Waye Mason

Waye Mason
Halifax City Councillor for District 7, Halifax South Downtown
Assumed office
November 6, 2012
Preceded by Sue Uteck
Personal details
Born 1972 (age 43–44)
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Nationality Canadian
Spouse(s) Marnie Gillis (m. 2007)
Occupation College Instructor & Event Organizer
Website http://wayemason.ca/

Waye Mason (born 1972) is a Canadian politician, who was elected to Halifax Regional Council in the 2012 Halifax election, defeating long time incumbent Sue Uteck in District 7 Halifax South Downtown. As a city councillor, Mason is regarded as an advocate for the arts, culture and heritage, governance, transit and active transportation, and good land use planning.

Background

Mason is the son of Vice Admiral (retired) and businessman Lynn Mason. Mason married his wife Marnie Gillis, a creative director for Doctors Nova Scotia, the provincial medical society, in 2007. They have two children.[1]

Mason has a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Dalhousie University where he was a volunteer at campus radio station CKDU, and involved with the Dalhousie Student Union. He holds a community college education diploma from NSCC and is taking his Masters of Business Administration part time at Saint Mary's University. In 1993 while attending Dalhousie he started his first business, No Records, a record label and later a wholesale 2007 distributor of cassettes, CDs and LPs, which went out of business in 2004. He also relaunched the Halifax Pop Explosion music festival in 2001, leaving as festival director in 2009. He was hired to teach the music business program at NSCC where he worked until his election in 2012.[2]

Politics

From 2006 to 2009 Mason was a leader of parents and residents against a Halifax Regional School Board proposal to closes Inglis, St Mary’s and Le Marchant St Thomas schools to create a single 700 student P-6 school, and then to close six elementary schools on the peninsula.[3]

In 2012, he ran as a candidate in District 7 defeating long time incumbent Sue Uteck as well as local business recruiter Gerry Walsh winning by 94 votes.[4]

He pioneered a process of participatory budgeting to distribute District 7's capital funding allocation, allowing residents to vote and chose what projects receive funding.[5][6]

Mason has been active supporting the arts, helping to establish municipal arts grant, a municipal arts council 'Arts Halifax',[7] and attempting to save the municipally owned Khyber Centre for the Arts.[8]

He is known as a "policy wonk", speaking out on potential insecurity of single authentication electronic voting[9] , campaign finance reform[10][11] , commercial tax reform[12] , the regional plan[13] , and downtown revitalization.[14]

He has served as the vice chair of the Halifax Public Libraries board since 2012, and as chair of the Community Planning Economic Development Standing Committee since 2014.[15]

Election results (2012)

Candidate Votes % ±%
Waye Mason 1,949 32.188
Sue Uteck (Incumbent) 1,855 30.636
Gerry Walsh 1,796 29.661
Dawgfather PHD 357 5.896
Mike MacDonell 98 1.618
Turnout 6,055

References

  1. ↑ "Waye Mason Councillor Halifax District 7". Retrieved 12 September 2015.
  2. ↑ Mason, Waye. "Waye Mason Linkedin Profile". Retrieved 12 September 2015.
  3. ↑ "Citadel Schools - education and advocacy for students and families in the Citadel High family of schools area". 17 February 2010. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
  4. ↑ Lightstone, Michael (20 October 2012). "New captain, familiar crew in Halifax". Chronicle Herald. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
  5. ↑ Bousquet, Tim (28 May 2012). "It's time to do away with councillor slush funds". The Coast. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
  6. ↑ Bundale, Brett (18 April 2014). "Coun. Waye Mason gives residents say on discretionary funds". Chronicle Herald. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
  7. ↑ Bernard, Elissa (31 March 2014). "Path to an arts council of Halifax’s own". Toronto Star. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
  8. ↑ Taylor, Stephanie (15 April 2015). "Halifax arts groups get six months to develop operating plan for Khyber". Metro News. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
  9. ↑ "The Coast Best of Halifax 2013". The Coast. 7 November 2013. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
  10. ↑ Bundale, Brett (26 December 2014). "City’s campaign spending conundrum". Chronicle Herald. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
  11. ↑ "Halifax may reform rules on campaign donations for councillors". CBC News. 23 April 2015. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
  12. ↑ Taylor, Stephanie (3 May 2015). "Halifax examines commercial tax options to give small businesses a break". Metro News. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
  13. ↑ Bousquet, Tim (3 April 2013). "Waye Mason District 7 (Peninsula South - Downtown)". Toronto Star. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
  14. ↑ Fraser, Laura (11 February 2014). "Halifax to seek cash for $50-million facelift of downtown". Toronto Star. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
  15. ↑ Mason, Waye. "Waye Mason Linkedin Profile". Retrieved 12 September 2015.

External links

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