Ongoing YYCCC (Chu + Farkas) Transgressions Threat

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy14

Got his candidacy in right under the wire. Beat the deadline by a Kent Hehr if you will...

Wokka wokka!

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Slava

Well I'm not even getting into that here, because we've been through that on this board before and it's a non-starter as a topic for me. But the truth is that you can both be in favour of helping advance the status of women and push for gender equality and also be a white male who runs for public office.

You can also be a white male running for office who doesn't need to deflect from having resigned in disgrace after multiple sexual harassment complaints, but that's not the situation we are in here either.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

You can also be a white male running for office who doesn't need to deflect from having resigned in disgrace after multiple sexual harassment complaints, but that's not the situation we are in here either.

Well that's a pure red herring. The "he shouldn't split her votes" argument is just plain non-sensical. There could be a lot of reasons to not vote for someone, and that's obviously fair game. But the idea that men shouldn't run against women is just not one of them.

[Roughneck]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Will Kent's campaign even survive the week?

It’s barely survived the announcement.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Slava

Well I'm not even getting into that here, because we've been through that on this board before and it's a non-starter as a topic for me. But the truth is that you can both be in favour of helping advance the status of women and push for gender equality and also be a white male who runs for public office.

I don’t think that Godnek is a women matters. Hehr is splitting votes away from the progressive candidates in general leading to increased odds we Farkas ourselves.

So I think in this situation it’s easy to say that Hehr is not advancing any of the causes he cares about by running.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Slava

Well that's a pure red herring. The "he shouldn't split her votes" argument is just plain non-sensical. There could be a lot of reasons to not vote for someone, and that's obviously fair game. But the idea that men shouldn't run against women is just not one of them.

The idea is not that "men shouldn't run against women." If we're talking red herring, that's what that is.

The idea is that in this current situation that is being discussed, where we are considering a specific man and his history and experience (Kent Hehr) running for a position where there is an arguably better-qualified woman based on history and experience also running for the position (Jyoti Gondek), that coming out and saying "I’ve understood the unfairness of societal structures stacked against women and girls. And I believe the mayor and, in fact, all politicians need to work each and every day to break down those barriers and that is what I will do" is objectively ridiculous, given the fact that he's probably the least qualified to do that based on reputation, and will be taking votes from the person most qualified to do that.

You're trying to make this a generalized thing. It isn't. It's about Hehr.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

The idea is not that "men shouldn't run against women." If we're talking red herring, that's what that is.

The idea is that in this current situation that is being discussed, where we are considering a specific man and his history and experience (Kent Hehr) running for a position where there is an arguably better-qualified woman based on history and experience also running for the position (Jyoti Gondek), that coming out and saying "I’ve understood the unfairness of societal structures stacked against women and girls. And I believe the mayor and, in fact, all politicians need to work each and every day to break down those barriers and that is what I will do" is objectively ridiculous, given the fact that he's probably the least qualified to do that based on reputation, and will be taking votes from the person most qualified to do that.

You're trying to make this a generalized thing. It isn't. It's about Hehr.

I get that Hehr has baggage and my opinion is that is going to be a huge issue for him. I just see all these "he shouldn't be splitting that vote" comments and it rings pretty hollow to me.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Slava

I get that Hehr has baggage and my opinion is that is going to be a huge issue for him. I just see all these "he shouldn't be splitting that vote" comments and it rings pretty hollow to me.

I think there are 2 issues that have been conflated a bit.

1) progressives don't want him to split the vote from Gondek.

2) he brought up a bunch of stuff about empowering women, which given his history makes him seem like a big hypocrite.


Realistically he can't win this mayoral race. I think this is more about keeping his name out there and in the press so people remember him the next time he tries to run for a lower office (MLA, etc)

[Zarley]

Kent is a good guy, and in my opinion he got screwed around by Trudeau. Best of luck to him.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Zarley

Kent is a good guy, and in my opinion he got screwed around by Trudeau. Best of luck to him.

Hehr’s woes were Trudeau’s fault?

[Zarley]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Hehr’s woes were Trudeau’s fault?

Where did I say that?

There may have been a rush to judgement in removing him from cabinet - especially considering that his accuser has shown herself to not be a reliable source. Trudeau did not grant Kent the latitude he has afforded himself on these types of incidents.

[MarchHare]

Originally Posted by Slava

I get that Hehr has baggage and my opinion is that is going to be a huge issue for him. I just see all these "he shouldn't be splitting that vote" comments and it rings pretty hollow to me.

Think of it this way: in the federal election, there are many ridings where a progressive candidate could legitimately win the seat but due to vote-splitting between the Liberals and NDP, the CPC candidate will sneak up the middle and win with a vote breakdown of something like 43% CPC, 41% Liberal, 12% NDP, 4% Other. If you're a progressive-minded person, you might rightly be upset at NDP supporters who cast their ballot for a non-viable, unelectable candidate when they could have elected the Liberal candidate. While it may not have been their #1 choice, most progressives would certainly prefer the Liberal to win than the Conservative and potentially having an overall CPC election victory.

