And he compares serving on Council to padding up with his mates on a hot summer’s day.

“It’s a team of eleven that you don’t get to choose,” he said.

“You’ve got to work collaboratively with the rest of the group.”

Collaborative is a word you’ll hear a lot from Mr Smith.

He and fellow election candidate Brad Widders have teamed up to form Collaborative Opportunities.

The pair are standing independently, but share ideas on how to take Armidale forward, Mr Smith said.

“We’ve stayed here because we love the area, he said.

“And we both raise our kids here because we believe in the potential of the area.

“So we want to see the best for this region so it thrives and survives in the future.”

Mr Smith said he wanted to bring new ideas beyond the normal Council rhetoric.  

“So many people run on those same tramlines of thought,” he said.

“Revamp the mall, fix small business, that's all well and good as a platform ... but it doesn’t inspire me for the next five minutes let alone the next five years.

“And it doesn’t mean much for my two preschool aged daughters, they don’t care about small business, they just want to know if the park is good.”

One of Mr Smith’s ideas, and a key issue on his agenda, is to improve the employment prospects of young people in the region.

“You hit that 18-to-24 age and people are like, there are no apprenticeships here and ... there are only so many jobs to go around, so they bugger off the Brisbane of Sydney or the coast,” he said.

“We want Armidale to be the greener grass that’s on the other side.”

To achieve this, he wants Council to explore and encourage collaborations between high schools, vocational education providers and employers, with a view of teaching skills for future jobs.

“We want them [children] to come out of school and go straight into a job,” he said.

Mr Smith also said he wanted to be part of a Council that was “intensely proud of its basic infrastructure”.

“Clean and tidy footpaths,” he said.

“These are basic things, but it’s something we should be able to be on top of.

“It shouldn't be viewed as any different than the routine maintenance of grass and parks.”

He also said Guyra needed to be considered when making decisions.

“We want to make sure Guyra is kept in mind for everything we do,” he said.

This included make rates equitable across the local government area once the rates freeze is lifted according to Mr Smith.

“We should be a much bigger sporting centre too,” Mr Smith said.

“It all comes down to promoting the region.”

Mr Smith said he was just a hard working dad that wanted to make a difference in the region.

“Will we get it right all of the time, no,” he said.

“But will we learn from that and continue to grow, yes.”

Nominations for the election are now open.

Election day is September 9.