Hollerado had an interesting discussion with Mayor Hobbs. Hobbs was the first Mayor the band has met who knew about Mayor Quimby from The Simpsons or Mayor Adam West from Family Guy.
“We think John K. Samson from The Weakerthans should be the mayor of Winnipeg,” blogged the band. “Unfortunately, he is not, and neither the current mayor, deputy mayor nor the acting deputy made themselves available for a meeting. That’s cool though. After speaking with Mayor Hobbs in Thunder Bay we had a lot to think about”.
The Band blogged, “Mayor Keith Hobbs was on the Thunder Bay Police force for over 35 years before becoming mayor. Thunder Bay is a gritty city, facing more than its share of challenges, and in our opinion, they could not have picked a better man for the job of mayor. Keith, as he insisted we call him, is the type of person you want living next door to you. A strong man, with a great sense of humor who likes a cold beer; A rabid hockey fan who will bend over backwards to help you out or maybe shovel your driveway just because he was already out there doing his.
“But god help the person who tries to mess with him, the Bruins or anyone he cares about, and in this case the people he cares about are the citizens of Thunder Bay. Not just the wealthy, the business owners and his voting base. Keith is a fighter for the marginalized, the poor, the addicted, the out of work, even for many of the Native communities on reserves hundreds of miles away from the city which he was elected to serve.
“One of the first things he told us was that he is a conservative. I must admit that we were a little thrown off by this information, as this word conjures up images of Stephen Harper, George Bush and Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. What we soon learned from Keith is that there is a such thing as a compassionate conservative. Who knew that you could be a conservative and still care about the environment, still care about social services, not to mention fight actively for the right of the poor and marginalized.
“The mayor spoke to us passionately about the First Nations communities in the remote areas surrounding Thunder Bay. Many of these communities are only accessible by roads during the icy depths of winter and are living in third world conditions, lacking proper housing, sanitation and basic medical services. One particular community has a population of 800 of which 150 suffer from diabetes”.
Hollerado concluded, “We learned a lot from Mayor Hobbs, and I think he inspired us to play our hearts out that night in Thunder Bay. He is a very cool mayor”.