Bob Madigan is thrilled to return to his councillor’s chair for a second term.
“After four years, people will constantly say, ‘hey, do you still like it?’ And my grin will go from ear to ear and I’ll say ‘absolutely, still love it,’” said Madigan, who was reelected with 4,293 votes in October.
Madigan was born and raised in Collingwood and has spent his career owning and running businesses. He’s the owner of Mad Dog’s Coffee and Vinyl Café.
He said his greatest lesson as a councillor has been humility and learning to listen.
“I’ve based my life on putting smiles on people’s faces. I’m a natural salesperson in a way,” said Madigan. “But taking the time to close my mouth and open my ears has been really good for me. It’s made me have a better understanding of people. For me, listening to the kids at 14 wondering what’s going to happen in their lives and listening to the people at 84 wondering what’s going to happen in their life has been a huge blessing.”
While smiles on faces might be the goal, Madigan said he knows it’s not possible to please everyone with a council decision or action.
“Sometimes, an issue can be very complex and it doesn’t have an easy answer, but there’s parts of a complex issue that people can feel they’ve won on,” said Madigan. “If you break an issue into ten parts, they might not win the whole war, but they’ll win their individual battles. Because people are always willing to compromise.”
The key, said Madigan, is listening.
“I understand we can’t always make people smile, but we can always listen,” he said. “People just want to give their opinion sometimes, and when you shut them out, that’s when the negativity is fuelled and they think, ‘nobody is here for me’ … I’ve always felt, and continue to feel that the only true issue in our area is people just want to be heard.”
While Madigan wouldn’t guess what issues will define this term of council, he said the process of determining how to spend money obtained in the sale of COLLUS to Epcor this year and the possible sale of the airport will be interesting. He did urge caution at rushing into a decision.
“I would love to see, whether it be 9 to 12 months, a moratorium on spending the money to figure out really what is needed,” he said. “Because the difference between needs and wants is vital. Just because we have the money doesn’t mean we need to go buy a shiny, sparkly whatever.”
To strike a balance between sober second thought and a decision that takes too long, Madigan said there has to be enough time for the public to find out about the engagement process and participate.
“In the last four years, I’ve heard, on one or more occasion from different people in our community, ‘I wish I would’ve known this had started,’” he said. “Because you can put stuff in the paper, on social media, on the town website, but it gets by people because they have a very busy life themselves … so [a moratorium] would give them the time to get the information from whatever source they choose to get it from. Then we can get positive feedback from a broad spectrum of people.”
On the other hand, according to Madigan, a decision can take too long when elected officials go beyond due diligence to ask a question over and over again looking for an answer they want instead of the one given they don’t like.
Madigan said he’s looking forward to working with new and returning councillors for the term, and he’s grateful to those who re-elected him.
“I’m really proud they supported me, it just gives me the mental fortitude to push forward and do a good job,” said Madigan. “At the end of the day, if you’re elected for a seat on council, it really doesn’t matter where you finish, as long as you’re there to do the right thing.”
Madigan is part of regular council, the Strategic Initiatives Committee (SIC) and the Corporate and Community Services standing committee.
There is a SIC meeting on Jan. 7 and a regular council meeting on Jan. 14. Both start at 5 p.m. and take place in the Town Hall council chambers.
