{"id":8425,"date":"2014-10-08T20:20:37","date_gmt":"2014-10-09T00:20:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=8425"},"modified":"2014-10-22T16:56:13","modified_gmt":"2014-10-22T20:56:13","slug":"vote-2014-risk-management-is-one-thing-but-one-cant-be-afraid-to-be-bold-says-candidate-greg-cook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/vote-2014-risk-management-is-one-thing-but-one-cant-be-afraid-to-be-bold-says-candidate-greg-cook\/","title":{"rendered":"VOTE 2014: Risk management is one thing, but one can\u2019t be afraid to be bold, says candidate Greg Cook"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2014-10-09-05\"
\nBy Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

After serving on multiple boards and advisory committees in and around Aurora, seeking a Council seat was the \u201cnext logical progression\u201d for candidate Greg Cook.<\/p>\n

A civil engineer by trade, he was first inspired to get involved in his community after moving here 18 years ago. In that time, he continues to serve on Aurora\u2019s Public Library Board and, until Aurora\u2019s Citizen Advisory Committees wrapped up this year in anticipation of this municipal election, put in his time as a member of the Environmental and Trails Advisory Committees. <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought I was able to bring my perspective and offer value too from an engineer\u2019s view of the word,\u201d he explains. \u201cBasically, I thought it was timely to throw my hat in the ring and I had my enthusiasm for it. It is about helping others and caring about our community. <\/p>\n

Obviously we have to, or we wouldn\u2019t consider it in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the years, Mr. Cook says he has been actively following the development of Aurora\u2019s Promenade Study, a blueprint on how to improve the Town\u2019s Yonge Street and Wellington Street corridors. Downtown revitalization is something he says is particularly important, and something that should continue to gain momentum in the next term of Council.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel that I have been [supporting it] in a behind-the-scenes way, but I would like to try my hand at doing it in more of a policy and strategic role too,\u201d he says. \u201cSometimes it is better to steer the ship than simply plotting the course the captain has ordered.\u201d<\/p>\n

To this end, he is not necessarily prepared to hang his electoral hat on a ship that has already sailed. Issues like controlling growth to be productive and effective, and stressing the importance of parks, parking, and infrastructure is something he believes all candidates can agree on \u2013 the \u201cbread and butter issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who is on Council, whoever is elected mayor, they are all going to have to deal with those things almost as background noise,\u201d he explains. \u201cThat is all baseline stuff.\u201d
\nNot so baseline is the first plank in his platform, which he dubs \u201cinvoking the Spirit of Kaizen\u201d, building on the philosophy of \u201ccontinuous improvement and formal strategic policy to enhance everything we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything we do is going to change next year, in five years, and in 10 years,\u201d he says. \u201cA lot of legislation already anticipates that kind of regular updating, but a commitment to a broader initiative in that direction speaks to sustainability and it speaks to proper government, but what it really is about is change.\u201d<\/p>\n

The environment is his second primary platform plank, particularly in how it relates to parks, development, and growth. Aurora needs to focus on more \u201cgreen\u201d buildings, being \u201csmarter\u201d about infrastructure as well as \u201cour expectations\u201d in relation to the things Aurora can do by itself and in relation to other stakeholders like the Region and the Province.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is about the environment and we are a subset of the environment,\u201d he says. \u201cGod and nature made the earth, there is the human system within it, and within that human system is a small part of it called the Town of Aurora, and that is really where we\u2019re trying to focus our efforts [in] being elected to Council.\u201d<\/p>\n

Technological investments form the third part of his plank, something that fits into his engineer\u2019s wheelhouse. A move towards LED lighting on streets is a \u201cfantastic\u201d initiative, he says, that can have a huge payoff, but there is room to be creative. Aurora is not going to have a university or college, or even a satellite campus in the foreseeable future, but other \u201cniche opportunities\u201d can be explored, such as a Fab Lab.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might be a payoff, but we have to recognize it might not,\u201d he says. \u201cSometimes things don\u2019t work out and we have to recognize that is a risk. Aurora, as a Council, has to recognize we are risk managers, risk mitigators, but we can\u2019t be perfect and we can\u2019t be expected to be perfect. We have to do the best we can for the constituency and based upon the information available at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the October 27 election draws closer, Mr. Cook says he is looking forward to getting a better sense of who his fellow candidates are, see how they perform under stress, and getting a sense of himself. The process, he adds, has also given him perspective on who he would not be comfortable sharing the Council table with, although he is not going to name names.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Coming forward] with anything less than a spirit of humility, hard work and honesty is, I think, a recipe for disaster for any of us putting our names forward and I think it is most important that we all realise it is the idea of service above self. You go forward in the day thinking, \u2018Why am I doing this? Why am I asking to be elected? If all you want to do is have a high stress, less than minimum wage type of opportunity where a lot of people are going to get to know you and a lot of people might not be happy with you, you may as well go to work in fast food and not do a good job in that context because this is a whole other level. Quality is one\u2019s commitment to grow and change. Without that, you\u2019re going to have trouble in this environment of continuous change.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After serving on multiple boards and advisory committees in and around Aurora, seeking a Council seat was the \u201cnext logical progression\u201d for candidate Greg Cook.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vote-2014"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2bT","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-21 21:17:39","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8425\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}