Wendy Bergfeldt And all this week, we will have interviews with the Merrill candidates. Now, we are going to be running two this afternoon, one from Archie McKinnon and the other from Kevin MacEachern. There are nine people running in the race to be the mayor of CBRM. Archie McKinnon is one of the candidates, and he spoke with Tom Ayers. Archie McKinnon I'm a carpenter. I've been a businessman as well, you know, built a lot of homes here on Cape Breton Island. I've been a municipal counselor for six years. In my younger years there in the town of Sydney Mines, actually, the last council before amalgamation, chairman of the public works department and increased manpower in public works at the time, and never increased property taxes. I've been very much involved in my community. I do a lot of community stuff to help people. Primary example is Hurricane Fiona there. We actually went out and helped a veteran there that never had no power for a couple of weeks. Seen it on the nose and stuff like that, you know, helping. Trying to help people hurt in the community. Tom Ayers So why do you want to run for mayor? Archie McKinnon Well, I want to run for mayor because I'm like most people, you know, I'm fed up when I see what's going on. We're paying the highest taxes in pretty well all of Canada right now. We've got a provincial government. We're in a municipal tax deficiency. So, you know, property taxpayers are forfeiting the bill for everything down here. And the provincial government's collecting equalization. I think it was in the two of $650 million this year. You know, I see the things that are going on. You know, the only people that are benefiting are the people we're electing. Cecil Clark made us the highest property taxpayers in Canada, and yet he increased his wages by 30 or $40,000 over his two terms. That upsets me. It upsets a lot of other people. I think I can make a difference. I'm not your normal politician. I spent a lot of years at National C Products as a union rep and done a lot of negotiating for the workers I represented. And that's what I want to bring to council. I want to bring a leadership that is there to not take money out of their pockets but try to put money back in their pockets by lowering taxes and negotiating an equalization deal. Tom Ayers And so what, like, what are the. I mean, you've mentioned lowering property taxes. What are the key things that you want people to know about your. What you would do as mayor? Archie McKinnon Well, like I said, what I'm going to do as mayor is I'm trying to rally the people, you know, because you can be a leader, but if you don't have the backing of the people, it's actually not going to go anywhere because that's what these politicians and parties look at. You know, they look at every individual as a vote. And, you know, we've been doing a lot of building over the last four years. We've got an independent candidate organization for the whole province of Nova Scotia, as well as Cape Breton independence for Cape Breton Island. We've got an autonomy group. And again, part of our autonomy group is a bargaining tool because, you know, we're saying that if the provincial government can't sit down and negotiate a better deal and equalization for our people here, well, we'll get enough people signed up and we'll hold a plebiscite here eventually and decide if we want to be part of Nova Scotia anymore. Because if the province doesn't have anything to offer us, well, we might be better off going it alone anyway because we got nothing to lose. We're not getting nothing from them. All they're doing is taking everything else. Tom Ayers That, that you want people to know about what you would tackle if you were mayor. Archie McKinnon Well, there's so many issues. You know, like I say to people, you know, a lot of our rinks here now are owned by the municipality, and I understand that because if we didn't do it, we'd end up not having them. A lot of our ball fields and different things. The young people are going out and starting nonprofit organizations and trying to raise money to fix their own ball fields. And, you know, all our beaches are deteriorating around here. Like I said, this a fella the other day, you know, pretty bad when on the north side here, all our beaches are here. I had a friend that drowned down at one of the beaches here, and they couldn't even get down to the beach to access them, so they had to bring them up in the back of a half ton truck. I mean, you know, our lives are rough down here. It's tough, and we got to change that. And the only way we can change that is by being a leader for the people and standing up for what's right. And we're not looking for anything more than anybody else. We're only looking for help. You know, the people in Cape Breton Island built this province through the coal, the steel and fishery for a lot of years. And now that everything's gone, we've lost all of those grants in the oil taxes, tax bases from these different industries and, like, the people just can't, you know, we can't pay the bill. We can't maintain this. And you can see it's not being maintained. The whole island's deteriorating. Tom Ayers And what do you think about the fact that there's nine candidates running for mayor? There's a lot of interest this time around. Archie McKinnon Yes, well, there is, you know, and the problem is there's. There's not a lot saying too much. You know, there's only certain candidates that are actually coming out and do have a platform, like myself. But, I mean, you know, the old boys club, the Cecil Clarks and, you know, Rankin McSweens and those guys, they're not saying too much, other than, you know, they want to be fresh, good leadership in the whole nine yards. But as far as any substance to their platforms, there's nothing there. Tom Ayers Some people are saying we've got five acclamations on council, but nine running for mayor. The five