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Coun. Matt Whitman says his campaign to gain the mayor’s seat in Halifax Regional Municipality will remain on course despite Mayor Mike Savage’s decision to challenge again for HRM’s top job.

“I haven’t heard that yet but it doesn’t change anything on my end,” Whitman said of Savage’s decision during a recess in Tuesday’s council meeting.

“My plans weren’t contingent on his plans. Mayor Savage and I have a mutual respect for each other, elected together in 2012, re-elected in 2016, worked together for eight years, on the same page on a lot of items.”

Coun. Waye Mason’s plans, on the other hand, are contingent on Savage’s decision, which the mayor shared with The Chronicle Herald earlier Tuesday.

“I’ll run for council,” Mason said of declining to take a run at the mayoralty in the municipal election coming up this fall.

“I said I wouldn’t run against Mike,” said Mason, who has represented downtown Halifax on regional council for the past two terms. “He’s been a great mayor, he was the mayor that we needed. The city was pretty rudderless. Seven years ago it was all about everybody is going to move to Moncton, no young people would stay here. Nobody says any of those things anymore. I think this council under Savage’s leadership has gone a long way to lead that.”

Mason referred to his successful efforts in altering the province’s expansion plans for a parking garage and power plant near the Halifax Infirmary site as evidence of what a strong voice on council can achieve.

“I think I’ve demonstrated, especially in the last month or two, that I’ll still cause a lot of trouble and effect a lot of change as a councillor,” Mason said of the parking garage compromise with the province that will result in the closure or realignment of part of Summer Street to accommodate the parkade by expanding the current Infirmary site.

“Sure, I’d love to be mayor someday but I’m happy to stay as councillor for now,” Mason said. “Mike's been pretty clear that he would do two or three terms. Obviously, it’s a little early to speculate about 2024. I’ve got to get through the 2020 election first and we’ll see what happens.”

Mason said the mayor had provided strong indications that he might reoffer but he didn’t hear an official word until Tuesday.

Whitman targets spending

For his part, Whitman said the big difference between him and Savage is on spending.

“You can see with the impacts of globalization and blockades and all of these things that are outside of HRM’s control, we need to be cautious with our spending going forward, including this particular budget,” said Whitman, who is representing Hammonds Plains-St. Margarets for a second term.

“We’re going to take a look, to buckle down and make sure we spend wisely. I’m the mayor for that. I’m the guy that will watch the dollars, I will meddle in every department to make sure that every dollar is spent wisely. That’s the big difference between the two of us.”

Whitman said he has a “real beef” with the municipality’s procurement department, generating countless questions from the would-be mayor during council meetings about why tenders and requests for proposals don’t always go to the lowest bidder.

“A good example was the sidewalk snow-clearing contract where the lowest bidder was $1 million for a particular route and we went with a $4-million bid because staff said the other group was too low and then said that they didn’t do a good job the year before,” Whitman said. “I think if you enforce the letter of the contract, then you compare apples to apples and you can go with the lowest bidder. Unfortunately, our procurement system doesn’t make that easy. We don’t get good value. We overpay on almost everything that we purchase, whether it’s a swing set, a bus, a fire truck, a ferry, we overspend and it’s time to reel that in under a Whitman government.”

Savage, a former member of Parliament who will turn 60 in May, is a decade older than Whitman. Savage had comfortable mayoral victories in 2016 and 2012 by 33,000 and 41,000 votes, respectively.

Whitman ousted incumbent Peter Lund by 400 votes in 2012 to win his district and followed up with a 1,500-vote victory over runner-up Pamela Lovelace in 2016.

“I don’t see it as a risk, I see it as a reward,” Whitman said in October in announcing he would give up his district seat for the 2020 mayoralty.

No one else has thrown their hat into the mayoral ring as of yet.

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