2013 Calgary Municipal Election Thread

[MarchHare]

Originally Posted by Bunk

That's to suggest there are sycophants on Council now. There really are not any. The Manning Centre voting analysis clearly demonstrated this fact:



The reason why the Mayor is fighting hard against a group wanting to control Council through a bloc that will vote "their way" and against the Mayor's agenda is that he's been successful in fostering a culture on Council that is independent-minded and votes issue to issue. It's a great thing that people as diametrically opposed as Farrell and Keating co-sponsor Motions on issues of common concern. It would be a damn shame to lose that very healthy dynamic from our decision-makers. Calling it out in the context of an election will make it politically more difficult to try and form a bloc structure no matter who's on Council.

What I find absolutely shocking about this graph is that Druh Farrell supports Nenshi the least of all council members and that she is statistically Diane Colley-Urquhart's #2 ally. I never would have guessed that.

[Makarov]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

What I find absolutely shocking about this graph is that Druh Farrell supports Nenshi the least of all council members and that she is statistically Diane Colley-Urquhart's #2 ally. I never would have guessed that.

I always knew that Druh was a Colley-Urquhart sycophant.

[Slava]

Its hard to know what those graphs really represent though. Like if you had 100 votes and 99 of them are about urban sprawl, then results will show one thing, but if the voting is about increased police presence you might see something entirely different. Pretty clearly there is something in the data....there is no way that Nenshi would campaign hard for Druh "just because".

[surferguy]

RE: Ward 8.

My vote was up in the air 100% coming into this election. Having just moved to a home from the Beltline I have never experienced door knocking before.

Last weekend Evan came through and quickly gave me his coles notes regarding his platform. The first thing he said (and only) was a slam on John Mar about the subsidy. It was a quick answer and then a rush off to knock on more doors. Fine so be it.

I felt; Ok, he came and talked to me so that is where my vote will go.

Last night, John rang my doorbell campaigning as well. What was interesting is that he took up my invitation to come in, sit and chat with my wife and I (along with John Teammate Jim). We all chatted for about 30 mins. I feel like he openly and honestly answered my questions in depth, which in the end accounted to about 7 ranging questions. Never once was Evan brought up from him. Never once did he make a motion to move on. He stayed and chatted until we were happy.

It honestly swayed my vote. He conveyed interest in us, as well as our questions. I didn't feel as though they were canned responses, it was a conversation. I feel more than happy to vote for him after he gave me the opportunity to ask my questions directly.

Take it for what it is worth.

[Makarov]

Originally Posted by Slava

Its hard to know what those graphs really represent though. Like if you had 100 votes and 99 of them are about urban sprawl, then results will show one thing, but if the voting is about increased police presence you might see something entirely different. Pretty clearly there is something in the data....there is no way that Nenshi would campaign hard for Druh "just because".

Fair point. The data certainly doesn't distinguish between votes on important issues and votes on mundane or routine issues (as just one potential problem with the data.) Nonetheless, I feel like the onus is on the posters alleging "sycophantry" to produce some evidence that supports their allegation. So far, no such evidence has been produced.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Makarov

I always knew that Druh was a Colley-Urquhart sycophant.

That's because both of them vote to send everything back to committee for further study.

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by surferguy

RE: Ward 8.

My vote was up in the air 100% coming into this election. Having just moved to a home from the Beltline I have never experienced door knocking before.

Last weekend Evan came through and quickly gave me his coles notes regarding his platform. The first thing he said (and only) was a slam on John Mar about the subsidy. It was a quick answer and then a rush off to knock on more doors. Fine so be it.

I felt; Ok, he came and talked to me so that is where my vote will go.

Last night, John rang my doorbell campaigning as well. What was interesting is that he took up my invitation to come in, sit and chat with my wife and I (along with John Teammate Jim). We all chatted for about 30 mins. I feel like he openly and honestly answered my questions in depth, which in the end accounted to about 7 ranging questions. Never once was Evan brought up from him. Never once did he make a motion to move on. He stayed and chatted until we were happy.

It honestly swayed my vote. He conveyed interest in us, as well as our questions. I didn't feel as though they were canned responses, it was a conversation. I feel more than happy to vote for him after he gave me the opportunity to ask my questions directly.

Take it for what it is worth.

Always nice to get these little off-camera anecdotes. I'm still up in the air with my vote, but every time I hear about, or from, Woolley, the guy come across as a little snarky, and kind of unnecessarily so. I know the new guy has to be a little louder to get his voice heard, but Im not sure all the attacking is putting him in a good light.

Btw, in your conversation with Mar, did anything come up about homelessness and what his thoughts/plans are to help in that regard? I'm not sure how, but I think that may be my deciding factor in terms of who to vote for.

