I had to laugh, to avoid crying as I walked into ARC through the new addition for the first time Friday.

With an all-candidates meeting on Friday night I had to swim early, before Yale high school was out, and found myself parking beneath the new extension.

After walking up the fire escape stairs because the elevator was out-of-service due to malfunction, I turned to head down the ramp to head into the old building and the pool and found myself walking around the bucket set out to catch the water leaking into our new recreation facility through its brand new roof.

I also had to step carefully so as not to slip in the two rivulets of water that ran down the ramp.

It was very lucky for our current council that their rushed pre-election grand opening was on a dry non-rainy day. The public would probably have been considerably less impressed if it had been raining and they had to walk around or carefully to avoid the leaks in their expensive new roof.

I have had several people ask me about where my signs are and have found myself explaining why I will not raise money for signs.

I will not be raising or asking for money for signs, cards, pamphlets, campaign offices etc. Not because I could not raise funds, turns out I have a lot of friends on this matter, but because I know so many better uses for monies raised than to spend them on politicking.

The demand on our local food bank is growing while at the same time the economy has resulted in decreased donations for the food banks. Compounding this is that we are heading into the Christmas season when demand soars, followed by the bleak days for donations of January and February 2009.

People are going cold, wet and hungry – how could I raise money and spend it on politics?

People have said “think of all the good you could do if elected”. You start justifying you actions or thinking like that and it has become about you and you have decided to be a politician rather than a leader.

I have written several times over the past months to remind people to remember the food banks (thanks to the local papers for printing those letters). How could I not follow my own pleas and remember the food bank?

Being on council is also about priorities and leadership and I believe that if getting on council is your overriding priority, your priorities are wrong. A thought echoed by one homeless gentleman who felt he had to come up and urge me to not become a politician but to remain true to my self and remember the people.

So I cannot, will not raise money for signs.

Besides I do have a few.

A decal sign from a friend who had his brother cut decals for his vehicle and my car as well as some legal size signs I printed off of my computer. Some friends are threatening to paint up some signs which is fine, I can only hope they get the spelling right. One or two friends are insisting I need at least a few signs and insisting on getting at least some put up. Then there are those who are printing up their own signs from their computer as did I.

As my homeless acquaintance said I have to remain true to my self … which brings me to the question of whether you have remembered the food bank recently?