A new La Broquerie council candidate says being an active member of the community is very important to him.

Shaun Sturby has announced he is seeking a seat on La Broquerie council in Ward 2. He says he grew up in Winnipeg then moved to Calgary a number of years ago where he met his wife, who is from La Broquerie. He notes when they decided to move back to Manitoba with their family three years ago, they chose to call La Broquerie home and get involved in the community.

"This year I was on the St. Jean-Baptiste board, putting together our St. Jean-Baptiste days. I have done some community work for Operation Red-Nose, of course, the western provincials were held in La Broquerie, I volunteered also for that this year and upcoming is the fall supper held at the HyLife Centre so I am doing some volunteer work there too."

Sturby says he has always been interested in local politics and now that he has settled down, he would like to serve the R.M. of La Broquerie as a councillor. He says one of his priorities is taking care of safety concerns that have come with hasty development.

"My family is very young, my daughter just started kindergarten, and so she does take the bus but there are a lot of kids that don’t take the bus to school and they are forced to ride their bikes on the streets or walk. Some of the new developments don’t have sidewalks so the kids are forced to walk in the streets along with vehicles, come wintertime, I personally would not want to see my child walk right next to moving vehicles."

Though Sturby says he does not write French very well, he is bilingual. He is also focused on planning for the future, quality drainage and road construction, and openness within council itself. He adds he wants local residents to feel that they can come to him with their concerns.

"Accountability is one of the main courses of action, people want to see that their councilmen are held to a high standard and that they are able to approach their councilmen with whatever regards that they have, I feel that that is the number one thing that councilmen need to do."

The civic election will be held on October 24th, 2018.