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by Slava

Its hard to know what those graphs really represent though. Like if you had 100 votes and 99 of them are about urban sprawl, then results will show one thing, but if the voting is about increased police presence you might see something entirely different. Pretty clearly there is something in the data....there is no way that Nenshi would campaign hard for Druh "just because".

It was apparently a sampling of 73 votes on a wide variety of topics. Not the whole picture (there are thousands of votes) but it does jive with my observation of how Council works. There are certainly no real alliances and votes are difficult to predict.

[surferguy]

Not really Table 5. I did asked him what HE would love to see happen, be it brand new vision, a large dream etc. He said openly he is not a dreamer and that what he felt was his greatest contribution was establishing/promoting programs that engage kids at a young level so they don't wrapped up in wrong doing (paraphrase). Basically by having such things as intramural sports available, kids have things to do as opposed to hanging out and potentially busting a window for change etc. (again paraphrasing as he went into depth). Unfortunately homelessness was never mentioned but he did say he was quite proud in helping to reduce the crime level considerably in the city. Understandable flag to waive for him as he was a former police officer.

[Ozy_Flame]

I will say that I think Mar has been a good figure in reducing inner city crime. That is a big plus.

[tete]

Thanks for the update Surferguy - I get so turned off of attack-style politics and it seems like Evan Wooley is playing hard into that method. I'm still undecided, guess I have the weekend to figure it out.

This is one rare time that I kinda wish I lived in a single detached home just so that I'd get candidates coming to the door so that I could talk to them.

[surferguy]

I too am not a fan of attack style. I much like the idea of "here is what I disagree with and here is what I am going to do about it"

I do not want to bash Evan as I fully admit that I think he would/will do a good job, but to me he came across as a rookie (as a hockey reference). If he doesn't win, I think he will learn a lot from the campaign and would be able to come back much more mature and ready to win. Right now I think it is apt to say that he is trying to shout to get his message out when I think he would benefit from calming down a bit which would allow getting a clearer more clairvoyant message out.

Again - my 2 cents

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

I will say that I think Mar has been a good figure in reducing inner city crime. That is a big plus.

Helps when he has his own private police force for garden destruction.

[PsYcNeT]

Haven't been following this thread much, but holy ####, someone actually thinks the SunBots and forum warriors on the Sun/Herald web comments actually represent most Calgarians?

Seriously?

Like, really?

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

Helps when he has his own private police force for garden destruction.

Those guerrilla potatoes never stood a chance.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by surferguy

I too am not a fan of attack style. I much like the idea of "here is what I disagree with and here is what I am going to do about it"

I do not want to bash Evan as I fully admit that I think he would/will do a good job, but to me he came across as a rookie (as a hockey reference). If he doesn't win, I think he will learn a lot from the campaign and would be able to come back much more mature and ready to win. Right now I think it is apt to say that he is trying to shout to get his message out when I think he would benefit from calming down a bit which would allow getting a clearer more clairvoyant message out.

Again - my 2 cents

Agreed. I think he'll come in second by a close margin, but he will benefit greatly from this experience. The same thing happened to Chris Harper in Ward 1 and he has a much better chance this time around, and has really stepped up his campaign from last time. Plus he's three years more knowledgeable on the issues.

[kevman]

Originally Posted by tete

This is one rare time that I kinda wish I lived in a single detached home just so that I'd get candidates coming to the door so that I could talk to them.

Except that you still have to be home to catch them...

I've had every candidate in my ward visit my door - some twice - and I've still haven't had the chance to talk to them.

[Slava]

Ward 8 has been a pretty nasty campaign, at least from afar. I don't live there, but it looks like the mud slinging has gone both ways? In talking to some people on the campaigns though, there are some upset people to say the least.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

Haven't been following this thread much, but holy ####, someone actually thinks the SunBots and forum warriors on the Sun/Herald web comments actually represent most Calgarians?

Seriously?

Like, really?

Did I say that it represented most Calgarians. But its there and its in writing but you seem to want to discount what people are saying when it doesn't agree with your view.

We'll have to see on election night if there's a backlash.

Oh they write in the sun or the herald, they must be morons.

Nice view, is it hard to see the ground from looking down over your nose?

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Did I say that it represented most Calgarians. But its there and its in writing but you seem to want to discount what people are saying when it doesn't agree with your view.

We'll have to see on election night if there's a backlash.

Oh they write in the sun or the herald, they must be morons.

Nice view, is it hard to see the ground from looking down over your nose?

Seriously though, the Sun comments section? We might as well grab some youtube comments while we're at it.