Mayor Jonathan Cote is taking on the world in the next decade.
Cote is embarking on a walking challenge starting on Jan. 1, 2020. Unlike most New Year’s resolutions that are for the year ahead, New Westminster’s mayor is looking at bit further afield.
“I have been playing around with the idea of, for the decade of the 20s, doing a bit of a walking challenging for myself and challenging myself to walk around the world,” he said. “Not literally walk around the world, but walk 40,000 kilometres.”
A family, a job and a few oceans make an actual walk around the world a bit of a stretch, so Cote plans to walk around the world – right here at home.
“I guess I am not doing a New Year’s resolution, I am doing a new decade resolution,” he said. “It’s to essentially walk the equivalent of walking around the world over the next 10 years. I’ve calculated it will take about 11 kilometres a day, or about 14,500 steps, which I think is definitely ambitious.”
While he’s already a frequent walker, Cote said the plan is definitely a “step up” from his current walking program.
“This past year I have averaged about 10,000 steps a day. That’s generally recommended as a really good, healthy target for walking,” he said. “I just kind of thought, what if I challenge myself a little bit more?”
Cote believes his plan to walk “around the world” accomplishes a couple of goals.
“I just turned 40 this past year – there’s definitely personal health goals related to that,” he said. “But it also aligns with the type of community we are trying to promote – the walkability of our community. I think that is one of the greatest assets of the City of New Westminster. I thought it might actually be a fun challenge to have out there in the community, and to help the work we are doing with pedestrian advocacy. Walking can really lead to a healthier, happier community. It’s certainly going to be my personal goal coming up.”
