Young gun brings innovation, vision to Cochrane

Truper McBride, BA’04, discovered a passion for politics while watching an American presidential race unfold. Now he’s bringing that zeal to his role as mayor of Cochrane.

By Matthew Fox

Is there an interesting story behind your given name?

I nearly died at birth and my dad said I pulled through like a trooper. My mom liked the name but not the spelling so she changed the spelling to Truper from Trooper.

When did you first become interested in politics?

I’m originally from London, Ontario and in 1992, when I was 15-years-old, my dad’s house was under renovation so we lived at my grandmother’s house for a couple of months. The American presidential election was on and she loved it, it was like a soap opera for her. I thought it was really interesting as well. In Canada we went into a leadership race for the federal PC party in 1993 to replace Mulroney-Campbell. I got involved at that time and I ended up in Ottawa as a delegate at the convention. That was my first exposure to politics and subsequently I helped out on a few campaigns, including Mike Harris’ campaign for Ontario premier. When I moved to Cochrane in 1995 for my last year of high school, it dropped away for a while, until 2000 when I got back involved in the federal party. I stayed with the PC party through the dark years when they were reduced to two seats and I ran against Myron Thompson in the Wild Rose riding in 2000 when I was a student at the U of C.

Municipal politics wasn’t something that I ever imagined I’d get into. But after the 2000 election, the PC party said to me, “You should keep your name out there, you’ve got lots of ideas, run municipally.” I spoke to two or three people in high-profile positions in the community every few weeks. The more I learned, the more I started seeing how large a role municipal governments plays in the everyday lives of people. In 2001, I ran for Cochrane’s council. I scored third, with the top six getting elected to council.

After two terms I wasn’t planning on running again, and I felt burnt out. I had a different ideology on some of the projects the municipality was adopting. But enough people asked me to run in 2007 for mayor, and I ended up winning.

As the leader of a small town who wasn’t born and raised in it, do you ever encounter resistance from life-long residents?

Over three-quarters of Cochrane’s population is new since 1990 and many of them have come from out of the province, so it hasn’t been something I’ve encountered. Cochrane is growing so quickly that the length of time you have been in the community doesn’t play as large a role as in other communities.

Did you see yourself in this role, leading a community, so early in your career?

I don’t think so. It was something I wanted to get into later in life. Becoming a viable candidate seemed like a daunting process, and I wasn’t sure how I would position myself to be seen as credible, especially given my youth. I assumed it would be something I would get into later in life, in my forties perhaps. There was a lot of work behind it, a lot of research to do. Age was an issue in 2001. People were saying, “He’s 24, how effective can he be on council? He hasn’t held a job yet, he doesn’t have a family, he doesn’t have children.” These life skills are things the community values. I had to go the extra mile to prove I was capable.

What changes have resulted from Cochrane’s growth?

The town seems to assimilate people into two camps. One is pro-growth and the second really wants to keep it as a small town. They even keep different social circles—before they end up in front of council, they’ve never seen each other in their lives, and we’re only a town of just under 15,000 people. Because of those two camps, it is a very politically active town. There are people saying, “Leave the small town behind. Get rid of that western heritage architecture. Accept that we’re a city, and move on with life.” Then there is the other side, saying, “This isn’t why we moved here. Close the doors, cap the population.” I think there’s a way to do both but what we’ve been missing is a collective, shared vision. What is the town going to look like in 15, 25 years? Council needs to take a lead role in helping the community shape that vision so everyone is heading in the same direction, and there isn’t fear that we’re going to lose something, or that we’re not going to attain a certain level of economic development. I think there is a way to do both, and we’re kicking off a sustainability plan that’s going to include a community-driven visioning process. We’re developing a 50-year vision with 25-year milestones. My hope is that it’s going to get people out of those rigid ideological blocks so that we can bring the two camps together.

What’s your own personal vision for Cochrane?

