Windsor mayoral candidates have big ideas for city

Voters in Windsor have five options for their next mayor.

The field of candidates range from someone who wants to bring a second casino, theme park and aquarium to the city and others who commit to job creation, investing in roads and hiring an auditor general at city hall.

Ernie 'The Bacon Man' Lamont

This election marks the last for Ernie 'The Bacon Man' Lamont. He's run for mayor in the last four elections and if he's unsuccessful this time around, Lamont will be putting his aspirations to bed.

"People won't give me a chance and if they gave me a chance, I would make this city great again," said Lamont, who's in his 70s.

And he's not worried about his lack of political experience.

"Well, when you look at Donald Trump, he had no track record and look what he's done to the United States — he's got that place booming, jobs all over the place," he said.

If elected, he's proposing an amusement park, aquarium, another casino and a "checkered flag raceway" — all privately funded, he said.

"You go to Vegas, at my own expense, not through taxpayers' money and you bring all these people together," Lamont said.

For Lamont, homelessness is a big issue. He also wants to turn Windsor Arena into some sort of shelter.

Frank Dyck

One of his competitors, Frank Dyck, was inspired to run for mayor over his dissatisfaction with Windsor's new mega hospital that's set to be constructed on the outskirts of Windsor, near the airport. It's his first time running for political office.

"I didn't like that idea too much so I wanted to make Windsor a better place by just expanding the hospitals where they are now -- demolishing old and rebuilding new," said Dyck.

Here are some of his priorities:

• Making Windsor the cleanest city in Canada.

"It's polluted right now. The west side is all decrepit, needs to be demolished [and] rebuilt. Affordable housing can be put there," he said.

• Request commercial vehicles run on alcohol and vegetable oil, "once the technology is there."
• Improve quality of drinking water

"Right now, it's bathing water — it's not drinking water," said Dyck.

Tom Hensel

Another mayoral candidate on the ballot is Tom Hensel.

One thing which sets him apart from the pack is his desire to appoint a full-time poverty reduction task force.

"To work with our community partners, social service agencies and housing authority to really address some of the issues we're facing when it comes to affordable housing and homelessness," said Hensel.

Hensel admits he's not a career politician — just "someone who just cares a great deal about my city."

Candidate in some controversy

However, since announcing his intentions to run, he's be involved in a bit of controversy. A Windsor Star article illustrates a pattern of people who say they are Hensel's financial victims.

As a law school graduate, he also had his membership revoked for allegedly being misleading to the law society.

Hensel tells CBC News, he doesn't have much to say about the allegations that have recently surfaced.

"Those are personal issues that have come up. It was kind of an ugly story, I think was motivated by an individual who was disgruntled," he said. "I've made some statements on Facebook to respond to that story, but it's something I'll deal with after the election. In the meantime, I'm campaigning."

Hensel's three main campaign points are:

• Appoint an auditor general
• Poverty reduction
• Repair roads, sidewalks, lighting and deal with flooding issues

Matt Marchand

On Tuesday, Matt Marchand announced his latest campaign promise which centres around tackling downtown homelessness, crime and drug issues.

His plan is to significantly reduce those three problems by 2022. Marchand said he'll do that by working with local organizations, and all levels of government to ensure funding addresses mental health, addiction and homelessness.

Marchand also plans to create programs to clean up the core, adding he wants to implement benchmarks so the strategy can be improved every six months.

"I think there's a situation right now here in Windsor where people are looking to move off the status quo," said Marchand.

He's teasing an upcoming announcement on taxes and the economic forecast in Windsor. So far, here are some of his other commitments:

• Hiring an auditor general
• Active transportation
• Reforming EnWIN

His main competitor, Drew Dilkens, often points at Marchand's history of working in mayor Mike Hurst's office for 12 years as a "risky" move that will set the city back. But Marchand often touts this as one of the reasons he's "uniquely qualified" for the job, in addition to being the head of the regional chamber of commerce for several years.

Drew Dilkens

As a one-term mayor, Drew Dilkens is campaigning on his record over the last four years.

One piece of his plan is to hold the line on taxes, as council has done in past years. But how can that happen while tackling Windsor's debt load of $77.9 million?

"It's using the existing budget to pay off the debt, and then taking the savings that we're not paying in interest and reinvesting back in our sewers, back in our roads, back in our infrastructure, back in our quality of life," said Dilkens, who said he helped reduce the debt from $104.1 million since becoming mayor in 2014.

If re-elected, he promises to have the city's debt plummet even further to $46 million in four years.

When it comes to community safety, Dilkens also promises to install 100 digital cameras throughout the city where crime may be most prevalent.

He also plans to:

• Implement the next generation of 9-1-1, which allows residents to report crime via video, pictures, text messages and file transfers
• Create pharmacy safety initiative to reduce crime after pharmacies
• Enhance police DIGS unit
• Apply to be part of digital neighbourhood watch system, which integrates home monitoring with police networks
• Increase number of police officers

Dilkens highlights the unemployment rate dropping during the time he held the mayor's seat in Windsor. From 2014 until 2018, it dropped from 9.7 per cent to 6 per cent.