<< First < Previous | Next > Current >>

Election season!


I know. People don't really care about local politics. I care. But I know it's hard to get worked up about water and sewer issues unless people are dying of e.coli. Or transportation and public transit issues unless buses are exploding on the streets. And I know it's hard to get any sort of decent information about candidates or issues or anything. These aren't big-name stars. They don't get on the news a lot.

But I like local politics. I try to keep up with local news, even though I'm not particularly fond of any of the local news sources. Local politics doesn't have the slick ad campaigns or strictly coached candidates that higher levels of government are overwhelmed with. There aren't any parties. It's actually possible take people as they are, at face value. For the most part, anyway. Sure, there's the occasional graft and corruption thing (like, oh, RIM Park), but generally, the people running are just good folks who want to make a difference in their community. Holy crap! What a concept.

So the election's on Monday, and I'm more or less decided on who I want to vote for. And I figured... what the hell... Why not catalog my thought processes. Writing this stuff helps me clarify things. My parents instilled in me a don't ask/don't tell policy on who you vote for generally, but I don't think that's a particularly productive attitude. Besides, I doubt many of you care enough to throw a brick through my window or anything, which is why I think they had that particular policy themselves. Yeah, politics can get nasty. I think indifference is a more pressing problem than beligerance, though.

Okay, so I have a few pet issues. Stuff that's come up in the last little while locallly that I care about. Namely:

  • Water vs. development. A story surfaced earlier this year that developers building houses on the Waterloo moraine up around the conservation area broke into the water table and all sorts of ground water (the same ground water city wells draw from) went floosh, straight into the sewers. This does not instill confidence. Not when we're supposed conserving our limited water resources.
  • Public Transit. Very yes. But you know, I like light rail and everything, but how 'bout a dedicated bus corridor first to build up ridership. Nobody will thank anyone for building a white elephant.
  • Regionalization. Some idiots mooted the amalgamation idea again before the election. No. That's dumb. I do think that moving services up to the region often makes sense, though.
  • The Waterloo core. I like downtowns. Waterloo's could use a bit more life in it. I like the public square idea. And I think the people who were complaining "OMG we'll lose a couple parking spaces!" are being silly.
  • Economics. It makes me really happy when I see candidates who actually know something about the economy, and the government's role in it. Almost never happens, though.
  • The environment, in general. Hey, I have to live here, right?

Oh, if I just called you silly or an idiot, by all means rag me out in the comments. I don't mind elaborating (and being a bit more diplomatic). Ad hominem arguments are great for shorthand, even if they're not very nice.

Anyway, the local races... With links to the relevant Record articles.

Mayor

Herb Epp (incumbant), Brian Turnbull, Brenda Halloran

I haven't really decided yet.

I kinda feel sorry for Brenda Halloran. Up against two former mayors, she looks really green. I really wish she'd take a term as councillor first. She is big on protecting water and environmentally sensitive lands, which is a big deal for me. I don't think she has a chance, though.

It's pretty much a race between the two old white guys. They kinda pissed me off early in the campaign by trading barbs and being assholes. They've since decided to be all nice and stuff, so I've decided to forgive them. I haven't had any major complaints about how Herb's been running the city, but he hasn't exactly been inspiring either. Turnbull was mayor when I first got here, but being a student, I wasn't really paying attention. He's got city planning credentials, and he's against development on the moraine.

I don't know. It's a tough call.

Ward 3 Councillor

There's no incumbant in our race, so this isn't going to be won on inertia, but rather the strength of the candidate. I like that.

Pauline Richards has run as a Green Party candidate a bunch of times both provincially and federally. It's kinda a losing battle around here. I've heard her speak and I've never been terribly impressed. On paper, though, she's kinda my ideal candidate. Sustainable economic development, green spaces, forward-looking urban planning... So I pretty much have to vote for her. As an added bonus, if she gets this job, it'll give somebody else a chance to run for the Green party.

I don't really have anything against Angela Veith, though. She seems like a decent enough candidate for councillor. Just not my candidate. She's got a lot of signs around. I wonder if Richard's previous Green party campaigning isn't working against her. I think people still see the Green party as a bunch of crazy hippies. Although, given the regional councillor race (I'm getting to it), it's not hard to see why.

The other candidate, Trevor Archer, looks like a bit of a chump. He's not even out of school yet. I'm thinking this is probably a resume-building adventure for him.

Regional Chair

Ken Seiling (incumbant), Bob Verdun and some other guy

This is really a two-way race that comes down to one issue: transit.

Seiling's big in building a large-scale LRT system connecting all the major centres in the region. It's a big project, and he's been working on it for almost a decade. The provice is largely on side. There's still some debate about scale and implementation, but it likely looks like a go. The first phases are projected to start construction in the upcoming term.

Verdun, on the other hand, isn't really interested in any of that. He wants to push for GO Transit to come out to the region. He's also big on road construction, and dislikes roundabouts.

I'm not a huge fan of Seiling, but I gotta go with him on this one. GO service would be great, but if I wanted to go carless, I'd need some way to get to the train station. If we're going to pick priorities, I think we have to focus on building a transit corridor inside the region first. It doesn't have to be a monorail, but it does have to be useful.

Regional Councillor for Waterloo

First of all, like I was saying about the public perception of the Green party... holy crap, check out Mike Clancy. His "On the record" quote is "Bring back free love. As I age, I dread beingwarehoused in a seniors' home run by puritans, without the intimacy ofanother human being. Sex is a basic human need." His "goals if elected" are as follows:

  1. To relax and have fun with this campaign.
  2. To work with others to re: invent Loosterdam, the City of the Future. A city where former Hippies / Boomers like myself in our second childhood, can regain the freedoms of the 70's: free love, free speech, free and available health care, freedom from the threat of war, freedom from fear of gangs, freedom from hate, and freedom to smoke marijuana on the lovely streets of waterloo region, and freedom for Mark Emery marijuana crusader.
  3. Power to the People: Reduced prices for Regional citizens on utilities due to controls or bulk purchases of phone, internet, gasolene[sic] and other services. A money back guarantee that 10 voters will win prizes of $1000 each from my wages as councillor. Why should it be just the developers and consultants that councillors give your tax money to?

I think he might already be high.

Anyway, the real candidates in this race are probably the two incumbants, Jane Mitchell and Mike Connolly, and former councillor Sean Strickland. We get to pick two.

Strickland's run as a provincial candidate for the Liberals a bunch of times. Every time he ran, he struck me as a chump. Worse, he's never been able to come close to unseating Liz Whitmer, who I... am not particularly fond of.

On the other hand, Mike Connolly has a bit of a car salesman vibe to him. And he's largely opposed to regionalization. Both Strickland and Connolly approved the RIM park deal when they were on Waterloo city council.

Jane Mitchell is probably the best candidate of the three as far as I'm concerned. She's been a councillor since 2000, and she says all the right things about managing growth, protecting the environment, regionalization, transit, etc.

Of the other two, I can't really decide. I might drop my vote on Strickland despite his chumpiness. Or just vote for Clancy for fun.

Wasn't that fun?

Pick up a paper over the weekend or go to the various websites and have a look at the candidates where you are. Make up your own mind about the sort of place you want to live in. Then go out and vote on Monday. I'm serious. It doesn't take a whole lot of effort, and you get to feel like you actually have some part to play in the world around you. Which is a nice feeling, really.

Sadly, I don't think this counts towards my word count.

comments:

This post is archived. Comments are disabled. Feel free to send me email if you have something to say.

back to main