ThoroldToday will be profiling every candidate in the upcoming municipal and school board elections on Oct. 24. Today: Councillor Anthony Longo.
Councillor Anthony Longo, 60, is finishing up his second term on Thorold City Council.
“I really enjoy what I do on council,” Longo says, in an interview with ThoroldToday. “I’m passionate about the city, I enjoy my role. I think I come well equipped to the meetings, I understand what I do, and I really like helping people out who have issues.”
Longo is a lifelong resident of Thorold.
“I’ve always been involved with the community,” he says. “My family has a history in politics in Thorold. My uncle used to be mayor years ago so I’ve always had an interest. I’ve always been a bit of a political animal.”
There are several project that came to fruition during Longo’s last four years on city council.
“I think we did a lot of good things as a council,” he says. “The new fire station, that’s something that the entire community will benefit from. It’s going to be a centrepiece for our community, something to really be proud of and something that will be a benefit to everybody in terms of community safety.”
Another successful project Longo points to is the redesign and renovation of the city’s operations centre.
“That’s where all our frontline workers work out of, the people that maintain our roads and parks and public works,” Longo says. “The facility was definitely not up to par and we’re giving them a much better environment to work out of.”
If re-elected, Longo would like to see the city improve its core services.
“They tell us we’re the eight fastest growing community in Canada and with that comes a lot of challenges,” says Longo. “I think we need to do a better job of increasing and improving the delivery of our core services. Things like maintenance of parks and cemeteries, or bylaw enforcement. You can’t have all this growth and not spend money to service it. The big shiny projects are nice but I really think we need to look at some of the everyday things in the next term of council.”
Another important issue on Longo’s agenda is the environment.
“I think that needs to be more at the forefront of some of our decision making,” he says. “We need to learn from our past mistakes and when we make decisions on council the environment certainly needs to be at the forefront.”
Longo also points to affordable housing as a key issue in Thorold.
“I don’t like the idea of bragging about our growth but not doing anything for the vulnerable in our society,” he says.
To be the best city councillor he can be, Longo relies on the feedback of residents.
“II really want to do what the people need,” Longo says. “That’s why I keep coming back to core services. That’s what I hear. I hear people talk about by law enforcement, about our parks and our cemeteries. We need to get the little things right and the big things will take care of themselves.”
To campaign, Longo has put together a website.
“It’s going to highlight some of the contentious issues of council,” he says. “I want to let people know my reasoning and thoughts behind some things that happened. I talk about the council pay raise, I talk about residential versus commercial growth. I’m a strong believer we need to protect our commercially zoned lands for future development. There have been times where we have, as a council, gone in the other direction and I didn’t agree with it.”
Longo says that his career as a real estate broker has given him a skill set to draw on as a councillor.
“I’ve got a lot of business experience, I’ve got a lot of experience with negotiations and marketing, a lot of financial experience with budgeting and so on,” Longo says. “I believe I can offer advice and learned knowledge to others that come on board.”
Ultimately, Longo just wants to make his beloved city a better place for all.
“I have my beliefs and thoughts and I always think I like to give a good reason as to why I do something,” he says. “I’ll always vote for what I believe is best for the city of Thorold.”
