By Anne Finlay-Stewart

My name is Bobby. Mr. Gillespie was my father." This was my introduction to the rookie candidate for Owen Sound city councillor.

Bobby's father is not insignificant to his story. Born and raised in Owen Sound, Bobby returned to the city after university thinking he wanted a career in radio. His father had just built an office supply business, and he needed some help. "He asked me to work in the business for just one year," Bobby remembers. "After that, I could do whatever I liked. Taking him up on that offer was the best decision I ever made."

In the 80s, his brother was looking into buying what is now the Stonetree Golf Club, but it needed a lot of work at the time. Instead he and Bobby bought the Sauble Beach course they regularly played, and about ten years later added the Chippewa course in Southampton. "It was a great business to be in," Bobby grins. "Where else do people pay you to walk on your grass and breathe your air and then shake your hand and ask to come back and do it again?"

Now Gillespie has come back into town and has bought one of the Centre Suites in the professional building, or what long-time Owen Sounders know as the original home of RBW Printers. He plays hockey, a game he took up at the age of six, about three times a week. He is a baseball umpire and linesman for high school football.

So why add city councillor to his schedule? "This is a wonderful city," Gillespie said, "And maybe together we can make it even better." He is the first to admit that he has more questions than answers for now. How will we deal with a harbour that ships cannot use? Now that most manufacturing is no longer viable here, where will our employment base come from? How can we leverage Georgian College and other assets to bring research and high tech jobs to the city?

Gillespie plans to speak to as many people as he can and listen carefully to their needs, just as he did in business. He gave the pricing structure for sports as an example. "The ice surfaces sit unused too often. Can we make full use of our facilities by adjusting the user fees for off times? We need to maximize what we have, whatever that takes."

As a centre for business, services, arts and culture, Owen Sound needs to work as closely as possible with neighbouring municipalities, he feels. "Anything that is good for us is good for them, and vice versa," Gillespie says.

There are now thirteen people running for the seven city council seats, including four incumbents. Councillors David Adair and Arlene Wright are running for the newly created Deputy Mayor's position, and Councillor Ian Boddy has made it a three way mayoralty race, adding his name to those of mayor Deb Haswell and former mayor Ruth Lovell.

Anne Finlay-Stewart is Community Editor of www.owensoundhub.org. She can be reached at [email protected].