acclamations. Do you think that there's kind of some apathy that it might not be the voter turnout might be pretty low, or do you think there's seeing. There's so much interest in the mayor run that people want to change? Archie McKinnon I think. I think they'll. I think there's going to be a big turnout for the election, for mayor this time. You know, and like I said, this is my second, my second go at it. And, I mean, in the last election, I came third, just behind Cecil Clark. And my campaign's gone crazy this time. I've got three times as many signs as I had at the last election and a lot of people rallying behind me. So I'm very, very enthusiastic, actually having fun with this campaign right now. Tom Ayers More than the last time, you mean? Archie McKinnon Oh, yeah, yeah. Wendy Bergfeldt That's Archie McKinnon speaking with Tom Ayers, and this is Main Street, CBC Radio. He is one of nine people running for mayor in this municipal election. Another candidate is Kevin MacEachern. Kevin MacEachern I actually ran the last time as well. I want to get in here, get the city straightened up, get it back to where it used to be. I want this. I want CBRM cleaned up. It's disgusting right now. Tom Ayers What do you mean by that? Cleaned up, like, physically it's dirty or. Kevin MacEachern Physically in every way possible. My intention is to get rid of the Cape Breton Regional Police, bring the RCMP back here to Cape Breton right now. They're costing approximately 14 times more to have this Cape Breton Regional Police here. They're incompetent, they're corrupt, in my opinion. And from what I'm hearing from everybody around the area we've got a homeless shelter in our downtown core. We've got many, many places other than our downtown core that should be, we've got an ally center in downtown core that's drawn the bottom of the earth to it. That should be out of our downtown. Don't get me wrong, we do need these facilities opened, not in our downtown core. They have to be moved. Tom Ayers When I asked, why do you want to run for mayor, my next question was going to be, what are the main issues for you? Are those your main issues or do you have some other. Kevin MacEachern Those are the main issues, yes, most definitely the main issues. Tom Ayers And you ran last time, I think you got about like just under 400 votes. Kevin MacEachern Just under 900. Tom Ayers Just under 900. Kevin MacEachern 937 actually, to be exact. Tom Ayers So just under a thousand. Kevin MacEachern I had two weeks to prepare for it. I had no time to do anything. This time I do. Tom Ayers So you think you can get a better showing this time around? Kevin MacEachern Almost definitely. Tom Ayers There's nine candidates running. What do you think that says about interest in politics and CBRM? Kevin MacEachern I think that a lot of people want to get the city changed back to where it used to be, get things cleaned up, to get things done. Like right now, even like our equalization payments from Halifax, like from the province, it's just ridiculous. It's got to get fixed. It's got to get brought up to date. There's just so much stuff that's got to be done here that hasn't been done that's been ignored. I don't know if I should say ignored. Just not getting done. Things not getting done that have to get done. Tom Ayers So what kinds of things have to get done? Kevin MacEachern Number one, our equalization payments from the province. I know everybody's chatting, going on about this equalization payments, but it's ridiculous. It's, it's not being forced through and not being fought for the way it should be. A lot of stuff the mayor has to work with the councilors, get things done around the city here. Not just the city, but the whole CBRM. There's so much stuff that's small businesses trying to get going and stuff and it just seems like there's blocks, property taxes, the way they're going up here. It's just bloody crazy. The housing situation here with all the students and the seniors and our locals, everything is just overboard right now. Things got to be worked out. It's got to be, things got something has to be done. Has to be. Tom Ayers And what can you do? What can be done? Kevin MacEachern Work with the province. Work with the federal government, get some housing built here, work with the university, get them to cop the number of students and bring them in here. But we do have to work with the university. We've got to work with the provincial government. We've got to work with the federal government. There's so many people here. I look like my business right now. I'm working in Sydney, in downtown Sydney core. I'm a tow truck driver. I get to talk to so many people down there and see things that are going on. Here's what things going on down here. It's just bloody ridiculous. The number of homeless people coming from our mainland coming down here. They think that there's so many different programs down here for them. There's not. There's nothing there. Tom Ayers And have you, have you got some, have you got a regular campaign going? Have you got some lawn signs and that sort of thing? A website, all that. Kevin MacEachern My signs are ordered. I should be in this week. Do a lot of advertising on Facebook as well, through social media. Plus, I know a lot of people from being around the downtown core here as well, and everywhere in the city, let people know that I am running. I do intend on getting in there and getting this CBRM straightened up and cleaned out. Wendy Bergfeldt And that is Kevin MacEachern, one of nine people running for mayor. Before Kevin, you heard from Archie McKinnon. In total, the candidates number nine, in alphabetical order, they are Donnie Basic, Cecil Clark, James Edwards, Carla George, Vince Hall, Kevin MacEachern, Archie McKinnon, Rankin McSween, and Joe Ward. We will not have a feature tomorrow afternoon. However, on Monday, you will hear from Vince Hall and Carla George.