A lot can change in 15 years.

“My perspective is completely different,” Samson Hartland, a former city councillor, said in an interview this morning.

He spoke to the Star shortly after his announcement he will seek the position of councillor again in the Oct. 15 municipal election.

At the age of 21 in 2000, Hartland was elected to council, making him the youngest city councillor on a municipal council in the country.

At that time, he said this morning, he was young, naive and inexperienced.

“I have literally and figuratively ‘grown up’ since 2000 and truly honour the lessons I learned during that time,” the 36-year-old said.

“I am a father now, with 15 years of personal and professional experience behind me and a healthy, sustainable future for my family – and for all Whitehorse families – provides a crystal-clear road map to help me positively support our city’s residents and businesses.”

The perspective gained over the last 15 years has him looking at the more long-term future of the city he, his wife, Lindsay, and three children call home.

“My children are third-generation Yukoners,” Hartland said, emphasizing his long-term interest in the community.

Hartland is currently the executive director of the Yukon Chamber of Mines.

His career has seen him work as the project manager for the Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce, and executive assistant to Tourism and Culture Minister Elaine Taylor.

At the age of 18, he ran his own business – Grizzly Collectibles – for which he was awarded the Business Development Bank of Canada’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

He has also appeared with his father on television’s Dragon’s Den, using his skills as a translator in sign language to help his father, who is hearing-impaired, secure an investment in his Yukon Smoked Salmon business.

Hartland said he recognizes that if he’s elected, he would have just one vote of seven on council.

He added he hopes to use his skills and experience to bring forward initiatives that would improve inter-governmental relations among the city, First Nations and the territory.

He would also like to see the proposed outdoor sports complex – for which the current council turned down a rezoning bid – become a reality, though he said he is cognizant of the impact big projects can have on taxpayers.

A local group had been proposing to operate the sports complex with the Yukon government involved in its development.

City council members, however, expressed concerns in the zoning phase that the operations could end up in city hands down the road if the proposed operating model does not end up working out.

“The tax base is not an endless machine,” Hartland said of property tax increases.

He noted the need in looking at property tax rates for the city to assess services and the ability to take on new projects, weighting priorities against those affected.

Ultimately, he said, he wants to see more information on the proposed sports facility as well as the city’s building consolidation project that’s underway.

Hartland pointed to the overall need for “more information and more transparency” from the city.

He also cited concerns over what he sees as continued “barriers” – such as new parking meters being placed downtown – being placed on seniors, visitors and businesses in the city’s core.

In the years since he served as councillor, Hartland unsuccessfully sought the mayoralty in 2003 as well a seat in the territorial legislature under the NDP banner in 2006. He also ran under the Yukon Party banner in 2011.

Hartland has been talking and deliberating with his family on whether to seek the position of city councillor for a number of months, he said.

“It’s a family decision,” he commented.

He pointed to the considerable time involved in the position and the need for “work/life balance” with his young family.

Territorial politics or even the mayoralty, he said, are not on the radar.

Right now, he said, the best way for him to give back to his community is at the municipal level, and the position of councillor is “just right.”

Mayor Dan Curtis is seeking a second term, while councillors John Streicker and Mike Gladish are not pursuing re-election.

The other councillors have not yet publicly stated their intentions.