Calgary Civic Election: Mayoralty Poll #4 - The Heat is On

[NiklasSundblad]

^^While I'm neither a McIverite or a Suburbanite. I'll try to address this. Nenshi has referenced some of the better planned communities (Seton, McKenzie Town, etc) as good examples of edge growth. While it's true that we are growing outward at an unsustainable rate, outward growth cannot, and honestly should not be stopped. The city has to get much better value on these communities. Look at the newer communities in the extreme north, and ask how 1) it would be possible to do anything without a car and 2) how it is possible to create efficient, effective transit routes through those communities.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by jjgallow

[...] see above post

Part 2:

Higgins platform!

Financial Responsibility

City Hall will be accountable, responsible and transparent (sorry, I can't let Higgins use this word without pointing out that anyone who truly cares about transparency wouldn't dodge a three-way debate, or initially refuse to release her donor list because it's "awkward") in how it spends your money.

Barb Higgins' Policy Book is now available for download.
Fiscal Responsibility: using our tax dollars wisely is the most important job of City Council. As Mayor, City Hall will be responsible, accountable, and transparent with how it spends Calgarians’ tax dollars.
We need a top to bottom review of how we plan, budget, spend and measure our financial affairs, including a review of the $951 million we have in Reserve Funds; Agreed.

Audit
• There is currently an external review of the City’s audit processes underway; we need to act swiftly on the recommendations when that review is complete; Fair enough.
• As mayor, I will propose a change to the composition of the Audit Committee. As opposed to 5 Aldermen and 2 citizen members, we need to reverse it, and have 5 citizens with financial backgrounds, and 2 Aldermen; Fair enough. Nenshi: "Change the composition of the Audit Committee to include more citizen experts, and investigate the feasibility of a majority of the committee being non-Council members" - same thing, although admittedly weaker.
• I will also propose that the chair of the Audit Committee be a qualified member of the public and not a council member. Fair enough

Good ideas here, however note that Higgins is the not the only one who would take steps to strengthen the city audit process. I'm not going to post Nenshi's whole audinting platform here, but it does contain things that Higgins' doesn't that are just as concrete as her ideas.


Taxes
• Regarding property taxes, I will work with Council and administration through the budget process and as mayor, my goal will be to do everything I can to return to the mantra of our past: to not raise taxes any higher than inflation. A goal without a plan is a dream.
• I would like to see business taxes reduced. I would not go so far as to eliminate business taxes because that would mean a drop in revenues to the City of $150 million, and I do not think the City has the capacity to do that at this time. I would add, however, that I have had good discussions with the Chamber of Commerce and as mayor would seek to develop an ongoing dialogue between the Mayor’s Office, City Council and small and medium-sized businesses to make the right decisions about business tax rates. A goal without a a plan... no wait, she has a plan, to talk to a group whose mayoral forum she skipped!



Deficit
To deal with our pending $60 million deficit, I propose four key steps:
i. Move up the budget schedule by a month to immediately deal with our $60 million shortfall; So someone who admits she'll have a learning curve wants to advance her deadline? I don't see that ending well.
ii. Change bonus and incentive plans for senior management to reward intelligent spending reductions that preserve services; Zero based budjetting would be an effective way to reduce waste. Nenshi is in favour. McIver says he's in favor, but didn't apply it to the police budget.
iii. Implement a staffing freeze through to the end of the year which means implementing a hiring freeze, and no layoffs and; Stagnation is not a solution. If your needs are increasing, eventually you will have to catch up.
iv. Working with the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy and Jack Mintz to organize a Mayor’s Round Table on the City Budget, where business, labour, and other key civic stakeholders can discuss our budget and budget planning process. That's great that she's open to other people's ideas, but I want a mayor who can also bring innovative ideas to the table.

More important than what's here is what isn't. Sustainable growth is the key to fiscal responsibility. Without it, all you can do to balance the budget is eliminate waste, delay infrastructure (Duerr), borrow money (Bronconnier), or cut services (McIver?). And there's only so much waste to eliminate. Fortunately for Ms. Higgins, I've gone further and looked at her Planning & Development platform (something which you did not do for Mr. Nenshi). Unfortunately for Ms. Higgins, her Planning & Development platform is very weak.

Planning & Development

Calgary is at a pivotal point in its maturity. City Hall has the ability to help our businesses build strong, unique communities.

Barb Higgins' Policy Book is now available for download.
I fully support the activities of the housing and development industry in building a great city.(I imagine this is where she winks at the developers.)

I have announced key themes that will be the hallmark of my policy approach in this regard:

• There is a need to streamline the industry approval process for development applications and projects. A key commitment is to dismantle the ‘Corporate Planning Application Group’; an internal committee meant to better coordinate planning applications that has actually slowed things down. Time is money – a complex and time-consuming process will inevitably result in increased cost to consumers, which is not acceptable; Fair enough.

