Marks addresses Rotary Club on last day as mayor

Marks reflected on her years in office, and more specifically why people go into municipal politics in the first place. She saw it as a wonderful opportunity to give back to her community, a natural progression after being involved in saving Westmount High School and being on the board of Weston School. "We did not see it as being in politics,” she said.

Another reason she cited is the single issue-candidate who is motivated by a perceived wrong in City governance and wants to make changes. She admitted that was also one of her motivations after she was refused three times for a permit — without explanation. “I felt like I was playing darts with a blindfold on, so I wanted to get in there and make the permit system cleaner and better understood,” she said.

Marks did accomplish that after two years of working with the chairman of the architectural commission.

Another reason she cited was some seeing municipal politics as a way to increase their profile for business reasons or as a first rung to other levels of government. When asked during the question period if she herself had aspirations of provincial or federal government, she laughed and said she does not know what she is going to do next, and is going to take some time to think about it — but whatever she does, it will not be in politics.

Photo: Ted Sancton