Ongoing YYCCC (Chu + Farkas) Transgressions Threat

[Torture]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

Bell reporting this AM that Farkas is gunning for the mayoral seat next election.

No thanks.

[Oling_Roachinen]

His attacking of Nenshi before even being elected while part of the Manning Foundation was pretty good indication that this was the plan. Only all but confirmed with the grandstanding he did. That has gone beyond trying to get re-elected and instead showed bigger ambitions. I don't think anyone should be surprised.

I wish there was more of a connection between him and the UCP if he were to be elected, just in case he does do bad that it would maybe get Calgarians out to vote against the UCP in the next provincial election. With that said, I don't want him as the mayor, I won't vote for him as the mayor, but I think there's worse choices on the City Council right now. I wouldn't have a sense of dread if he were to be elected, I think he believes in what he's doing, I just disagree often with his positions, but I don't get the sense that he's completely immoral like Kenney is. And at least City Council can keep the mayor in check.

[Zarley]

I don't think Nenshi will run again.

Nenshi's been extremely mediocre and dissapointing as mayor, I can't see Farkas being any worse.

I'd like to see either Jeff Davison or Gondek run for mayor.

[Oling_Roachinen]

Originally Posted by Nammer403

I hope its not between Nenshi and Farkas next fall.

In that case, I think you're also hoping for Farkas as mayor then.

Maybe I'm pessimistic, but without Nenshi, Farkas has the name-recognition, strong backing, experience now, and as we see when long established mayor's go we'll often see vote splitting but he's already claimed up a lot of the votes from Calgary's "disenfranchised" (i.e. people who didn't like Nenshi).

[Ozy_Flame]

Yeah but if Nenshi doesn't run then the people voting for Farkas simply because of Nenshi no longer need to vote for Farkas to make that happen.

I hope fresh blood comes in. Farkas does not have the experience, temperament, or team-playing abilities to lead a functioning council.

It is very obvious Farkas will be the UCP poster boy to lead the slate of candidates into City Council. I hope people realize that.

[Oling_Roachinen]

I think a large majority of the anti-Nenshi crowd by default become pro-Farkas giving his grandstanding and the like. I don't think he loses it solely because Nenshi is no longer running.

(And to be clear, I'm not a Nenshi fan, so I'm not saying anyone who didn't love Nenshi would vote Farkas).

[PepsiFree]

The funny thing (or sad thing) is that some of the Nenshi haters who bitch about taxes non-stop and Nenshi's demeanour are going to fall over themselves to vote for UCP backed Farkas and, if what we've seen from the UCP so far holds true, even higher taxes and even more of an insolent child in the driver's seat! Yay!

Any Calgarian that votes for Farkas is an idiot.

[SebC]

Can anyone name one important initiative Farkas has spearheaded, gotten support for, and passed? Being the voice of dissent doesn't give you much of a body of work to point at. He's had an opportunity to lead as a councillor and has completely failed.

[MarchHare]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Farkas does not have the experience, temperament, or team-playing abilities to lead a functioning council.

This is entirely on purpose. Farkas's marching orders from his Manning Institute overseers is to gum up the works of council, spread misinformation, and make disingenuous and/or purposely misleading claims to reporters and to his followers on social media. Then, when other members of council complain and sanction him for his unethical behaviour (e.g. when he posted a "vote sheet" on Twitter showing that he was the only member of council to vote for a property tax decrease when no such vote even occurred), he gets to pretend that he's a martyr and act like the victim.

All of this is completely by design. The Manning Institute is using Farkas to deliberately make council look dysfunctional so Calgarians will "throw the bums out" and vote for a full slate of Manning-aligned candidates in the next election. It's so nakedly transparent that this is happening, but too many Calgary voters don't follow municipal politics closely enough to see what's really going on.

