Former Calgary councillor Richard Pootmans will try to regain spot on council this fall

Richard Pootmans is the latest former Calgary councillor to say he wants his old job back.

Pootmans, who served two terms as the councillor for Ward 6 from 2010 to 2017, has submitted nomination papers for the position.

After leaving politics on his own terms, he returned to doing economic development work.

But he's decided he wants to get back to council.

"It occurred to me — my friends certainly pointed out to me — you're doing all this great work for other people. Why not do it for the City of Calgary?" said Pootmans.

"When the opportunity came along, I said: I think I need to go back."

Pootmans said he had no intention of challenging current Ward 6 Councillor Jeff Davison, but a few weeks ago he started seeing rumours online that Davison might jump into the mayor's race.

"When he decided to go for the mayor's position, I thought: well that creates an opening for me."

The former councillor said the economy and jobs are going to be the biggest issues facing the next city council and he's up for the challenge.

"I think the city is going to have to be extremely efficient in order to maintain its operations. There's limited appetite for tax increases, if any," said Pootmans.

"We have to maintain our high quality of life in this city. That's probably our prime advantage in terms of attracting investment."

The website for the city's election office shows two other candidates, Sanjeev Kad and Lana Bentley, have currently submitted nomination forms in Ward 6.

Nominations for the election will close on September 20.

Another former member of city council, Andre Chabot, is also running to win back his old job in this fall's election.

Chabot is running in Ward 10. In 2017, he ran unsuccessfully for mayor.

Calgarians will go to the polls on October 18 to elect a new mayor, city councillors as well as public and separate school board trustees.