Dean Martin credits his colourful life as tradesperson, truck driver, pilot, and even professional wrestler for positioning him to run for mayor of Red Lake.
The owner of a construction business said he’s running because it’s taking too long to get the things done in the municipality.
“People in the area don’t understand [why it’s] taking so long to get fixed up roads and different things in the community,” he said. “I’m sitting here questioning why things aren’t being run [properly] and listening to a lot of people upset at not seeming to get anywhere, hearing promises and not getting anything done, or seeing anything done.
“I figured it’s about time, instead of sitting on my couch and griping about it, I should get up and do something about it.”
Martin said he learned many of the skills needed to lead Red Lake from his experiences running his own business for 20 years.
“I’ve done everything and still do everything from running heavy equipment to driving a truck. I’ve built roads, I’ve built houses, I’ve done everything from the ground up. When it comes to building, I know all that,” he said.
He said even his time as a professional wrestler on the independent Canadian circuit from 2000 until 2004 gave him an invaluable skill.
“The wrestling taught me the psychology of people, which really helps when you’re in negotiations with people,” he said. “I know how to read people and put them into the best possible spot for them to shine and get the job done and try to keep everybody happy and on a good page.”
Martin said the biggest issue facing Red Lake, is longevity.
“I watched it in my lifetime go from a very busy town, you know it’s a gold mining town, there’s money here and when I first got here, we had a very busy downtown and I watched it go from a very busy to boarded up windows,” he said. “I don’t see and I don’t hear of any plans for our future.
“For me it just seems like we’ve lost a lot of the closeness that we used to have in our small little community here and I would like to bring some unity back, to it was like 35 years ago when everybody helped everybody else out.”
He also identified the lack of housing options as severely limiting the community.
“That’s where we’re really hurting right now. You know it’s hard to find a hotel room, its hard to find an apartment, its hard to find a house,” he said. “So I’m wondering, why don’t we have a plan in place for where our next subdivision is going to go. Why do we not have a plan in place for maybe one or two bedroom apartments.”
Martin said Red Lake can regain that community spirit, “but we need a leader that will bring everybody together. So for some reason I figure I could be that leader.”