I’d like to maintain that small town look and feel as the town continues to grow. What I think is very important is that we don’t turn into a bedroom community for Calgary. There’s that risk that we—Cochrane, Airdrie, Okotoks, Chestermere—are running right now and some have accepted it, but Cochrane doesn’t want that. We have to work hard on our economic development, on practicing sustainability, on making sure we’re paying attention to the social and cultural fabric of Cochrane, as well as the environment, and giving everything equal weighting. We’re heavily dependent on Calgary, and that is always going to be a factor—you can’t ignore a million people living right next to you. People want to be able to work and live in Cochrane, and right now we can’t all do that.

If there’s one thing you could change about Cochrane what would it be?

I would not have our downtown being redeveloped into a big box area, which is what’s happening. We’re getting a Wal-Mart coming in and that was an incredibly divisive issue in the community and with the last council. I don’t think that was the right decision and it’s going to have dramatic effect on the community and how sustainable we can be. The downtown area redevelopment plan was changed to allow this. In the old plan, we had land designated for light industrial, mixed residential and affordable housing, and we lost all that for retail. That was a step backwards. This council is the subdivision authority for the community and so we’re making sure what happens next is the best fit for Cochrane. The municipality is entitled to up to 10 percent of the land in any development for parks, schools, municipal facilities. The developer isn’t too keen on giving us anything right now, they want to give us cash-in-lieu, and it’s a very complicated issue because the site is contaminated as well. It’s a big quagmire.

What’s happening in Cochrane that is innovative?

I’m really pushing, and the community is pushing, for a regional heavy rail transit system. The Calgary Regional Partnership is an organization that’s been in the background for a while, but you’re going to hear more about it. We’re looking to transform how the region develops, and what I’d like to do is switch from a region based on road transportation to one based on rail transportation. That would be a first in North America. We’re going to be making some big strides in changing how the region develops, changes density levels, and rail is going to be the way we achieve that. Traditionally a city waits for population density levels to build up before putting in light rail. What we’re talking about is the reverse. Throw the rail into a greenfield, and then you build around the rail. This is a platform I ran on in the last election. We are really pushing this forward in the development of the new regional land use plan. It could be quite something when it’s done. We are still very early in the process—for it to happen Calgary Transit would need to morph into a regional transit authority, and that would be the organization we would deal with. Using existing CP lines, it would link Cochrane, Airdrie and Okotoks [through Calgary] with future expansion to High River, Canmore. Strathmore is on the CN line and it would tie in with Chestermere. CP is working with us, but CN hasn’t said anything about it. Where I would like to go further with a rail system that ties into Calgary is have it stop at Cochrane, then at Stoney Nation, then shoot it out as a link into the national park system; then you are taking vehicles off the road. You can achieve environmental benefits just by removing vehicles from the road, but the economic development spin-offs are generated by people who can more easily take day trips to Cochrane or the mountains without having to get into their cars. We are a nation built on rail and somewhere along the line we forgot that. This is a terrific opportunity to showcase the Calgary region using rail in innovative ways.

Are there other leaders you like to emulate?

There is one person I’ve worked with for a couple of years, Kim Flegg, at Long View Systems while contracting for AdFarm. I reported to her and really admired her style—how she approached issues, how she dealt with conflict—and that has really affected how I approach this job and how I deal with conflict. When I first got on council when I was much more, “I’m the boss, this is how it’s going to be.” Kim has had a tremendous impact on me and made me realize that leadership is much more inclusive. She taught me a lot about people. In general in Canada, I’ve been really disappointed with the political leadership because there is a void of ideas, there is lot of managing of day-to-day stuff, rather than wondering what can we do, what is possible. I see a lot of ideas, even at the municipal level in Cochrane, [that aren’t executed because] it is difficult to step outside of that comfortable box. Instead people say, “Well, this is just how we do it.” With this rail issue, it is completely feasible, but I hear people say, “We’re going to run a deficit on rail, transit costs, money.” Well, we don’t break even on roads, we don’t even collect fares on roads. It is about stepping outside of that box, but nobody seems too comfortable doing that today. People seem content with winning office and staying there. There have not been many political leaders I could look up to.

What’s your favourite place in Cochrane?

The Cochrane Ranche. This valley and the trail system from here leading down to the river are beautiful.