An Orillia native and former federal Green party candidate has thrown his hat into the ring for the mayor’s position in the October municipal election.
Mathew Lund, 42, has spent most of his life in Orillia and the surrounding area, and has worked with business, environmental and community organizations in his efforts to contribute to the area over the years.
He previously served on the board of directors for the Orillia District Chamber of Commerce, and currently is on the board of directors for the Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition, among others.
Although he ran as a Green candidate for York-Simcoe in a 2019 byelection, and was involved as a campaign manager in the 2019 general election, he said he only got into politics after being encouraged by others.
The same goes with his bid for the mayor’s office.
“I didn’t have an initial design to actually run for the mayor's office,” he told OrilliaMatters Thursday afternoon after filing his papers at city hall. “It was urged of me by people in the community. It was people coming to me and saying, ‘We want you to run for mayor.’”
That being said, Lund is not short on plans for what to do if he wins this fall, and he plans to bring tenacity to the office.
“I think we’re going to need strong leadership in the next four years, and I think I can bring that as strongly (as), if not better, than anybody else,” he said.
Housing sits atop the list of priorities Lund would like to address in Orillia.
“We’re in a housing crisis right now, and it’s only going to get worse. If we do not have a strong municipal government that is leading the charge on that, and not just accepting the status quo answers, then it’s going to get exponentially worse for a lot of people,” he said.
Lund also believes more needs to be done to bring well-paying jobs to the city.
“We should be focusing on getting good, high-paying jobs to this community, and if that means that we have to decrease taxes to certain businesses, there’s ways to do it so that you’re focusing on bringing good, high-paying jobs,” he said.
“I think that there’s been a movement towards that with the current council, and I’m not trying to dissuade that, but I’m saying there’s a lot more that can be done.”
Given his former run with the Greens, Lund holds environmental protections for Lake Simcoe and Lake Couchiching as high priorities.
Notably, however, he said he wants to give some of the city’s power back to its citizens.
“I believe very much that we need to take a lot of the power out of council’s hands; we need to take a lot of power out of staff’s hands, and we need to put it back into the community’s hands,” he said.
“One of the ways I’d like to do that is ... to take a portion of the municipal budget and turn that over to the constituents so that they can actually have a say in what happens in their city.
“Obviously, there’s certain projects, infrastructure, staffing ... things that need to be addressed and dealt with first, but when you have a little bit of surplus — let’s say it’s a million dollars — you take that money and you let the community submit options as to what they want to have in their community, and then you let the community vote on it.”
After spending 15 years in the entertainment industry, Lund shifted his efforts to becoming a paralegal, and currently owns and operates Processing and Legal Services (PALS). He lives in Orillia with his wife and two children.
He said his father is a major inspiration for the work he does in the community.
"I love serving people … My dad was fire chief out in Rama Township … and back then, there was no fire department in Rama,” he said. “My dad was the kind of guy (who said), ‘We don’t have a fire department here. We need a fire department, and if nobody else is going to build it, I’m going to build it.’ He did the work … He built it from the ground up, and he served there as volunteer fire chief for 10 years.”
Lund, a former wrestler and wrestling promoter, says he brings a similar sort of energy to the endeavours he undertakes.
“I’m tenacious; I push everything right to the line, and I look at everything from both sides of the aisle,” he said. “While I consider myself very much progressive … I can look at the arguments on both sides and try to find the answer that best suits everybody.”
As he looks to the upcoming election, Lund is excited by the possibility of Orillians electing a young, diverse council that is willing to think outside the box to solve problems in today’s challenging environment.
“I’m looking at this lineup of people and thinking we have the opportunity to elect a very diverse and very dynamic, young council,” he said, pointing to candidates Mason Ainsworth, Jay Fallis and Tyson Renshaw.
“I’m so excited with the opportunity to work with a lot of those potentially returning councillors. I think that there’s a lot of opportunity, that this could be the most dynamic next four years if we elect the type of council that really is going to fight for people.”
There are two other candidates running for mayor. Earlier this month, Don McIsaac entered the race, followed by John Maxwell, who also ran in 2018. Maxwell has not yet made himself available for an interview.
Current Ward 2 Coun. Rob Kloostra had also filed his papers for the city's top political job, but, on June 17, he withdrew his candidacy.
