“Dancing Bob” Pearce hoping to become Regina mayor

Bob Pearce is hoping to dance his way into the top job in Regina.

You might recognize Pearce from his habit of dancing in Wascana Park for hours, which has earned him the nickname “Dancing Bob.”

In fact, he was hoping to put his name on the ballot as “Def Dancing Bob Pearce,” though he said Elections Regina wouldn’t let him.

“I don’t choreograph anything. It’s a gift from my mom. I just sort of dance,” he said.

In terms of his career, he owns Capital Electric Motor Repair.

“We supply all kinds of little motors, big motors … We do sales and service. We don’t actually go out on call; we do all of our work in the shop,” he explained.

However, his dancing extends to the workshop, as well. He has a studio, complete with a full-sized dance floor and spotlights, in the basement.

His favourite artists are Michael Jackson and Def Leppard. In the past, he has even followed Def Leppard on tour to see all of the band’s shows.

“They put the spotlight on me in Edmonton and Calgary, (singer) Joe (Elliott) shouted me out … He called me the dancing dude. He says, ‘He’s insane, but he’s amazing,’ ” Pearce said with a laugh.

“In Calgary, Joe shouted me out, ‘He’s the mad’ — I can’t use the word — ‘dancer.’ He said after that, ‘We love you. You should be our opening act. Bob Pearce, he’s one of yours and he’s one of ours.’ Amazing.”

However, Pearce e is now hoping to make the shift from dancing and engineering to politics. It’s the first time he has run for office.

“The main reason I’m running for mayor is that I want people not to be afraid of COVID,” he said. “I made a promise. Listen to the song ‘Promises’ by Def Leppard. I won’t make promises I can’t keep, but I said there will be no second wave of COVID-19 … That’s what I said, so I’m proud to keep my promise.”

However, he was not clear as to how he would prevent a potential second wave of the virus if elected, though he has quite a few theories on the cause.

“The things we’re being led to believe, that we’re being told about — ‘You know, it’s contagious…’ — my challenge is this: I’m willing to take blood samples from 10 people across the country who have COVID, inject them into my body, and we’ll see if I get COVID,” Pearce said. “I won’t, because it’s not contagious.

“My claim is it’s caused by acidic bodies. My body’s not acidic. I’m totally alkaline because of my dancing and everything. My lungs are good. So give me an injection. Pick the 10 people that are in the worst shape that have COVID that have the same blood type as me, and inject it all at the same time. I guess if I get it, I’m wrong.”

Since the virus came to Saskatchewan, there have been more than 2,800 cases in the province. There have been more than 200,000 cases across Canada.

Pearce would push to lift any COVID-related restrictions if elected.

“Once we know it’s not contagious and not transferred by touch and once we know we don’t need masks, we’ll just go back to the way things were,” he said. “There’s no reason why we can’t.”

The virus isn’t his campaign’s only focus. Pearce also hopes to transform Wascana Lake into an urban beach.

“What we’re going to do with Wascana is stop running grey water in there. We’re going to clean up the lake. We’re going to make it so that we have beach area and everybody can swim, so we don’t have to be concerned about building pools … Wascana Lake should be our water park. There’s no reason why it can’t be turned into the most attractive facility in the world,” he said.

Pearce will go up against eight other mayoral candidates in the Nov. 9 election.