By Jill Scheyk
I live in Ward 11. With no incumbent, Ward 11 is crowded like Palace Buffet after church lets out.
For what seems to be a hotly contested seat, no one has been banging down my door to win me over. Which is a shame, because if you pay attention to my Twitter conversations you would know my vote counts more than other votes. That’s just science.
This woeful state of affairs forced me to do my own research, scoping out some candidate websites and asking my laptop screen the tough questions. Since the candidate photos were curiously unable to speak, I’ve had to make up their responses myself.
So I present to you the candidates, if their websites could talk:
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By Gregory Bell
I put on my civic engagement touque and headed out to the Ward 6 candidates forum. Before Tuesday, I think the last time I did anything even remotely related to local politics was to nervously ask a question at a public consultation in St. Albert, discussing a curfew for teenagers. So I was excited to be doing something a little more politically conscious in my community.
I’ve been following the City Centre Airport controversy quite closely and I hope to put as much effort into watching the real campaign.
DemoCamp was the same night and I skipped it to go to this, so I was hoping for a good show. I wasn’t disappointed. There was some crazy, some boring moments, some theatrics, and some decent information. I’ve picked a candidate based on their performance for the evening so now all they have to do is not screw up before the 18th and they’ve got my vote.
I’m going to steal a good idea from Vue Weekly’s David Berry and list the candidates from least likely to get my vote to most.
But before I get to that I have to explain the huge surprise I received talking to Envision Edmonton-backed mayoral candidate David Dorward. He approached my friend and I before the forum started and launched into his spiel. When he asked for my opinion I was blunt with him saying that I wasn’t going to vote for him because he wanted to keep the airport open. He shocked me by saying that if elected mayor he would would be forced to close the airport because “there aren’t enough votes on council.” He claimed that he would be known as “the mayor who closed the airport.”
I have a seriously difficult time believing he’s sincere since he’s endorsed by Envision Edmonton and Cal Nichols has said he wants to raise $500,000 to get him elected. So either he flat out lied to me or Envision Edmonton is going to be sorely disappointed if he becomes mayor.
If that’s not enough to jade you against all politicians here’s my review of the Ward 6 candidates.
Read More Post a comment (1)By Alex Abboud (cross-posted from alexabboud.wordpress.com)
Lots has happened since May. Another incumbent, Ron Hayter, announced his intentions to retire, several more candidates declared publicly and began campaigning, and a(nother) potential referendum on the City Centre Airport has started to overshadow everything else.
I think it’s time to once again rank the races from most to least competitive
(here are my May rankings). I intend to update these rankings a few more times as we get closer to the election. Keep in mind this is just my impression, and it will no doubt change as we get closer to both nomination day and election day.
The races are ranked from most to least competitive, in four categories:
Toss-Ups: No clear favourite, and could go any of two or more ways at this point.
Competitive: A leading candidate/favourite at this point, but a race that should be a close vote and could go another way.
Leaning Safe: A safe seat for now, but could become competitive or a toss-up in the right circumstances.
Safe: A safe seat for the incumbent, which doesn’t figure to change without something dramatic happening.
(EdmontonPolitics.com isn’t for a few of us, it’s for all of us. So, if you’ve got some ideas, some passions, some neighbourhood news, drop us a line. We can also cross-post if you have an existing blog. – Jeff S.)
Edmontonians do like to bike.
By Michael Janz, Vice-President, Edmonton Bicycle Commuters Society.
More and more people are cycling in Edmonton every day. Council candidates need to make supporting cycling a priority, even if it means deferring spending on interchanges, overpasses, and further road expansion.
In Edmonton, commuting by bike 365 days per year is too often relegated to the category of “extreme sport” because we are a “winter city.” There certainly are a few frozen weeks that might make you wonder if you woke up in Siberia. These traumatic cold days seem to have caused many Edmontonians to forget that our climate is blessed with 265 days of weather that are warm and sunny.
Whatever the cyclist’s motivation (environment, health, wellness, financial, or convenience) I envision a city where cycling is as accessible and appealing for everyone; whether they need to get to work, or just need to get to the corner store to buy some milk.
The reasons why many choose to pick up the car keys are numerous. And urban sprawl has spread us further from each other, with auto-focused development leading to streets not designed for people, but for cars. Edmonton, for too long, has avoided some of the tough decisions and conversations that we need to have surrounding transportation spending.
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By Sally Poulsen
So, the other day I was having lunch with my brother, and we started talking about the Katz Group and the ongoing arena debate.
Some of you may have heard of my bro. On Twitter, he’s @EdmontonPaul, and he is a very vocal proponent of the Katz group and their plans for a downtown arena.
Now, he and I don’t see eye to eye on the arena, but the one thing you always take away from talking to Paul is that he is FOR something. He’s not trying to arm wrestle you into defeat; instead, he listens, he evaluates, and he respects your right to have an opinion different from his. He believes that the arena is a good idea, and he wants to know why you disagree, because maybe together, we can figure out a plan that works for everybody.
Which brings me to the airport.
As hard as this may be to believe, I don’t actually have an airport opinion. I don’t consider myself sufficiently informed on the topic to really go one way or the other – though what I’ve noticed is that the folks in favour of closing the airport have lots of ideas for what should be there instead. I find this appealing, since the airport has never really served much purpose to me personally, and thus, I don’t really respond to the arguments about how much I’d miss it if it were suddenly gone. So, while I haven’t managed to find any visions for the future from the “keep the airport open” side, that doesn’t mean those plans don’t exist. I would like to hear what they are!
And therefore, while I may live to regret it, I am posing a question to everybody on all sides of this issue:
10 years from now, what does the City Centre Airport look like?
***READ THE FOLLOWING BEFORE YOU COMMENT ON THIS ITEM***
There are rules here, though, folks. I am asking each of you directly. There will be no inter-comment discussions or arguments, because there are plenty of other places for people to debate this. I want only answers to the question I have posed above, or I will turn this car around RIGHT NOW and we’ll ALL go home.
And be warned, at the first sign that this is going off the rails, I will take down this post, and replace it with another one publicly shaming whoever was bold enough to disregard my rules of engagement.
Okay? GO!