When Kilometres Feel Like Just Next Door: How Brad Nieman’s Vision for the County Centers Around Community

Before we sat down for a coffee chat at Cressy Mustard in Waupoos, Brad Nieman and I had never exchanged a word.

I knew something of his platform because I had attended the Mayoral Debate at The Regent, and an All-Candidates Meeting in my ward, North Marysburgh. What I didn’t know was how he would explain them across a table, with time to think, follow a question, and occasionally have a good laugh. He seemed a little reserved at first, but easily settled into a rhythm and shared a candid chat about the County we both call home.

Spoiler alert: we didn’t actually get to the coffee part.

How Far Away Is Next Door?

It reminded me of getting to know my own neighbours, and through them, the County. Familiarity develops through conversations that reveal something a passing encounter leaves undiscovered. And in our community, most people want to get to know each other. Brad offered a fitting description.

“The neighbourhood may extend for one or two kilometres, but you still know your neighbours and you want to help them when you can, and they help you.” Brad Nieman says about County living.

He believes that a simple hello can make somebody’s day, or just taking your time while at the grocery store to chat with others (a shopping trip he says he always plans at least an hour for). His vision of community kept returning to those ordinary exchanges throughout our chat. 

As we talked about employment, recreation, tourism, and difficult financial choices, I began to understand how much he believes depends on them, and what he sees is at stake for Prince Edward County.

(2.1) Coffee Chat: The Person Behind the Platform: This is the first article from a multi-part series of “Coffee Chat: The Person Behind the Platform”, where PEC Connect explores the personal side of politics in Prince Edward County.

Brad Nieman's Beliefs About Belonging in the County

Brad was born in the County, but his story includes leaving during his childhood. His family moved to Cambridge when he was young; after high school, he returned. “I was gone for ten years of my life,” he said.

Family was here, and family remains central to his connection. His four children and twelve grandchildren all live in the County, he told me. He considers himself fortunate, and wants them to be able to stay… a hope that I’ve heard many generational County families share.

He also recognizes that knowing your neighbours takes time. People come and go, some keep to themselves or hesitate to get involved. In his view, familiarity can sprout at the grocery store and grow through repeated conversations. When I asked which challenge felt particularly personal, he spoke about affordability and people who might feel they don’t belong.

“Everybody should be valued,” he said, while emphasizing that he knows there are residents who still don’t feel heard, or fully part of the community, for various reasons.

That concern helped explain the relationship between several priorities we discussed. He wants people to have work, equal opportunities to participate, and a sense that their presence counts. The community he hopes to protect depends on people being able to find a place within it, including those whose financial circumstances make participation harder.

For someone seeking the mayor’s office, that raises a practical question we returned to: what can the municipal government provide to help make that possible?

Going From a Spot to Stop, and Creating a Place to Stay

Recreation brought a particular energy into the conversation. Brad returned to it even after we had moved toward a different topic, wanting to explain something beyond facilities or organized sport. Clearly, it was important to him.

“We're trying to unite the community, but also make it healthier. And what I mean by that is, if something's going on… I'm just going to say a ball tournament, and there's a lot of activity, people driving by may stop in, or walking by may stop in. They'll spend an hour or 2 hours there. And it's better than them sitting at home by themselves or on the computer. It's a lot better for their mental health”, Brad shares.

His example made his thinking easier to picture. A person watching from the sidelines benefits from the occasion, too, and that time among others offers something valuable compared with another afternoon alone at home. For Brad, recreational activities create somewhere to go and something to share with other people, and to someone that sense of community can mean an antidote to loneliness for the evening.

He wants more attention given to recreation programming across ages, alongside maintaining facilities. We didn’t develop a recreation proposal over (a lack of) coffee, but we did establish why he considers the subject important: recreation can help people enjoy living in Prince Edward County, build relationships, and find reasons to stay. In a nutshell, recreation can help a community grow roots.

Rebuilding Trust in the Municipality

Brad’s understanding of public trust draws heavily on his working life in municipal services. Residents would approach him on the street or call with problems, and how he responded mattered. Give someone incorrect advice, he explained, and the relationship suffers.

“I think there’s a lack of trust, on some level. And I think that a lot of it goes to messaging. If you don’t give the right messaging, and then act on some of that messaging, that’s where you lose the confidence of the people.”

“And once they lose that confidence, it’s very, very hard to get back”, Brad acknowledges, while stressing how important it is for municipal staff to maintain (or perhaps, rebuild) that relationship with residents. 

He also acknowledges that some of that trust comes from transparency, and in this case, being frank about some of the hardships that our community is dealing with and will continue to face… and emphasized that this is where communication will be paramount.

“Instead of trying to push your opinion on people, just lay it out there saying this is what I think”, Brad says.

Agreement may never follow. Being heard, he believes, still matters. As mayor, he would want council to establish a shared direction and strengthen its working relationship with staff, giving residents reason to regain confidence.

What Happens After Hello?

I also asked about how he would reach people who feel they currently aren’t being heard. He acknowledged that identifying those groups was difficult; nonetheless, his answer centred on availability, being present in public, and making people comfortable approaching him. 

There’s room to develop that approach further for residents who aren’t comfortable enough to initiate contact, but I understood the starting point Brad described: take the time, “even when the conversation begins with the weather”.

Which really helps explain how a quick grocery run in the County can become an hour for Brad!

Can We Afford to Keep Calling the County Home?

“We never had much money.”

Brad offered that reflection while explaining why financial circumstances shouldn’t leave someone feeling outside their community. He didn’t turn it into an elaborate personal story, though what he connected it to was the wish to participate even when money is tight.

