Meet the mayoral candidate: Brad Field

Brad Field got his start in real estate, flipping houses. He used the profits to finance his way through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and start several businesses such as  the BRC Group, a heavy vehicle repair and maintenance company. He has also chaired and founded several charitable organizations like the Terminator Foundation, a youth addiction and mental health support group.

Field’s campaign prioritizes Calgary’s economic recovery with an aim to limit unnecessary government spending. His first goal aims to shift the city to a priority-based budgeting system. In his plan, citizens could expect to see a budget that focuses resources on ‘front-end’ projects that will be felt by Calgarians quickly.

The Calgary Journal asked our city’s mayoral candidates five questions about themselves and their campaigns. Here’s what Field told us:

5 Questions with Brad Field:

What issue is most important to you as mayoral candidate and how would you solve it?

Yeah, I mean, there’s multiple. There’s so much on-the-go right now for me obviously. But, for me right now, when I’m talking to calgarians, it’s about leadership. They feel like we’re fractured in council, we have a dysfunctional council. So first and foremost, bring strong collaborative leadership back to the City of Calgary. Set the tone very early as we go into council chambers for respect and decorum within council chambers, and make sure that that flows down through city administration and the 15,000 wonderful city staff.

Why should young people vote for you?

Well, why young people should vote in any regard, it’s about having a voice. For me, since I started this three and a half years ago, committing to running for mayor in 2021. My first calls and reach outs were to that next generation.

I’ve been meeting with high school students, post-secondary students, right through to 30 to 35-year-olds, because if we’re talking about the future of Calgary, the next 10, 20, 30 years, it’s about the next generation. You’re the ones that are going to have to be the stewards of that.

These are the moments that make the campaign highlights for me! This large group of youth flagged me down on the street outside a restaurant last night & stopped for a chat. They were engaged & supportive. The youth of our city are the future of our city.
VOTE on Oct18! #yyc pic.twitter.com/2GX2Q140fS

— Brad Field (@bradfieldyyc) October 2, 2021

So I wanted you at the table right from the get-go. Your voice matters to me. So, that’s why I started discussions very early about what’s important. I’ve also committed as a part of my youth platform to form a Youth 2030 Advisory Council, which will have a direct connection with the mayor’s office and city council. So again, we can have your voice at the table right from the start.

Let’s say you have some downtime from your campaign, which local bar, restaurant or coffee shop are you going to and why?

Honestly, I love spending time with my family. During the campaign, there’s not much downtime, i’ll say that. So I haven’t been able to see my kids or even my wife Sheryl that often. So, if I had some downtime, which there’s not much of, I would probably just honestly hang out with the family at home, watch a movie, order a pizza or something like that.

What’s one TV show or movie that helps you get through the pandemic?

I’ve clicked on some like late at night, when I’m kind of checked out and just ready to take a moment for myself. Yeah Netflix, click on Netflix. I’ve been watching […] The Heist. So I’ve been watching that. Schitt’s Creek, you can digest those in about 30 minutes. So yeah, just anything that just takes me away from the campaign trail.

Calgary is in a difficult economic spot right now and many young people are looking elsewhere for opportunities. What would you do to help the city prosper as we eventually emerge from the pandemic?

There’s so much wrapped up into that question, right. We’ve got so much to do but it has to be a fulsome discussion. I believe it’s a multi-pronged approach. It starts with rebuilding the economy where jobs and businesses can flourish.

Again, if we’re talking about retaining the next generation, making sure that you make the choice to stay in Calgary, or even attract young adults to Calgary. We have to create an environment where jobs are plentiful.

So first and foremost, create an environment where you can actually have a job after your post-secondary education in your chosen profession. Two, a vibrant Calgary. Every time I talk to that next generation, those young adults, I ask them, ‘what do you want to do?’ They all say they want to live in the downtown core, they want to educate downtown, they want to party downtown. Everything’s about the downtown.

So we’ve got to talk about vibrancy in the downtown. Talk about arts and entertainment, world-class facilities, for sporting events and music festivals. I’ve been talking about formalizing brewery row.

We have all these wonderful microbreweries, here in Calgary that are winning awards. I’d love to have a street or a row of buildings dedicated to microbreweries, and then Music Row, same thing. We have the national Music Center, iconic, it now houses the Canadian Country Hall of Fame here in the City of Calgary. I’d love to have a Music Row, where we have live music on a regular basis and pop-up music festivals. So yeah, vibrancy and making sure that we have a strong economy.

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