Calgary Civic Election Discussion

[someguy51]

I did a search for this and did not find a thread on the upcoming election so I thought I'd create one.

Check out the link below for a list of all the candidates for mayor and alderman. (It doesn't list people running for school board...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary...election,_2007

What are your opinions on the candidates? I'll post mine next lunch hour.

[troutman]

Only 20% of voters bothered to turn out last time.

[The Goon]

Are there any mayoral debates? I'd like to see one.

[Bobblehead]

Helene Laroque was a disaster. I'm still deciding which Ward 3 candidate to vote for, but it won't be her.

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/...46478e6b8f&p=2

[Cliche]

Originally Posted by troutman

Only 20% of voters bothered to turn out last time.

And from the recent scandals, probably half of them were dead.

Interesting that there are 2 candidates in there under 25 years, of age, Nick Halfyard, and Jeremy Zhao. No chance for Zhao as he's a mayoralty candidate, but Halfyard is the only other alternative for Ward 12. (Wards 13/14 aldermen were both acclimated)

[vanisleflamesfan]

Originally Posted by The Goon

Are there any mayoral debates? I'd like to see one.

I think I heard on CBC this morning that there will be a mayoral debate at Mount Royal next Tuesday... but I'm not sure about the details.

[urban1]

Its sad the amount of apathy thats shown towards civic politics in Calgary. Everyone complains about everything from infratstructure, roads, transit, community centres, urban planning, rec facilities, recycling, and even the consider the slow implementation of the smoking ban.

Yet so few voters turn out to vote and no one wants to get involved to run as a candidate. This city has grown and changed so much over the past 5 years and i dont believe a lot of the current elected civic politicians are up to job of handling the challenges this city now offers.

New blood would offer some new ideas and maybe some improvements for this city.

[Draug]

I used to be apethic towards the mayoral election, but not anymore.

Years and years ago, it seemed that the Mayor simply kept the city running nice and smooth. Life was always good to me in Calgary - traffic was decent, crime was very low, etc, etc.

Then, our current mayor took power. It seems like everything has gone to hell since then. Granted, an argument can be made that it is the city's rapid growth since then that is causing so many of the problems, and not an inadequate mayor. But, the reverse side of that is that our mayor is not keeping up with the demands placed on the city by the extreme growth.

Regardless, I'll be excercising my political power and voting for a mayor for the first time. I'll be using my voice to show displeasure in the current situation. I havent checked out the platforms of any candidates (yet), but I will not be voting for our current mayor. Traffic/transportation and crime are my two biggest concerns.

People, use your vote!

[GrrlGoalie33]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

Helene Laroque was a disaster. I'm still deciding which Ward 3 candidate to vote for, but it won't be her.

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/...46478e6b8f&p=2

I'm in the same boat as you. Problem is, she's the only one who's bothered to deposit anything in my mailbox.

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by Draug

I used to be apethic towards the mayoral election, but not anymore.

Years and years ago, it seemed that the Mayor simply kept the city running nice and smooth. Life was always good to me in Calgary - traffic was decent, crime was very low, etc, etc.

Then, our current mayor took power. It seems like everything has gone to hell since then. Granted, an argument can be made that it is the city's rapid growth since then that is causing so many of the problems, and not an inadequate mayor. But, the reverse side of that is that our mayor is not keeping up with the demands placed on the city by the extreme growth.

Regardless, I'll be excercising my political power and voting for a mayor for the first time. I'll be using my voice to show displeasure in the current situation. I havent checked out the platforms of any candidates (yet), but I will not be voting for our current mayor. Traffic/transportation and crime are my two biggest concerns.

People, use your vote!

I seriously hope not everyone is going to blame the Mayor for the almost unheard of growth we have experienced.

Hopefully people will realize that the City of Calgary (as a corporation) is having the same staffing problems that every other company in this city is having. It's not like we don't have a major road other than Deerfoot because we have Bronconnier as our Mayor... We could have had Rudy himself as our Mayor and that still wouldn't change the fact that there just aren't enough people to do all the work that needs to be done, as fast as it needs to get done.

