Veer kicks off re-election campaign

Calling it an honour to serve the community she grew up in, Tara Veer says she is excited to seek a second term as Red Deer’s mayor.

Veer, 39, made her announcement Wednesday morning at Veterans’ Park, the same place she kicked off her first mayoral campaign in 2013, joined by several invited war veterans and a couple dozen supporters.

While she feels much has been accomplished during her first four years in office, Veer says there’s still much more to be done. 

“Red Deer is at a watershed moment. We are Alberta’s third largest city and region. There is much to celebrate in the way of community life and in terms of our accomplishments,” she noted. “But there are still service level improvements to be made for our citizens. There’s still infrastructure to be advocated for for Red Deer and [the] region. There are still transportation, safety and social challenges to be addressed, and environmental initiatives as well as financial efficiencies that we need to look at.”

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Veer said she is proud of how the community has come together over the past four years to help improve Red Deer as a whole.

“I really believe that city council, city administration, our community partners and the citizens of Red Deer have come together as a whole. We’ve had a unified voice and we’ve had great successes in terms of receiving long awaited infrastructure from the provincial government. There were four or five key projects that we have waited for 20 years as a community, and we’ve rallied as a community to receive those.”

Should she be re-elected, Veer wants to hit the ground running with the next city council to establish a new agenda and address key concerns often raised by residents – safety, transportation and core municipal services.

On the advocacy side, Veer says her priorities will continue to be expansion of Red Deer Regional Hospital and polytechnic status for Red Deer College.

When asked whether she has any plans to move on to another level of politics, be it provincially or federally, Veer said her focus for the time being is solely on continuing to serve Red Deer in her current role.

“Seeking a new mandate as mayor, that decision was easy for many reasons,” she admitted. “This is the city that I love and have been honoured to represent, and I’m looking for a new mandate so that we can continue the good work that we’ve started.”

The municipal election takes place on October 16.