Council Candidate Matthew McReynolds Talks Chatham-Kent Sports

CKSN asked all candidates running for Chatham-Kent council and mayor, to give us their backgrounds in sports and recreation, and describe their goals and views for not only sports and recreation in Chatham-Kent, but making Chatham-Kent a healthier, and more active place to live.
The Chatham-Kent Municipal election day is October 27, 2014.

Here are council candidate Matthew McReynolds’s responses. McReynolds is running for council in Ward 6 – Chatham.

1. Background in sports and recreation:

I grew up in Chatham-Kent playing everything from travel ice hockey to golf, baseball, soccer, volleyball, basketball, in-line and ball hockey. These programs help teach the youth in this community integrity, how to live active, healthier lifestyles and they also help develop friendships that can last a lifetime. To this day, some of the best friends I have are the ones I grew up playing sports with.

I also co-organized the Terry Fox run in the past and have volunteered my spare time to coach ball hockey. Up until last year I played in the maple city hockey league, but today, my playing time is generally on weekends in tournaments.

2. What specific ideas or goals do you have for Chatham-Kent, to improve or maintain recreational programs and facilities, and support our athletes and sports organizations? Or to help build opportunities for future growth in these areas?

There needs to be a twin-pad arena in Chatham-Kent. We need more ice time available after school and before 11:00pm. The only option for youth teams to practice shouldn’t be first thing in the morning before school or late at night when they have school the next day. In the past there have been numerous locations brought forward for this, but nothing seems to be accomplished to move this forward. This would also help create better ice time for adult leagues.

3. How will you work to make Chatham-Kent a healthier, more active place to live?

We need to have more incentives for people to buy locally grown fruits, vegetables even meat products. If you look at where most of your produce is coming from at an average grocery store it’s usually from outside of Canada. We’re surrounded by world class agriculture land and we should take advantage of that, not only to help people live a healthier lifestyle, but to help support your community.

In terms of making C-K a more active place, we need to continue to promote our youth and adult sports leagues. Exercise is always easier when you’re doing something that’s fun and people need to find out what activity works best for them.

4. Anything else you’d like to add?

There really should be some sort of incentive or tax deduction from gym membership fees, but unfortunately that would likely have to come from the provincial level. You can provide all the education and knowledge you want on the benefits of living a healthier more active lifestyle, but ultimately it’s up to the individual. People need to make their own minds up and commit to doing this for themselves and their families.

What did you think of Council Candidate Matthew McReynolds’ responses? Let us know in the comments below!