Do people want to fire the CEO of Burger King just because some of the Calgary locations can't find enough employees to keep their drive-thrus open?

[llama64]

Originally Posted by Cliche

And from the recent scandals, probably half of them were dead.

Interesting that there are 2 candidates in there under 25 years, of age, Nick Halfyard, and Jeremy Zhao. No chance for Zhao as he's a mayoralty candidate, but Halfyard is the only other alternative for Ward 12. (Wards 13/14 aldermen were both acclimated)

Aww, give the Battlefield2 Gunnery Sergeant a fighting chance!

The Alnoor campaign just pisses me off (a green stop sign that says "go"??) and he sounds a little shady.

Past that, I really don't see too much difference between any of the competitive candidates. Heck, any of em would do for me.

[CaptainCrunch]

I'm not a fan of Bronco's, to me he just dosen't seem to have a plan for this city or its budget. However sadly there never seems to be a viable alternative for the mayors position except for the usual lunatic fringe that runs in an election for some thrill

I still remember when one of the strongest running opponents of Kleins was Stampede Wrestlings J.R. Foley.

I'll still vote because I firmly believe that if you don't vote you have no say in any decisions that the winner makes.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

Do people want to fire the CEO of Burger King just because some of the Calgary locations can't find enough employees to keep their drive-thrus open?

I want to fire him because I hate that stupid king in their ads.

Creeps me out man

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by Frankster

I'm in the same boat as you. Problem is, she's the only one who's bothered to deposit anything in my mailbox.

Then you've gotten more than me.

And I have emailed Laroque in the past and never received a response.

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I want to fire him because I hate that stupid king in their ads.

Creeps me out man

Haha true dat.

If I ever turned around and saw that b*stard riding on the back of my bike, I'd probably end up in jail.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I want to fire him because I hate that stupid king in their ads.

Creeps me out man

I always laughed at the ad where the woman wakes up, looks over and sees the King beside her in bed. Talk about creepy.

[ken0042]

Great, the only person running against McIver is some kid who has great ideals, but not a strong platform. Two of his platforms include cutting aldermen's salary by a total of $400K and using that money to hire more police to deal with crime. Great- 7 more officers. That'll get rid of the gang problem.

Heck- had I known Fox-Mellway was going to get in by acclimation; I would have ran against her.

[corporatejay]

Diane Colley-Urquart was acclaimed in my ward which I'm happy about, she's probably one of the higher profile alderpersons and seems to get a lot done.

Bronco is a great mayor, he inherited a city with 850,000 people in it and the infrastructure for a city of 500,000.

you all can thank mayor Al Duerr for that. his 9 years was a joke and bronco has been playing catch up ever since.

EDIT: Also, Alnoor's West LRT by 2010 is ridiculous. There is no way he can have that done by then. Expropriation of all that land would take almost that long.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Is it me, or do the civic elections have fewer polling stations? The feds always have one down the street from me, but I apparently have to over to Sunnyside to vote.

[Thunderball]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

Diane Colley-Urquart was acclaimed in my ward which I'm happy about, she's probably one of the higher profile alderpersons and seems to get a lot done.

Bronco is a great mayor, he inherited a city with 850,000 people in it and the infrastructure for a city of 500,000.

you all can thank mayor Al Duerr for that. his 9 years was a joke and bronco has been playing catch up ever since.

EDIT: Also, Alnoor's West LRT by 2010 is ridiculous. There is no way he can have that done by then. Expropriation of all that land would take almost that long.

There's a huge patch of land from North of Woodbine to Lakeview earmarked for a road from 1962 that tends to tell a different story about how well Diane Colley-Urquhart has done in articulating the needs and requirements of Ward 13. Anti-Smoking was a no-brainer that was still badly mismanaged.

Where I do agree with you is that Bronco has done a good job considering the huge mess Al Duerr left.