His mom, Glenda James, is a former Moose Jaw city councillor. And when he was younger, Jamaal would take in a handful of meetings in council chambers, learning how things worked at the civic level and developing an interest in politics at a young age.
Now, he wants to do his part.
James is one of 15 candidates running for election on Nov. 9, and hopes to follow in his family’s footsteps when the time comes.
“I’ve been a life-long resident here and I love my city, and I see some things that I think we can improve on,” James said “I’d like to be part of the process of making things better going forward.
“I bring 40 years of growing up in this community and living here and building relationships with people. I think I bring a strong voice, because I’m not afraid to talk to people and I’m quite approachable. Anyone who knows me knows they can walk up to me and talk to me about what’s going on in the city. I’m definitely opinionated and I definitely like to take time to listen and understand where people are coming from. So I think I’d be a great advocate for the people of Moose Jaw.”
One of James’ major focuses will be the current financial and employment situation in the city — managing fiscal affairs more efficiently while finding ways to improve infrastructure and bring in jobs will only help the city going forward, he says.
“We’ve taken a few hard hits over the last 20, 30 years losing business and good-paying jobs and I’d like to see us get some of those jobs back… we need people to want to come here and stay here, make the city more suitable for business development,” James said.
One of the major issues in the 2020 election is the recently announced Wakamow Valley subdivision. James is opposed to the plan, citing environmental and historical issues in addition to offering support to current valley residents.
“We have people who have been waiting for years to rebuild that bridge on 7th Southwest, so they had access to their properties, as well as getting water and sewer lines sorted out for them,” James said. “So I think it’s a disservice to them to be thinking of a project like this while neglecting their needs.
“On top of that, it’s destruction of valuable green space and a wildlife sanctuary. There’s a vast amount of wildlife in that valley, and paving over it and building a neighbourhood in a flood plain isn’t smart, either. The amount of work they’d have to do just to make it viable for development would have serious negative consequences for the environment down there, plus it could potentially bury a ton of history, in how there was indigenous and Metis activity down in that valley. There’s probably archeological value we haven’t found yet…. I’m not opposed to development, I just think there are better places it could be done.”
That kind of historical preservation is also something James would like to work on.
“We’ve fallen by the wayside a bit that way in recent years, and I’d like to see us tapping that resource,” he said. “We lost a huge part of our history when we lost River Street, but there are other parts of our city that have architectural value that we could explore.”
A Canadian Pacific employee the last eight years and former Moose Jaw Kinsmen Club member, James hopes his knowledge of the issues will help act as one of the deciding factors when Moose Jaw votes.
“I think people should vote for me because I do have that life-long experience, I do have knowledge of the issues that affect taxpayers and I’d be a strong voice for them in council,” he said. “I’m willing to listen to their concerns and bring them up and I’ll do everything I can to help.”