The same thing is happening here in municipal politics. Progressive voters must coalesce their support around one candidate or else we're going to end up with Farkas in the mayor's seat. That candidate is Gondek. Kent Hehr is not going to win. He's not going to come anywhere close to winning. I say that as someone who personally likes Hehr and has voted for him in four previous elections. The only thing he will accomplish by entering the race now is siphon some progressive votes away from Gondek. If he genuinely cares about championing progressive causes in municipal politics, the #1 best thing he could do is withdraw from this race.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Zarley

Kent is a good guy, and in my opinion he got screwed around by Trudeau. Best of luck to him.

Originally Posted by MarchHare

Think of it this way: in the federal election, there are many ridings where a progressive candidate could legitimately win the seat but due to vote-splitting between the Liberals and NDP, the CPC candidate will sneak up the middle and win with a vote breakdown of something like 43% CPC, 41% Liberal, 12% NDP, 4% Other. If you're a progressive-minded person, you might rightly be upset at NDP supporters who cast their ballot for a non-viable, unelectable candidate when they could have elected the Liberal candidate. While it may not have been their #1 choice, most progressives would certainly prefer the Liberal to win than the Conservative and potentially having an overall CPC election victory.

The same thing is happening here in municipal politics. Progressive voters must coalesce their support around one candidate or else we're going to end up with Farkas in the mayor's seat. That candidate is Gondek. Kent Hehr is not going to win. He's not going to come anywhere close to winning. I say that as someone who personally likes Hehr and has voted for him in four previous elections. The only thing he will accomplish by entering the race now is siphon some progressive votes away from Gondek. If he genuinely cares about championing progressive causes in municipal politics, the #1 best thing he could do is withdraw from this race.

This is just the same old strategic voting argument though. It pre-supposes that would-be Hehr voters would otherwise vote for Gondek, and I just don't buy that. I know Kent, so I'm biased and will vote for him.

But truthfully, if he weren't throwing his name in, I'm not sold on Gondek. She's had a few positions that don't sit right with me, and I don't know who I'd have as my second choice...maybe her, but maybe Davison. I haven't really looked at the full 28 candidate list, and I'm not sure that I could name more than about 7-8 of them.

[CaptainCrunch]

Why a guy with so much reputational damage run for mayor is baffling.


He pissed of veterans with his callous actions, he really pissed off Thalidomide survivors. There's the whole Sexual Harrasment stuff x 2. This wasn't Trudeau screwing him (look what you made me do, I'm defending Justin). He was a bad MP, and not a great person in his actions.

[MoneyGuy]

On the 11:30 news the announcer was clearly stifling a laugh when reported Hehr’s candidacy. That’s not what he was chuckling at; it was when he mentioned the number of candidates.

[tvp2003]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Why a guy with so much reputational damage run for mayor is baffling.


He pissed of veterans with his callous actions, he really pissed off Thalidomide survivors. There's the whole Sexual Harrasment stuff x 2. This wasn't Trudeau screwing him (look what you made me do, I'm defending Justin). He was a bad MP, and not a great person in his actions.

It's also lazy IMO. If you truly want to be the mayor, put your name in early and run a good campaign. Don't just sign up on the last day and try to get by on name recognition.

[FurnaceFace]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Why a guy with so much reputational damage run for mayor is baffling.


He pissed of veterans with his callous actions, he really pissed off Thalidomide survivors. There's the whole Sexual Harrasment stuff x 2. This wasn't Trudeau screwing him (look what you made me do, I'm defending Justin). He was a bad MP, and not a great person in his actions.

Plus he used to basically run people over in the +15 ripping down the halls going mach 2. It's a silly little thing but I've never forgotten watching people get their ankles clipped while he zoomed by without a care or worry. I think those sorts of things show someone's true character.

We need fewer mayor candidates not more and we really need the decision to come down to 2-3 candidates with enough differences in their platform to make real choices. I'm not sold on Gondek but I'm definitely in the ABF camp.

[Bunk]

Crazy how Bill Smith still leads in this mainstreet mayoral poll!

https://twitter.com/nikoskioussis/st...085371404?s=21

[Cappy]

Originally Posted by Bunk

Crazy how Bill Smith still leads in this mainstreet mayoral poll!

https://twitter.com/nikoskioussis/st...085371404?s=21

Jonathon Denis is in the farkas campaign….

[MegaErtz]

The most surprising thing to me is how poor Davison is doing at this stage. He was a near lock to win his seat on council and decided to go up against Farkas very late. It just doesn't make sense.