Five questions with Alex Brown, candidate for Smiths Falls council in the 2026 municipal election

Editor’s note: To help voters to be better informed, Lanarkist will be asking the same five questions of all council candidates in Carleton Place, Smiths Falls, Perth and Mississippi Mills in advance of the municipal election, which will be held on Monday, Oct. 26, 2026. Questions were sent to all candidates on Sept. 4, 2026. We will publish their responses as we receive them. Below are the responses from Smiths Falls candidate Alex Brown. You can view a roundup of all our Smiths Falls municipal coverage and links to all completed profiles here.

1. Tell us a little bit about your professional background, including any prior municipal or other political participation, as well as about you, personally. What made you want to run for council?

My wife Jenifer and I moved to Smiths Falls from the Ottawa and Kingston areas nearly 10 years ago to raise our two teenagers. In our spare time, we’re photographers and have been lucky enough to have our work showcased around town. Professionally, I have 23 years of experience in IT, data analytics and consulting for organizations like Shopify, Canopy Growth and government agencies. I haven’t sat on local municipal committees, but I’ve led large-scale provincial and federal projects focused on process efficiencies that impacted thousands of employees nationally. I’m running because I don’t want to lose the progress Smiths Falls has made; however, given the current economic climate, we need to do more with what we have instead of constantly outsourcing our problems and raising taxes.

2. How would you describe your personal political ideology and/or affiliation?

I consider myself a pragmatic centrist. I have progressive views on community, but I’m fiscally conservative. I believe we need to use data and modern technology to run the town more efficiently, be completely transparent with the public and make sure we get real value out of every single tax dollar.

3. What are the three most common issues voters bring up to you as you campaign?

• Affordability: Household budgets are stretched thin, and residents are deeply concerned about property taxes and the rising cost of living in town.
• Transparency: Residents feel a disconnect with Town Hall, especially when trying to contact someone or report an issue. When the town doesn’t get back to you unless you make a public social media post, something is wrong.
• Doctor recruitment: The shortage of local family doctors is a major, constant concern for families trying to manage their health at any age.

4. What three issues are most pressing/important to address locally in your opinion?

• Fiscal discipline: We need to end the “borrow-first” mentality. For example, the $8.76 million operations centre will actually cost taxpayers over $13 million with interest over 30 years. We have to demand cost effective designs before tenders are awarded and have the hard conversations upfront.
• Project efficiency: Getting things right the first time. We need strict upfront reporting standards so projects stop bouncing back and forth, which wastes staff time and tax dollars on rework.
• Customer service standards: We need guaranteed Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and public tracking portals (not just a form to nothingness) so residents get a fair, timely response to basic municipal requests. We need to rebuild trust.

5. What do you feel sets you apart from other candidates?

I have 23 years of IT, data analysis and process efficiency expertise. My career has been about finding inefficiencies, questioning how things are done and fixing complex problems for large organizations. I rely on hard data instead of guesswork, and I’m not afraid to have the tough conversations needed to keep projects on track and on budget. I bring a private-sector mindset to the council table. I’m focused entirely on practical efficiency and actual results.