Waterloo, Ont., Mayor Dave Jaworsky has announced that he will not be seeking a third term when municipal elections are held this fall.
Jaworsky said he is making the early announcement to allow potential replacements to really consider whether they want to take on the role.
“It’s a big job, right? So, I want people to think about it and want good candidates to come through,” he told Global News on Thursday afternoon.
“I’m actually doing this pre-announcement to allow people the kind time to know there is an open role available.”
In May, people will begin to be able to throw their hat into the ring ahead of this fall’s elections.
Jaworsky, who had no political experience before he ran for mayor, is hoping whoever replaces him has leadership experience in whatever role they served, as well as some experience working within the community.
He believes that this is the right time to pass the torch to someone else as a bunch of projects will be completed this year which will allow a replacement to carve out their own path.
Jaworsky rolled off a long list of new things opening this year. “We will be opening up a new adult complex, a new eastside library, a brand new gymnasium, a new walking track, Waterloo Silver Lake has been rejuvenated and will have a nice walking path there,” he said.
He also noted that this year’s Lumin Festival, which will take place weeks before he steps down in November, will be bigger than ever.
“So we’re going to have a great year in 2022,” the mayor said. “And it’s really just a great time to pass the baton.”
Jaworsky is one of many former BlackBerry employees spread across the region.
He said the massive layoffs at the company helped spur him toward seeking the mayor’s job in 2014.
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“We had the economic downturn of thousands and thousands of people being displaced from our top employer in the community, and we needed to recover from that. So we’re undergoing an economic recovery,” he explained. “And so that was my main focus is to recover from that.”
He says the near demise of the once-giant firm has allowed many former co-workers to help rebuild the tech sector.
“You just looked across the landscape here and you’ll see great companies throughout Waterloo Region that have leveraged the technical expertise of ex-BlackBerry staff and have grown so much,” Jaworsky explained.
The mayor also took the job with an eye towards seeing the ION LRT project through to completion.
“Light rail transit is like open heart surgery on your city because it goes directly up the centre of your city,” he said.
“And we were able to come through that and now enjoy the fruits of having higher order transit in our community and the attractiveness of it.”
With just months to go, it appears as if Jaworsky is looking forward to spending some more time with his wife.
“In all my years as mayor, I’ve been on six international trips, one with my wife Jan and five with (Kitchener) Mayor Berry (Vrbanovic),” he said jokingly.
“There’s something wrong with that.”
He is not sure what his future generations will say about his legacy but that does not appear to be a concern for him.
“I certainly did not do this job for the pay. I did not do the job for legacy. I just wanted to do a a good job day in, day out and bring good leadership to augment what was here at the City of Waterloo,” he said.
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