• I will work with businesses and developers to create smart, sustainable growth and communities as described in the “Plan-It” report; The gutted one? This is the status quo. It does not go far enough. Not nearly far enough. This plus disminatling CPAG does not create the level playing field Higgins says is the key to fiscally sustainable development, as there is no mention of the developer subsidies. "Acreage fees" for development don't cover nearly the cost of new suburbs for the city. Futhermore this encourages low density, greenfield growth that is very expensive to provide services for. (If you're bored, find the report titled "Financing Municipal Infrastructure" and read it.) Also, Higgins' initial website was even more anti-sustainability: she only said she supported Plan-It when asked about it at a forum... presumably without realizing the inconsistency.

• We also need to be more collaborative with our rural municipal neighbours; as Mayor, I will immediately sit down with the Reeves of Rockyview and Foothills to discuss how to revive the Calgary Regional Partnership in a way that works for the City, our rural neighbours, and the real estate and development industry; I don't know what the Calgary Regional Partnership did. Rather than make something up () I'm gonna leave this one alone.

• We need to carefully expand the opportunity for people to have secondary suites. Not really a fiscal responsibility issue, more of a housing affordability issue and the tentative language suggest she could even be against a large number of potential secondary suites. Doesn't affect how unsustainable growth would be but rather how much growth (which based on the rest of her policy will be unsustainable) there will be. Furthermore, this tentative language shows a willingness to prop up developers at the expense of regular citizens.

[jjgallow]

Originally Posted by Joborule

Okay, but there are a lot of names on that list of whom actually donated for his campaign. What does that say? Still not full enough?

I'd like it to be honest.

For instance (and this is fairly random):

Barbara Kapel Holden is listed as a personal donor. It fails to mention that she is on the board of directors for the Energy Resources Conservation board.
http://www.ercb.ca/portal/server.pt/...on/branch.aspx

They of course determine Enmax's rates. Probably no relation to Gary Holden, CEO of Enmax. I have no idea, nor would it ever be disclosed.


Let me try another..
Steven Paget, a personal donor that just Happens to be the Vice President of First Energy:
http://www.firstenergy.com/page.php?...8&analyst_id=9

Sheila Wasylyshyn...
Executive assistant to the Calgary board of Education Trustees.
Innocent enough, but why not just disclose?

Jim Mitchel...
Maybe just any Jim Mitchel, maybe the Vice President of PCL Construction Canada.
http://csgb.ubc.ca/files/workshop08/AnibalValente.pdf

A real fun one: Susan Stratton.
http://www.ecw.org/aboutme.php?personid=36
Always nice when people suing your industry are also donating in your City's election:
http://www.thestar.com/business/arti...ago-last-month

Anyway, I have no direct links here but am merely trying to illustrate that Nenshi's disclosure is far from transparent, and if you think his "grassroots" campaign is funded any more honestly than the other candidate's....think again.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Originally Posted by jjgallow

I thought that was quite a bit, disproving both of your only two points.

Let me help you out a little: I'm sensing you're a bit new to this sort of thing, so I'm going to cut you some slack and give you a free tip or two.

1. Simply saying you've "refuted" a point without actually doing it isn't even annoying: it's just sad. Let me explain where you went wrong: refuting is actually a two-step process. It begins with
a. Understanding the argument. You must correctly construe and comprehend the argument that your opponent made. If you fail on this point, you can't really get anywhere.
b. Presenting evidence or logical reasoning to illustrate why the argument fails/is false. This is generally harder, and people try all kinds of shortcuts--these are known as "fallacies." You've already used a couple in this very thread--but they're things like "the ad hominem fallacy" or "begging the question" or your favourite, the "appeal to authority."

You're still back on step 1. So go back, read what I wrote again and give it another try. You'll get there--it just takes patience, hard work and a little critical thinking. You may find it helpful to get rid of your confirmation bias first.

[Ramsayfarian]

Originally Posted by jjgallow

I'd like it to be honest.

For instance (and this is fairly random):


A real fun one: Susan Stratton.
http://www.ecw.org/aboutme.php?personid=36
Always nice when people suing your industry are also donating in your City's election:
http://www.thestar.com/business/arti...ago-last-month

Anyway, I have no direct links here but am merely trying to illustrate that Nenshi's disclosure is far from transparent, and if you think his "grassroots" campaign is funded any more honestly than the other candidate's....think again.

Or it could be Susan Stratton the president of the Alberta Green Party.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Susan_Stratton

[Reggie Dunlop]

LOL. Nenshi has got the Ragin' Grannies back.

PWNED

[jjgallow]

Originally Posted by Ramsayfarian

Or it could be Susan Stratton the president of the Alberta Green Party.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Susan_Stratton

That seems more likely...not sure which is worse.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by jjgallow

I'd like it to be honest.

