Garry Didrikson has put his name forward as a potential City council member in the upcoming election.

“I grew up in Red Deer, went to high school and played football here,” said Didrikson. He proceeded from high school to NAIT and graduated a civil engineering technician. He furthered his education by going to the University of Calgary and then to Toronto and into the United States for more schooling.

Didrikson is now a chiropractor and acupuncturist.

He sits on a board at the Bowden Penitentiary called the Citizens Advisory Council and is the director for the Co-op board for Central Alberta.

“I’ve also been active in the community with the church, sports, hockey with the kids and I am also active in curling.”

He said his intentions for the election are to represent the business people and be an “open door” or go-to guy for the people of Red Deer to come talk to.

“I like to be part of the community by helping out. One of the things I do believe strongly in is a good safety program. I want to push this through and get back to programs like Citizens on Patrol, Neighbourhood Watch, and Businesses on Watch.”

Didrikson said he also believes the ward system should be implemented in Red Deer to provide more recognition to each area in the City.

“What happens right now is we don’t know who is where or what is happening.”

Didrikson also said he doesn’t believe that politicians should see politics as their job.

“We want to make sure they are involved in the community. I think we should have a mandatory change every three terms. It would be better for the citizens.”

Other concerns of Didrikson’s include the vagrancy downtown, and he would like to see some “tweaks” made to the downtown core to make it more business and foot-traffic friendly. Didrikson said his prior education, life experiences, and involvement with different boards makes him an ideal candidate for council.

“I have a good idea of how business works. The nice thing about being on council is that it’s a team effort. I would like to work with people especially the mayor and other councillors to make Red Deer a strong economical base.”

He said Red Deer has a lot of fine points but that people are worried about the growth and making sure that economics are kept in line so there are no excessive increases in taxes and other public costs.

“I love Red Deer and think it’s a great place to raise children and to retire. I was raised here, I have a business here and I’m not going to be running off in the near future.”

kpalardy@reddeerexpress.com