The pandemic has impacted governments across the state. What do you see as the biggest challenges as a result of the pandemic? What do you see as your role in the response to these challenges?

The biggest challenge from the pandemic is to facilitate social cooperation on a community scale. People won’t use local retailers unless they feel safe. To feel safe, they must be safe; feeling safe follows being safe—but it follows at a great distance. To be safe, we need widespread, visible infection control measures. There has been far too much focus on what we cannot do, and far to little on what we can do.

My role is to stand up to bullies, to listen carefully to people with whom I disagree and to call those whom no one else calls.