For instance (and this is fairly random):

Barbara Kapel Holden is listed as a personal donor. It fails to mention that she is on the board of directors for the Energy Resources Conservation board.
http://www.ercb.ca/portal/server.pt/...on/branch.aspx

They of course determine Enmax's rates. Probably no relation to Gary Holden, CEO of Enmax. I have no idea, nor would it ever be disclosed.


Let me try another..
Steven Paget, a personal donor that just Happens to be the Vice President of First Energy:
http://www.firstenergy.com/page.php?...8&analyst_id=9

Sheila Wasylyshyn...
Executive assistant to the Calgary board of Education Trustees.
Innocent enough, but why not just disclose?

Jim Mitchel...
Maybe just any Jim Mitchel, maybe the Vice President of PCL Construction Canada.
http://csgb.ubc.ca/files/workshop08/AnibalValente.pdf

A real fun one: Susan Stratton.
http://www.ecw.org/aboutme.php?personid=36
Always nice when people suing your industry are also donating in your City's election:
http://www.thestar.com/business/arti...ago-last-month

Anyway, I have no direct links here but am merely trying to illustrate that Nenshi's disclosure is far from transparent, and if you think his "grassroots" campaign is funded any more honestly than the other candidate's....think again.

Until you posted this, I was sure you were just a somewhat overzealous supporter or Barb Higgins.

Now, I am 100% certain you are being paid to do (either directly, or indirectly) by people involved in the campaign to elect Barb Higgins. Don't get me wrong, I think it is a brilliant move for her to do this since her only shot at this point is to paint it as a 2 horse race between her and Dr No. This is the exact things her recent radio ads have been doing as well. I just didn't peg them as being smart (or is it lazy?) enough to try and do it some place like CalgaryPuck.

I wonder how many people you needed to ask before someone had an account old enough that people wouldn't almost dismiss you as exactly what you are.

In case you were wondering what tipped me off, it was random listing off a rather large list of heavily researched names that you 'randomly selected' that just happen to be people you could use to put a spin (albeit flawed as fotze pointed out) to put him in a poor view to someone who would just take you at your word.

edit: actually I have to admit, you fooled me for a lot longer than you should have. Your post history indicates you have never posted in another thread other than this one right here, despite being a 2 year old account. You should have been at least smart enough to make some posts in yesterday's GT.

[jjgallow]

Originally Posted by fotze

Barbara kapel Holden is a lawyer at the ercb not a board member, huge difference. And if there was crookedness, enmax (the city) would be paying off the Ercb, you moron not the other way around. I may email this lawyer this thread so she can sue you for libel.

It's like a Pete rose paying a booking so he could throw the game.

oh pish posh. I provided the link for anyone who wanted to split hairs. I'm not an expert in this, but the "General Council" is considered a board member and Holden is on the General Council. How she plays into that, I don't know nor is it relevant.

The point is that there's a clear political tie to an energy regulator and it's not disclosed. I'm not picking on Nenshi here, I'm just refuting the belief on this thread that his disclosure is somehow more transparent than the other candidates.

[Ramsayfarian]

Nenshi in Ramsay


Dr. Know by Ramsayfarian, on Flickr

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by jjgallow

oh pish posh. I provided the link for anyone who wanted to split hairs. I'm not an expert in this, but the "General Council" is considered a board member and Barb is on the General Council. How she plays into that, I don't know nor is it relevant.

The point is that there's a clear political tie to an energy regulator and it's not disclosed. I'm not picking on Nenshi here, I'm just refuting the believe on this thread that his disclosure is somehow more transparent than the other candidates.

This is actually kind of cute, it reminds me of the Dailyshow where John Stewart traced the builder of the Ground Zero mosque back to Fox News. I wish I could find the Comedy Central link to see it in Canada but here is the article : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_715864.html

[Phaneuf3]

Originally Posted by jjgallow

I'd like it to be honest.

For instance (and this is fairly random):

Barbara Kapel Holden is listed as a personal donor. It fails to mention that she is on the board of directors for the Energy Resources Conservation board.
http://www.ercb.ca/portal/server.pt/...on/branch.aspx

They of course determine Enmax's rates. Probably no relation to Gary Holden, CEO of Enmax. I have no idea, nor would it ever be disclosed.


Let me try another..
Steven Paget, a personal donor that just Happens to be the Vice President of First Energy:
http://www.firstenergy.com/page.php?...8&analyst_id=9

Sheila Wasylyshyn...
Executive assistant to the Calgary board of Education Trustees.
Innocent enough, but why not just disclose?

Jim Mitchel...
Maybe just any Jim Mitchel, maybe the Vice President of PCL Construction Canada.
http://csgb.ubc.ca/files/workshop08/AnibalValente.pdf

A real fun one: Susan Stratton.
http://www.ecw.org/aboutme.php?personid=36
Always nice when people suing your industry are also donating in your City's election:
http://www.thestar.com/business/arti...ago-last-month

Anyway, I have no direct links here but am merely trying to illustrate that Nenshi's disclosure is far from transparent, and if you think his "grassroots" campaign is funded any more honestly than the other candidate's....think again.

