’t long before the famous Nova Scotia homing beacon went off, and I found myself drawn back home. After all, there is nowhere else I would rather raise my daughter than in the community that raised me.

 

 

My love for this place has converged with the career I loved - being a city planner: A hands-on job building communities that are livable and connected, that are affordable and inclusive, and that are prosperous and safe. 

That is the work that I came home to HRM to do. 

In 2005, I was able to put my studies and experience in urban and rural planning to work on HRM’s first 25-year regional growth plan. To make sure each of our communities from from Eastern Passage to Enfield, from Tantallon to Sheet Harbour are all strong, healthy, and connected. 

That experience taught me a lot about our municipality, about the value of public engagement, and what we can do when we all work together. 

Once our municipality began to find its footing, I ran for Parliament to deliver the federal dollars we needed to really hit our stride. 

In my first term, we pulled Halifax out from the bottom of the heap and put us in the top 8 of 338 ridings across Canada for federal investment – substantially increasing our region’s share of the national pie.

 

Now, I’m running for Mayor to go to work for all of HRM in a new way, to bring a renewed approach to our municipal government like the moment demands.

All of our people, and all of our momentum, working together as one - to take charge of our growth, to build the future we want. To meet the moment.