Cobourg resident has been on council since 2010
Article and image by Bill Hornbostel
On Monday, May 9, Cobourg Mayor John Henderson announced that he is running for a second term at a press conference outside Victoria Hall.
“I believe we should always be listening, adapting, with the goal of implementing collaborative community initiatives that help advance the Town of Cobourg, and … support our residents,” said Henderson.
Henderson talked about three issues that would be important during his second term as mayor: inclusion of youth in the political process; continuing to develop the waterfront; and address local affordable housing pressures.
“Youth, for me, would be a very high priority,” the mayor said. “Personally, I’d like to see them very much be a part of Council, very much what the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board does, informs the student trustees; I think they have a very important role to play.”
“But in that,” continued Henderson, “every time we tried to build a bridge with Council during COVID, we found half the time they weren’t in school, and we couldn’t fund their programming. And I’m not blaming the school in any way, because it was a COVID-related environment; that was very challenging.”
“Another high priority, we’ve started to address over many Councils, the implementation of our Cobourg Waterfront (plan), which is so important to so many,” Henderson stated. “This is not a one-year journey, it’s probably going to take another whole term of Council to bring these phases to completion.”
“I’ve been part of it with this Council. But I’d very much like to be here when it’s finished as well,” he added.
The third issue, Henderson said, is “the critical issue with affordable housing, which is first and foremost, along with homelessness and addiction.”
“We know a lot of this is arranged and organized through the county, but I’m a firm believer that we really have to be doing this together,” he said. “That includes the Federal and Provincial Governments, Northumberland County who leads these services.”
“I believe the Town of Cobourg has to be a key partner,” he added.
A retired teacher and school administrator, John Henderson has been a member of Council since 2010, and Mayor since 2018. The website for his candidacy, Henderson4Mayor.ca, will launch at the end of May.
Ontario municipal elections will be held on Monday, October 22, 2022.
