Former LPS chief taking a run at Lethbridge City Council

He told LNN that, “I’ve watched what I perceive to be some really significant challenges – not just in the last year with the pandemic, which of course it has been very challenging for all levels of government, but probably over the last four years or more, we’ve really experienced a very challenging council in terms of working together, in terms of leadership.”

With a family history steeped in policing, Middleton-Hope’s first priority for Lethbridge, if elected, is to improve public safety.

He said, “I think what we as a community have to reconcile is where do we want to go? What do we want to do in the future? Where do we see our city of 100-plus thousand population, where do we see it when it hits 200,000? How are we going to get there? I think that, based on my experience, based on both in policing, in academia as well as in consulting, as well as working for the United Nations, I can [contribute] to the discussion around public safety.”

Middleton-Hope remarked that public safety is “not just a police problem,” but it’s something the entire community has to work on together to improve.

He added that, “for me, public safety is job one. Secondly, leadership skills and abilities brought to city council to lend my experience and to lend my skillsets to city council to help us move forward.”

“The third piece, which I think is ultimately beneficial from both of the first two, is economic diversity and economic growth and continuous growth and development in the city.”

ECONOMIC DIVERSITY

Middleton-Hope said his goal is to reach out to at least 5,000 people on the campaign trail, and that includes students. He raised concerns about University of Lethbridge and Lethbridge College students leaving the community after they graduate, as opposed to staying in the city and helping improve the local economy.

“Lethbridge’s metropolitan area is 128,000 people, effectively it’s the County of Lethbridge. However, what it doesn’t take into consideration is that we have 14,300 students at the university and the college. About 8,000 of those students come from outside. Of the 14,300 students, how many of them stay here?”

He wants to find ways to attract graduates to stay in Lethbridge. That plan includes revitalizing the downtown core, with a boost to entertainment for younger residents.

John Middleton-Hope is focused on addressing public safety, leadership and diversifying the economy. (Photo: Lethbridge News Now)

Middleton-Hope remarked that, “there doesn’t appear to be a lot to attract them [youth] so if I’m elected to city council, that’s going to be one of the areas that I would hope our city council members would collaboratively want to work on, is to reinvigorate the downtown – to try and give it a sense of identity, to try and help businesses situate down in the downtown core.”

He related his downtown vision to his first goal of improving public safety, saying that, “if we transform areas of the downtown back to what they were intended to host, then we displace the abnormal users who are there only to sleep in the park or cause havoc in the city, and that’s one of the areas I’m very much interested in.”

“I know some of this is very theoretical, some of this, of course, has impediments to it but at the end of the day, if we don’t map out a bold vision for the city, then we’re never going to achieve it. If we think small, if we think in terms of protecting our own little areas to the north, to the south, to the west, we’re never going to grow to the potential that we have.”

While giving credit to the council the city has seen over the last four years, he said he wants to create a “regional diversity” and attract more businesses Lethbridge and help the city move in a positive direction going forward.

“We have a tendency in Lethbridge to rely on our past… that’s important and I certainly acknowledge that. But I think if we want to build a community for our children and our grandchildren, we have to be thinking not to tomorrow – we have to be thinking 20 years, 30 years, 50 years out.”

Middleton-Hope believes the way forward is by coming and working together as a community and encourages residents to contribute in any way they can. He said, “if that means nothing more than your contribution is picking up a Styrofoam cup off the pathway that you’re out walking, that’s a contribution to the city and we need to encourage more of that.”

“We don’t need to discourage it and say your observations and concerns are not valid. What we need to do is channel those concerns in areas where they [residents] can make a contribution to the city.”

More on John Middleton-Hope is available here.

Voters head to the polls for the 2021 municipal elections on October 18.

by Justin Goulet

Former LPS chief taking a run at Lethbridge City Council

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