Randal Goodfellow is Running for Councillor in Westport
Randal Goodfellow has a professional and educational background in agriculture and forestry and a long history of volunteerism.
“I have always volunteered at least a third of my time to the common good, and that’s how I’ve got to this spot,” said Goodfellow. He sees his bid for a seat on council as an extension of his service ethic.
He refers to the motto from his old alma mater, McDonald College, the agricultural school at McGill University, “Mastery for Service,” which he describes as a call to master your trade so that you can serve others.
Early in his career, he was a senior manager with the Bank of Montreal specializing in agriculture financing. He followed that with two years in a development program for rural agriculture leadership. He incorporated his own consulting company in the early 1990s. That led to work with universities, farm organizations, economic development agencies, the private sector, provincial and federal governments and politicians, sometimes as an adviser, other times as a lobbyist.
His work honed his skills as a facilitator, bringing parties together, something he said he has always been good at and a role he clearly found deeply satisfying. “Sometimes it’s a matter of walking between the parties, translating what it is they say they want and how they express it, and finding a way to find the common ground where something can be achieved that no one group by itself could achieve,” said Goodfellow.
He has also been a member and executive on boards for not-for-profit organizations, at local, provincial and national levels, and for private-sector organizations as well.
Although this is his first run at elected office, he equates the role of municipal councillor as similar to that of a board member for the corporation of the Village of Westport.
He describes the job as “predominantly to listen,” but “also to be creative about possibilities.”
He tells me at various points in the interview that you need to be realistic about things, have patience and understand the amount of time it takes to get something done. But also have fortitude when things aren’t going according to plan.
I ask him if he would describe himself as a pragmatist. “I am when I need to be,” he explained. “I’m also a big cheerleader for things, so when something needs to be explained, needs to be championed, needs to have a lot of people engaged in it, I’ve always had the ability to mobilize people.”
He is a founding investor in the Westport Tourism Group (WTG), a volunteer organization that works to attract tourism and support the local business community. As their director of trails, he has successfully worked to develop and promote trails in the area. He is also on the board of the Rideau Trails Association.
As to big issues that will confront the new council, he expects single-tier government to be one of them. He said there are pluses and minuses to everything. “One really needs to understand what the costs are and whether it can be achieved. So, I don't think we have enough information and depth of analysis on it.”
He is also sure there will be questions about “the expanded number of houses in Westport, and how that may affect the infrastructure in the village.”
“On one side of it, the more people living in Westport, the broader the tax base, and I also understand that there's going to be infrastructure costs to that, so that has to be dealt with. So, what's the cost-benefit?”
Given his economics and banking background, “numbers mean a fair bit to me,” he said.
He grew up on a farm outside of a small town in Quebec. He considers himself “a rural farm guy, who on occasion has lived in urban areas for employment purposes.” With a view to semi-retirement, he bought a farm in Fermoy, not far from Westport, some 12 years ago. He actively works the property as a maple sugar producer. He is past president of the Ontario Maple Sugar Producers Association.
He also bought property in Westport about five years ago and has lived in the village for more than three years. He said living in Westport is like coming back to the type of roots he grew up with.
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