A Windsor mayoral candidate is flanking himself with representatives of the business, labour and tech communities.
Matt Marchand revealed his honourary co-chairs on Thursday. They are auto executive Nick Marentette, Unifor National Auto Director Dino Chiodo and Amazon HR Director, Lillian Reaume.
Marchand believes this is the first time in Windsor's history that all of these various factions have thrown their support, as co-chairs, behind a mayoral candidate.
“This is the campaign that's going to bring people together to drive results,” says Marchand. “Only by working together can we achieve results, and what we saw today are the executives, leadership people in place to help drive change for Windsor through vision, plan, action."
“We need business, labour, and technology coming together and Matt can bring our community together to get revitalization going on here like we see in Detroit. We need a Downtown we can be proud of, that we can bring people to,” says Marentette.
“We want to ensure residents have every opportunity for education and training,” says Chiodo. “We want to attract and keep high-paying jobs in this area so we don’t lose our talented workers and youth.”
Both Marentette and Chiodo worked with Marchand when he was leading the Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce. Reaume is a Windsor native who graduated from Kennedy Collegiate and the University of Windsor and now lives in Seattle.
“I’ve worked with Matt and he understands that we need a vibrant, livable city with amenities to attract tech companies and to keep talent here in Windsor,” says Reaume.
Marchand is one of five candidates running for the Mayor’s job in Windsor.
Incumbent Drew Dilkens announced this week his intentions to seek a second term.
Tom Hensel, Ernie Lamont and Frank Dyck have also filed their papers.
The nomination period ends Friday at 2 p.m.
The municipal election is Oct. 22.
