Sheldon Rosen and Marshall Heatherington filed their nomination papers at town hall for this fall’s coming municipal election over a week ago and incumbent mayor Ellen Anderson filed her paperwork this week.

Anderson has served two terms as Mayor of The Blue Mountains, one as Mayor of Thornbury prior to amalgamation and another term as a councillor on Thornbury council.

Mayor Ellen also sits on the board for the cross-border Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative. She was a founding member of the Southern Georgian Bay Coastal Initiative and also sits on the standing committee for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. In the past she was a board member of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.

She says the big issues she’s committed to over the years have been affordable housing, the environment – with a focus on water in particular, and youth initiatives.

Sheldon Rosen, owner of the Lodges at Blue Mountain, says he wants to bring his business experience to The Blue Mountains council table.

Though he says he’s still working on his platform, his main focus is tourism.

“The biggest industry in this town is tourism,” said Rosen in a phone interview. “[Current council] do very little or nothing to promote tourism... there are a lot of issues going on that are affecting a business that I’ve been involved in and I don’t see a lot of direction.”

Rosen skied at Blue Mountain as a child and later played golf in the area. He purchased his first property in the area in 2002 and Lodges at Blue Mountain now rents several properties in the area. He also has a home in Richmond Hill.

Rosen is looking to promote the town further as a four season destination and grow the full-time population.

“A majority of people who live here now have been a tourist at one time,” said Rosen. “We need to continue to give that tourist a good experience.”

He compares his idea to a sample counter at a grocery store. A customer has a taste and if they like it, they buy it.

Rosen said he would like to see a “method to the madness” of local development including some regulation of style and concept. And he also believes there should be more development on the waterfront.

“We should encourage the right kind of development,” he said.

His other platforms include ideas in low cost housing for the service industry, a transit system to solve the disconnect that he says exists between Blue Mountain and Collingwood, reducing taxes and looking at government spending.

“Reduce costs instead of raise taxes,” he said. “Taxes shouldn’t have to go up all the time.”

He said the town is attractive to many people and needs to continue to provide services for those people.

“To sustain the economy, we need to convert more and more tourists into residents,” he said. “Without tourism, there’s going to be a lot of problems.

Marshall Heatherington’s family has lived The Blue Mountains for more than a 100 years and says he wants to run a campaign that is literally made by the people. He filed for mayor, but said he’ll back out of the race if he can find a better candidate that he could support.

He says that living and building in The Blue Mountains right now makes him feel like “a dog chasing his tail,” and he wants to bring a “boots on the ground approach.”

“I don’t think that spending is going the right way,” said Heatherington in a phone interview. “I’d like to see money spent more where the municipality can actually do something as opposed to gradual projects.”

He believes the Medical Centre facility should take higher priority than the town hall.

However, Heatherington said he’d like to know from the community what they would like that they can’t seem to get now. He has a post office box in Clarksburg, number 462, and asks that any member of the community let him know what they think he should campaign on.

He also adds that if he can find someone not connected to the current council and with the dedication and eye for opportunity that matches his, he’ll step down to support their campaign.

“I want to see the right person in there,” he said. “That may or may not be me.”

As for generalities, he’d like to see things “tight and in house.” He says there’s too much red tape and he wants to see things done in the town.