[SebC]

Calgary was smart of enough to say "No" to "Dr. No" once. I wouldn't rule out that they'll do it again for the new version.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

All of this is completely by design. The Manning Institute is using Farkas to deliberately make council look dysfunctional so Calgarians will "throw the bums out" and vote for a full slate of Manning-aligned candidates in the next election. It's so nakedly transparent that this is happening, but too many Calgary voters don't follow municipal politics closely enough to see what's really going on.

And for the record, I believe we're getting the same thing up here in Edmonton, lead by Councillor Mike Nickel, who is a grandstanding showboat with the intention to antagonize Council as a false protector of the "public dime". He's basically the Oilers version of Farkas, and he's going to lead a couple of current Councillors with a slate for the city as well. They will brandish the same message too - "clean up Silly Hall" and prevent taxpayer waste.

[Joborule]

How many people actually support Farkas though? Would be interested to see poll numbers from the city as a whole.

I feel with the new alignment of his own ward, it's not even a guarantee he would get reelected.

I'm assuming Nenshi isn't going to run next election, so some councilors are going to be putting in their tickets.

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by Zarley

I don't think Nenshi will run again.

Nenshi's been extremely mediocre and dissapointing as mayor, I can't see Farkas being any worse.

I'd like to see either Jeff Davison or Gondek run for mayor.

We don't agree on much, but Gondek would still get my immediate vote, 100x over Farkas.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Joborule

How many people actually support Farkas though? Would be interested to see poll numbers from the city as a whole.

I feel with the new alignment of his own ward, it's not even a guarantee he would get reelected.

I'm assuming Nenshi isn't going to run next election, so some councilors are going to be putting in their tickets.

My parents, all their friends, and most old people in my part of the city (his ward) love him. And a lot of them aren’t especially conservative either.

I think Farkas is a ######bag. But giving credence to the concerns of the elderly, returning all their phone calls, etc. has been the foundation many successful political campaigns.

[tvp2003]

Originally Posted by Zarley

I'd like to see either Jeff Davison or Gondek run for mayor.

I would happily support either one if they decided to throw their hat into the ring. I think they would be excellent candidates as well.

[getbak]

I think his best chance of getting elected is if Nenshi doesn't run and a group of rational adults run for mayor and split the vote, while Farkas shores up the angry idiot vote. That's basically how he got elected in the first place.

Only Ray Jones and DCU were elected with a lower percentage of the vote in their wards than Farkas and they both were running against a large number of opponents who split the vote (DCU had 5 opponents who received more than 10% of the vote but none over 17%).

If one of the people Farkas was running against had dropped out and thrown her support behind the other one, he would have lost.


His worst chance is to face one strong opponent. His best chance is to face multiple strong opponents.

[Oling_Roachinen]

Originally Posted by getbak

If one of the people Farkas was running against had dropped out and thrown her support behind the other one, he would have lost.

Were his opponents not PC and NDP? You could make the much more fair argument that if Johnson (former MLA-PC) had dropped out, Farkas would have got more of those votes.

[Fuzz]

So what we need is a sacrificial candidate or 3 who mirror everything Farkas says. Copy his tweets, the look of his election posters, everything. Who's up for that? Maybe we can convince Larry Heather he has a chance if he takes up that strategy.

[Ducay]

Originally Posted by Zarley

I'd like to see either Jeff Davison or Gondek run for mayor.

You take that back. If you think Nenshi is full of himself, Jeff Davison says "hold my beer". Unlike Nenshi, he is interested in Davison first and foremost. As much as Nenshi's personality/smug-ness rubs people wrong now, he truly took on the job passionate about making the city better, and likely still does.

Davison on the other hand, is solely interested in advancing his own image, status, and sway. He's a stereotypical politician.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

So what we need is a sacrificial candidate or 3 who mirror everything Farkas says. Copy his tweets, the look of his election posters, everything. Who's up for that? Maybe we can convince Larry Heather he has a chance if he takes up that strategy.

Maybe find a “Jeremy” Farkas and “Shawn” Chu that could run and just confuse everybody.