For families deciding whether they can remain here, he sees full-time employment as essential.

“They can’t move here without jobs,” Brad said. “And even to stay here, they need jobs.”

He described the household costs when two adults travel outside the County for work: two commutes, plus childcare that may need to extend until they return. His emphasis was on the practical consequences of where employment is available.

To improve those opportunities, he wants to attract smaller industries. Campaign conversations have produced contacts with businesspeople, he said, whom he would follow up with if elected. He sees bringing in even one business as progress to build upon.

The County’s Economic Development Action Plan identifies a diverse, year-round economy as its direction. Brad’s emphasis is on an incremental approach, where it’s expanded bit by bit, perhaps week by week rather than season by season.

Fostering Baby Steps Towards a Broader Economy

On tourism, Brad’s position was straightforward: the County needs it and should support the businesses involved. He also wants other employment opportunities alongside it.

We discussed short-term accommodations, which he sees as necessary to the available lodging supply, and his aim to address illegal operators. He expressed concern that increasing the Municipal Accommodation Tax from 4% to 6% could discourage overnight visitors.

Brad also suggested attracting hotel investment to pursue conference business. When our discussion turned to levelling out tourism by extending it beyond its busiest months, his approach was measured: identify activities, establish them, and assess whether they work before expanding.

“You have to start someplace,” Brad Nieman said. “If you try to do it all at once, you’re gonna fail.”

I asked whether activities residents also enjoy could help connect employment and community-building goals. He supported starting in smaller blocks, rather than attempting an entire calendar immediately. For now, the direction he described combines support for tourism with economic diversification and a preference for manageable steps.

Will the Pain Be Worth the Gain?

The financial discussion gave those aspirations their hardest test.

Brad believes the County faces decisions that will significantly affect its future, and that we’ve reached a defining point with the options we must weigh. His approach would prioritize core services, including roads, bridges, emergency services, and social services, while setting aside money for future infrastructure needs. 

“There’s tough decisions to be made,” Brad Nieman said. “They’re not going to be popular, but they have to be made in order to get back on track and be able to move forward.” I asked whether he saw the situation as one of financial survivability. He did. 

“If we don’t do that, we’re not going to survive”, Brad assesses, and it explains the urgency with which he discussed restraint.

The consequences became concrete when I asked about additional arts funding for activities resembling those we had discussed as possibilities for expanding recreation incrementally. Despite his enthusiasm for community participation, he wouldn’t commit to more funding in the first year. Perhaps there would be room later; but first, he said, the municipality must ensure it can fund its responsibilities.

Who would be most affected, I asked, and what support was he considering?

“I think maybe everybody’s going to feel the pain. It’s not just one group. We’re all in this together. And in order to get out, we all have to work together.” Brad says about the situation facing the County.

That answer expresses collective responsibility. It leaves further questions about specific measures, unequal impacts, and support for those least able to absorb them.

The tension is meaningful: how would municipal leadership protect participation and belonging while making the spending choices that may be necessary?

Beyond the Ballot

By this point, the man across from me felt more familiar. Brad laughed freely as we settled into the conversation; he was warm, and especially engaged when talking about people finding connection through community life.

There was room for a little humour even after discussing a difficult prospective term. Understanding that we are about to enter a difficult era (and not just based on Brad’s warnings), I asked what he hopes his time as Mayor, if elected, would have achieved.

Brad suggested that by the end of his term, he would hope we had passed through the most painful part. I asked if that means he hopes we’d be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. 

“Yep.”, Brad confirmed.

“Okay, and that is not a train,” I added.

“That’s right,” he said, laughing.

For me, getting to know him helped give his platform shape. His concern for recreation became easier to understand through the passerby at the ballgame; his emphasis on approachability gained meaning through his accounts of working with residents. 

The same conversation included questions about employment, public trust, tourism, and who would bear the consequences of restraint. Understanding his intentions gives us a clearer basis for considering whether his proposed approach would achieve them.

Closer Neighbours than When We Started

Looking four years ahead, Brad hopes there would be results showing progress toward his vision, with the next council inheriting a County in a better position.

Further into the future, he hoped it would be a time when “everybody feels part of the community,” he said, describing people knowing their neighbours and retaining that connection through change. 

We began as two people who had never spoken. By the end, I understood more about how he connects the practical work of municipal government with the kind of place he wants people to call home.

Whether his priorities and financial approach can deliver that future is a judgment voters must make. Our chat simply helped clarify the ambition, and some of the choices (and consequences) it would involve.

In Brad’s description of the County, one’s neighbourhood can stretch for kilometres. What our “coffee” chat taught me is that becoming neighbours happens through the time people take across that distance. And sometimes, that will also involve the grocery store.

Thanks for the coffee chat, Brad!

-Andreea ☕

P.S. Visit our page for more articles on local matters, including information on the municipal election.

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A Note from PEC Connect: PEC Connect is not endorsing any candidate in this election. Our goal in providing this coverage is through the lens of community involvement, offering insight so that residents may make their own informed decisions at the ballot box. 

We warmly invite your questions and engagement, and we encourage you to reach out directly to candidates to better understand them and their platforms.

We may not all agree on who the right person for the job is, and that is simply the nature of democracy and community. But differences of opinion should never discourage constructive criticism, healthy skepticism, and, above all, open communication.

We want to extend a sincere thank-you to Brad, Terry, and Ernie for their time, candour, and for sharing chat with us. We hope to continue these meaningful discussions going forward.

And while we are not endorsing anyone, we do encourage everyone to get out and vote! You can find more about how to vote here.

A special thank you as well to the staff of Cressy Mustard for sharing their spot and service with us during our interview with Brad.