Brad is back
Woodside continues to lead Fredericton while being an every day man.
There's an open can of Budweiser sitting on the patio table; deck chairs are scattered left and right, with a hanging umbrella waiting to be mounted on the deck. It's in the mid-20s and Brad Woodside, red baseball cap slightly askew, has just finished mowing the lawn.
He answers the door with the grin Frederictonians have come to know and respect. "Want a beer?" He asks, talking a mile a minute as a white Bichon Frise named Kirby jumps excitedly around his feet. Later, his wife Anne will admit how much that dog loves Brad; and he does, waiting, tail wagging, at the fence for Woodside to unlatch the gate.
It's a beautiful house in a nice neighbourhood on Fredericton's North Side, and the cloudless sky and bright sun match Woodside's hearty demeanour. He's just come from one of this weekend's two charity events, and the odour of fiddleheads and frying onions wafts through the house as Anne cooks Sunday dinner. Pictures of their kids, Carrie and Michael, and relatives are stuck with magnets to the fridge; a laptop on the coffee table shows a snap of Anne and their daughter in New York a few weeks ago.
Everything in the house is as candid and refreshingly unpretentious as Woodside himself, and it's instantly obvious why he's become Fredericton's longest-standing mayor: the role fits him like a glove.
It wasn't always like that. Growing up, Woodside was shy; public speaking made him "nervous and sweaty," he admits. It wasn't until he joined a band "" the Impalas, who played rock 'n' roll covers "" in junior high that things took a complete 180.
"I remember my first gig with the band. About 300 people showed up at the opening of this dairy bar and we were playing our first song, and I'm standing back by the drummer. The guy who's playing lead guitar, Greg, turns to me and he says, 'You gotta be out front, you're the singer'! And I said, 'There's a lot of people here, it's kinda scary out there'," Woodside says. "I was standing in the back and some people couldn't see me. So I was never outgoing and aggressive like I am now.
"I gave my first speech at Devon School in Grade 9, when I ran for president of student government," he adds. "And you know, I was playing in the band at that time and I remember getting on the stage and everybody that was running for president sort of stood there, prim and proper, and gave a speech and stuff. I just wasn't really used to that whole thing, so when I got up I grabbed the microphone and sort of tilted it and the place went wild. I just gave my first political speech and I was elected president."
From that point, it just got bigger and better: Woodside became a central figure on the Fredericton public speaking circuit, even capturing first runner-up at the World Toastmaster's Championships in Cape Cod "" a far cry from those first awkward minutes hiding by the drum set. With that followed a stint with the JCs and, finally, a seat as councillor in 1981. His first term as mayor began in 1986, and despite a brief hiatus, he's been going strong ever since.
This past four years, he says, were his best yet: a focus on environmental awareness, tourism, and information technology have bolstered the city's reputation in the global marketplace, and as a progressive-thinking 'green' community.
"I had gotten back from China and I was doing my state of the city address, and I had my 23 pages that everybody had prepared from all different departments, and I had a huge crowd, and I was thinking about this China trip, and I set my notes down and just started talking," he explains, referring to the city's current campaign for environmental education.
"I had this idea: to let people know how good it is here, I have to let them know how bad it is in the rest of the world. So I talked about the big picture...and then I said, you know, it's pretty difficult when you live in a place that's so much like a garden, to be concerned about the environment, but we should be just as concerned as anybody else. This problem is going to affect us and we have to be really focused and appreciate what we have, clean water and clean air. And so, anyway, I fired everybody up on that speech."
The Green Matters campaign, which hopes to make Fredericton one of the first cities in the country to reach Kyoto greenhouse gas emission targets, is hitting the ground running. With an online Green Club, tips to help people reduce emissions, and a good chunk of change set aside for the project, it's innovative and, Woodside says, incredibly important.
But green living is just part of Fredericton's charm. It's a small community with a big-city infrastructure, and Woodside "" who grew up here "" is moving forward to keep the city fresh with big-time flavour.
"The most important thing is to continue to promote, to have the city move ahead, but in a very manageable way," he says. "As they say, the most important thing about this city is the small-town ambience, the beauty, and I don't want to jeopardize those things. I think we have to be very careful as we grow, how we grow, appreciating our heritage. And we're doing really well.
"For example, everybody's concerned about population growth...ours was up 6.3 per cent in the last census. The national average was 5.8 per cent. A lot of people moving to the city, a lot of immigrants, a lot of businesses relocating here."
And Woodside is a testament to the city's popularity; he's a recognizable figure on city streets, and in city businesses. Just last night, he admits, he dropped into Jack's Pizza in downtown Freddy for a quick slice.
"It's all about Fredericton," he says. "I travel all over the world and visit some amazing incredible cities...I love New York, it's one of my favourite cities, but I wouldn't want to live in New York and I wouldn't want to live outside New York and commute two hours every day, four hours in my car. So I think we have the best of both worlds."
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