We Love Cranbrook

City Hall is the place we decide how to look after streets, water, parks, recreation, safety and the next four years of this town. It is not a riding association. A Cranbrook pothole does not care whether you are Conservative, Liberal, NDP or none of the above. Neither should the person trying to get it fixed.

I ran federally as a Liberal in Kootenay–Columbia in 2019 and 2021. That work taught me who does what, who to call, and how to get a local matter in front of the people who can move it or fund it. Those years are not a partisan label for Council. They are relationships already in place when Cranbrook needs a partner, an answer, or someone willing to make the case.

We Love Cranbrook is not a campaign sticker. It is building community by putting this city first: neighbours, families, young people who stay, seniors who can remain, and the volunteers who already hold so much of this place together.

HEAD: Know what holds a town together

Cranbrook is not short on people who care. We are, however, short on simple ways to connect them.

Volunteers - The City already asks residents to serve on the Advisory Planning Commission, the Board of Variance, the Library Board, the Heritage Committee and other appointments. Those boards matter. Yet, they are only part of the whole volunteer picture. Sports for kids, festival weekends, seniors’ programs, service clubs, neighbourhood groups and one-off events all run on unpaid hours. When the City recruited for 2026 committee seats last fall, some boards still needed a second call. That is not a character problem. It is a matching problem.

Newcomers - New people arrive all year. Choose Cranbrook already publishes a Newcomers Guide. A local welcome effort already knocks on doors with business-sponsored packages. What is missing is a clear, targeted handoff: what exists for families, for seniors, for youth, and here is how you get involved. A welcome is not just a coupon book. It is the first honest map of the town. A map we should all have.

Youth - Young people already told our City what they want. A spring 2026 youth survey, done with College of the Rockies students, found interest in more welcoming spaces, clearer information about programs, and a real say in planning - music and arts, sports and recreation, and leadership and volunteer work topped the list. That is not a mystery. It is homework sitting on the table.

Communication is the thread through all of it. The City already sends Council Highlights and CivicWire. Council adopted a communications strategy in February 2026. Yet people still say they cannot follow what City Hall is doing. The last budget survey found residents split across social media, email and the website. Surveys land, then another survey lands and another. Information exists. But a strategic communications plan people can use is different.

HANDS: Build Community, Connect, Communicate

Publish a twice-monthly update people will read.

Plain language. What Council decided. What is coming. How to take part. Events, volunteer needs, grants and updates on the five priorities we said we’d focus on. Put it on an email blast, the website, social and the local channels people already use. RDCK Area E has shown for years that a regular director’s letter can keep a community in the loop. Cranbrook can do the city version. If the City will not own that update, Robin will.

Set up a simple Volunteer Bridge.

A living list the City hosts that connects volunteer organizations with people who want to be involved. Sports associations. Festival crews. City boards. Seniors’ programs. Youth leadership. A database to match the person who has two hours with the group that needs two hours. A volunteer bridge can also point groups to municipal grants and other funding when the fit is real. The City approved about $124,000 in municipal grants for 2026.

The money is more useful when the people and the work find each other.

Welcome people on purpose.

Keep what already works. Add what it does not cover - targeted information for families, for seniors, for youth - recreation activities, library events, transit, leisure access, clubs, how to volunteer, who to call at City Hall. Hand them out with utility start-ups, at the library, at Western Financial Place, and through the welcome work already happening in town.

Follow through on what youth are saying.

Clearer program information. A say in what gets offered. Spaces that feel like they belong to them, not only rooms they are allowed to use. Leadership and volunteer paths that are real, not a poster. Arts and sport..

Protect the events that already bring this city together.

Spirit of the Rockies, club tournaments, markets, school showcases, neighbourhood nights. The City does not have to invent a new festival every year. It does have to treat volunteer-run events as civic infrastructure: permits that make sense, streets that work that weekend, and a public thank-you that is more than a caption. And if the City is running an event - ensure accountability throughout.

HEART: This is home

The Urban Dictionary does not get Cranbrook right.

We have amazing trails, lots of sunshine, a regional hospital, a college, an airport, a theatre, a library, a recreation centre, fields full of kids, and an uncommon number of people who show up when something needs doing. That is the city I want my grandchildren to keep choosing.

We Love Cranbrook means we put Cranbrook first. We leave any federal fight at the door. We make it easier to volunteer, easier to arrive, easier to find out what is going on, and easier for a young person and old to feel they belong here.