Interesting... now you're wanting Nenshi to go far, far beyond the accepted standards you were lauding so much before and research and post every single contributer's resume.

Remember this?

Originally Posted by jjgallow

This is what it should look like (and they all have this information now):
http://www.calgary.ca/docgallery/bu/...ronconnier.pdf

I don't see any company names or political parties listed next to any individual's names. But you want Nenshi to do that?
Further - that list is only for contributions > $101. Nenshi went even further than required and released the names of everyone that gave him as little as $5.

[c.t.ner]

I'm not going to lie, I was totally hoping jjgallow would pull my name out of Nenshi's donor list with some random company.

[jjgallow]

Originally Posted by Rathji

Until you posted this, I was sure you were just a somewhat overzealous supporter or Barb Higgins.

Now, I am 100% certain you are being paid to do (either directly, or indirectly) by people involved in the campaign to elect Barb Higgins. Don't get me wrong, I think it is a brilliant move....

Your reaction is like Bronco's reaction to the internal auditor....shoot the messenger. I'm not brilliant, I just care. Internet forums tend to polarize. I felt the need, for whatever reason, to point that out. Nenshi is not really in the race, I'm just trying to say that now rather than after the election for anyone looking to vote strategically.

I wouldn't still be here if it weren't for the fact that almost every single reply to my posts was vengeful, even though I was just providing the most honest information I have.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by c.t.ner

I'm not going to lie, I was totally hoping jjgallow would pull my name out of Nenshi's donor list with some random company.

Just for that, I am going to go see how much is being pumped into Nenshi's campaign from our DC CP members!

[Ramsayfarian]

Originally Posted by jjgallow

Your reaction is like Bronco's reaction to the internal auditor....shoot the messenger. I'm not brilliant, I just care. Internet forums tend to polarize. I felt the need, for whatever reason, to point that out. Nenshi is not really in the race, I'm just trying to say that now rather than after the election for anyone looking to vote strategically.

I wouldn't still be here if it weren't for the fact that almost every single reply to my posts was vengeful, even though I was just providing the most honest information I have.

Nenshi is far from being out of this race. I think he's going to win it.

[Phaneuf3]

http://barbhiggins.ca/assets/files/b...donor-list.pdf
Lots of names here with no mention of what company they work for... for shame Barb. FOR SHAME!!

No possible way anyone should vote for someone this dishonest, right jjgallow?

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by jjgallow

Your reaction is like Bronco's reaction to the internal auditor....shoot the messenger. I'm not brilliant, I just care. Internet forums tend to polarize. I felt the need, for whatever reason, to point that out. Nenshi is not really in the race, I'm just trying to say that now rather than after the election for anyone looking to vote strategically.

I wouldn't still be here if it weren't for the fact that almost every single reply to my posts was vengeful, even though I was just providing the most honest information I have.

I don't want to shoot you, I think it is funny.

You expect us to believe that in the hour and seven minutes from your previous post (from 7:23 to 8:30) you just browsed through a huge list of names and pulled some out names, researched them and posted a rather impressive list of people with 'questionable ties' to 'questionable organizations' with a whole lot of conjecture thrown in.

You really must think little of our intellect.

Edit: also, why would we want to "vote strategically"? What does that mean? Are you saying that there is a better way to vote instead of voting for the person we want to win? Again, implying that we are somehow wasting our votes without directly insulting us. It is an good plan, if you are talking to a lemming.

I am actually curious now, is there some sort of strategy think tank who came up with this plan of attack or is it just your personal idea? Its actually not a bad plan given the limited options you have. I mean at this point, trying to convince people that she has good ideas really isn't going to net you many votes.

I grew up with my dad running several political campaigns, including involvement with some people who are still in office in Calgary today. I know how these things worked back then, just curious if the strategy has changed a whole lot with the advent of the internet and a new demographic of voters.

[c.t.ner]

Originally Posted by Rathji

Just for that, I am going to go see how much is being pumped into Nenshi's campaign from our DC CP members!

DAMNIT!

you're on to me I'm supplementing Nenshi because I'm one of Obama's extremist liberal moles working to dethrone the conservative establishment in Calgary. BWAHAHAHA. Feel my 25-500 dollar donation power!!

[octothorp]

I think it's very telling that Nenshi's message is 'Calgarians have the opportunity to vote for whichever candidate they want for mayor', while all of Higgins supporters say, 'The only way to stop McIver is to strategically vote fo Barb because Nenshi doesn't have a chance of winning.'

Remind me which of these candidates is claiming to run a 'positive' campaign?