Ward 1 Councillor Michael van Holst has abandoned thoughts of a mayoral run.
The two-term London city councillor filed his nomination papers on Monday morning seeking re-election in the ward he's held since 2014.
Early last month, van Holst announced on his website that he was "considering" a run for mayor. He said at the time that he had "a decision to make."
On Monday, van Holst told LondonNewsToday.ca that his decision to not run for the city's top job, is due to the fact that the role is a big commitment, one that he said his family preferred he not take on.
"Seeing how many people appreciated my performance over the years, encouraged me to take the larger role and were willing to help just made my ultimate decision that much harder," vanHolst said. "Trying to make everyone happy is the unattainable goal that politicians face. However, most of what I hope to accomplish can be done from the office of a councillor, and I have eight years of experience now in driving forward new ideas and solutions."
van Holst has, at times, been a controversial councillor. He fought against mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations, going as far as to create a new creed, called 'The Order of Freedom', to try to obtain an exemption. In promoting that creed, Integrity Commissioner Gregory Stewart said van Holst violated the Council Code of Conduct. However, in a 7-7 vote, his council colleagues declined to reprimand him for his actions. van Holst was permitted to take part in the decision, voting against any punishment.
In what was then considered a major upset, van Holst defeated long-time city councillor Bud Polhill in 2014 to be elected to his first term as the representative for Ward 1. He was easily re-elected in 2018 and soon after ran federally for the Conservative Party of Canada in 2019 in the riding of London-Fanshawe. He lost to New Democrat Lindsay Mathyssen.
If re-elected this fall, van Holst said he has a number of priorities he would like to address based off concerns from residents in Ward 1, which mainly covers the central-east part of the city. He noted that this upcoming term will likely be challenging due to rapid inflation.
"Residents I speak to are concerned about the plight of the homeless, the need for affordable housing, people beset by addiction and mental health problems, the amount of crime that seems to go unaddressed, and their wanting to get back to a normal life after the last two years," van Holst said. "Some are troubles that require out-of-the-box thinking, cooperation from all levels of government and help from the community so that is another reason this will be a challenging term."
There are so far four other candidates vying for the seat in Ward 1. They include Ryan Cadden, Janette Cameron, Oberon Goodden, and Kenneth Saunders.
Anyone considering running in this fall's municipal election has until August 19 to file their paperwork.
Londoners go to the polls on October 24.
-With files from Craig Needles.
