John McLaughlin submitted his name as a candidate for mayor on September 11th, making the total number of mayoral candidates five.
John is an Ottawa native, and his public service roots run deep with a father who served as an accountant in the Auditor General’s Office, and a mom who was the assistant to the President of Canada Post. John graduated from the University of Ottawa with his Law Degree, and he was also recognized as a Merit Scholar. He entered the civil service as a lawyer for the Department of Justice in Ottawa and then moved to Toronto. He represented the Prime Minister and Governor General when a citizen challenged the election results because of proposed tax changes, and was regularly consulted on a variety of issues from Equality to Employment Rights. He left the government 3 years ago when he hung out his own shingle as a litigation lawyer.
In 2001 he and his family moved into Oakville, setting up home in Bronte. He and his wife Lori have raised 2 children. He is a big proponent of volunteerism, and is regularly helping out people who need assistance. His children have followed in his footsteps, and they are regularly babysitting for free for parents in difficult circumstances. John often is doing pro-bono work for those who cannot afford to pay an attorney to represent them.
“My company, The Job Centre, is a service provider with the Ontario Disability Support Program. We help people with disabilities get jobs or start their own businesses. John has provided an invaluable (pro-bono) service to those requiring legal advice or assistance,” stated Deborah Dennison.
John is concerned about several issues from the rising debt and public spending that has occurred during the Robert Burton's time in office. The town’s budgets has risen close to 50 percent from $200,000,000 when Burton was first elected to this year’s 320,000,000. The town's total debt and property taxes have risen dramatically. He believes it is the worst overspending of any of the GTA governments.
Another issue of great concern is the lack of truly green transit. We are constantly aware of the empty buses travelling through town, and they are all diesel, according to McLaughlin. He suggests that Oakville would be far better served by selling 20 of the current diesel buses and replacing them with 10 hybrid buses, doing flexible routing and running on a grid. It will reduce local emissions, drop the number of bus drivers, and maintenance on the hybrids is far cheaper. A far better use of resources McLaughlin believes.
In order to get control of the budget he intends to do away with Performance based budgeting which according to John is completely subjective. Getting us back to line item budgeting is far more prudent and effective.
contact John McLaughlin
mobile: (905) 808-2314
email: [email protected]
website: johnmclaughlinformayor.com