There is a municipal election on November 10, but is it art?
Margeree Edwards
You are running for mayor but is it art?
“Oh definitely. I think there’s an artist in all of us. I am an artist for the same reason I am a good leader – I have the ability to see things in different ways from different perspectives.”
Margeree Edwards is the only candidate running who shares the exact same birth date and year as Bob Dylan. Is she a hippie? I am not sure, but she is really cool! She isn’t ashamed to admit that she enjoys watching the Simpsons! “I hated the Simpsons at first but now I think they are kind of neat. “Lisa is my favourite character she carries and reflects the show.”
Margeree likes any author who is a “wordsmith” – someone who invents words. “I enjoy authors who write about retribution and resolution – where the person is cast against the idiographic.
Margeree’s career and expertise in art is dynamic and well established. Margeree believes that art is anything that causes her to think and feel – deeply. Anything that can do this over and over again is art. Margeree works in video production and has eighteen artistic films to her name. She has played percussion and the clarinet in a symphony orchestra. She believes that her twos sons are the greatest work of art she has produced.
Doug Peacock
You are running for mayor, but is it art?
“Every job has two sides . There is a skill side that includes experience and education and there is the artistic side. The real key to success as mayor is on the artistic side. The artistic side consists of charisma, how you approach people and collect their thoughts. Listening to people.”
Doug believes that art can be whatever you want it to be. Individual, diverse, and creative. “It is unique – it can’t be manufactured or mass-produced. It is visual and spiritual.” His own campaign has art in it. His campaign sign has a peacock design in it done by local artist Neil Broadfoot.
Although Doug has not painted since grade nine he did do a concert on his last day as high school principal. He sang, “It’s a Wonderful World” but replaced the word “world” with “school”. He sang in front of an assembly with the school band playing in the background. He’s only done this once and insists that there have been no demands for an encore performance. His biggest role as an artist has been encouraging students to do art. In his capacity as high school principal he made sure that sports did not take over the arts. He never cancelled an art class even if there were only eight students in it. Many of his students have gone on to perform at theatres in Peterborough and Toronto – he remains their most avid fan.
Doug loves the blues – particularly local blues. He doesn’t understand opera but this hasn’t stopped him from going to ten operas in his life. He would go more if his wife enjoyed it. His favourite author is William Kinsalla. He has a love for Canadian nostalgia and baseball. “He’s a great writer about aboriginal and social issues. He weaves it through very nicely”.
Sylvia Sutherland
You are running for mayor but is it art?
“Being Mayor? Art? No. I don’t consider being mayor as art but it all depends on your definition.”
Sylvia believes that art is something intriguing and creative. She states that art should be something that inspires, moves you, speaks to you, excites you or depresses you.
She has a secret ambition to be an artist someday. She muses: “I’ll probably be like Grandma Moses and start later on in life!” Sylvia was a reporter and freelance photographer for the Toronto Telegram. She still enjoys doing the odd photograph as an outlet for artistic expression.
Sylvia enjoys listening to the brilliant Baroque sounds of the Brandenburg Concertos. Although she is partial to jazz and folk she has eclectic tastes. Does she like Abba? “I’ll take it or leave it” she says. Whether it be music or literature she likes a bit of everything. She is currently reading “Gift From the Sea” by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. “I keep reading it over and over again as it speaks to women at different stages in their lives”.
She writes a regular column in the Examiner because she misses writing and believes it is nice to focus on the lighter side of being mayor. Sylvia wrote the fictional “Caitlin Jones” column in the Peterborough Examiner until announcing her candidacy for Mayor in 1997. Her column which reads more like a diary, is posted on the City of Peterborough website – we have a mayor that keeps an online blog! That’s cool.
