Atlantic Canadian Politics Thread

[CharlotteCountyLogan]

Originally Posted by CharlotteCountyLogan

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1JEoKnF6Eq/
First person to annouce their candidacy for mayor in Eastern Charlotte. Councilor Detorakis.

To update this the incumbent mayor John Craig has announced he is running for re-election.

[CharlotteCountyLogan]

I see that the save Lorenville/Anti-Data Center people are trying to vote in people who oppose the development. Personally I dont think it will be successful. Maybe just maybe they'll get a councilor who opposes development. Just interesting to see.

[bingun]

We are now in March, and there are no other mayoral candidates for SJ, it seems?

Barry vs Donna, it is. It doesn't excite me.

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by bingun

We are now in March, and there are no other mayoral candidates for SJ, it seems?

Barry vs Donna, it is. It doesn't excite me.

I barely even wanna make a poll thread for that tbh.. here’s hoping a high quality candidate under the age of 65 throws their hat in the ring.

[bingun]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

I barely even wanna make a poll thread for that tbh.. here’s hoping a high quality candidate under the age of 65 throws their hat in the ring.

I am just surprised there isn't someone else at least trying, even if they aren't well-known or supported. It feels like it's complete crickets.

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by bingun

I am just surprised there isn't someone else at least trying, even if they aren't well-known or supported. It feels like it's complete crickets.

I feel like almost anyone 35-50+ with an adequately impressive resume here in the Saint John Region could absolutely trounce Reardon and Ogden by running an even half decent campaign that stuck to a tenacious message of change and improvement for the city and region. (And promise to push the province to bring about regional fairness through comprehensive tax reform and revenue sharing between Saint John and its many outlying suburbs and bedroom communities.)

Maybe a former Team Holt member like David Alston wouldn’t want to promise to push for such big change and readjustment, but clearly the region needs a shakeup… and making such promises really cost a candidate nothing, other than trying to push the province to right some historical wrongs.

If former councillor Ray Stowbridge ran for mayor, I’d def vote for him over Reardon or Barry, two people I can’t ever imagine pushing the province to amalgamate Saint John, or even just push for tax fairness between the city of Saint John and it’s suburbs, where most of Saint John’s highest paid workers live.

This is a great city and we deserve a mayor who actually understands what makes cities great… but the mayor that signed off on “small city, big heart” and the bozo who spent 3.5 million on a “ship” that doesn’t even float aren’t the type of leaders that instill great confidence in our city.

Weirdly enough, Mayor Reardon has presided over on the the most historic eras of growth and development in the contemporary history of Saint John, and was even featured on the Daily Show at the height of the Trump tariff craziness, but does anyone really feel like she’s an inspiring or skillful leader?

If the choice is between Reardon and Ogden, then the choice is abundantly clear. Reardon might be boring and not trying very hard to bring recognition and development to the city, but at least she’s a stable person and a calm presence on council. Ogden might have some interesting things to say from time to time, but he’s all over the place and much like Don Darling, I feel like Ogden only believes in good ideas when they’re his ideas, except he has a lot less good ideas than Don Darling did for promoting Saint John and for shifting the focus of the city toward growth and development.

Ogden seems to think a fresh coat of paint and some low budget murals are how we should fix this city… not the big stuff like pushing the province to live up to their big promises on stuff like tax reform and building affordable housing. We need a mayor that pushes both the federal government and the province of NB to fund big ideas with big price tags to reinvest and improve Canada’s first city.

I think there’s multiple members of this forum that could make better mayors than either Reardon on Ogden.

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

There’s been very little talk of candidates other than Reardon and Ogden, but perhaps even less talk about what should be considered the biggest issues for Saint John’s municipal election?

There’s quite a few issues I’d like to see prioritized like housing, tax reform and regional fairness, active transportation solution solutions, improving public transit, and better public recreational infrastructure. Yet, one issue I’d really like to see candidates for council and mayor take a stand on, is the future of Wolastoq Park.

IMO, the city should be pushing for a residential development of part of the park, if and when JDI decides to approach the newly elected council and try again to turn part of the park into a parking lot. If they want it that bad, the city should push for them to building an underground parking garage with a residential development on top of it, so more people could simply walk to work at the pulp mill, along with providing ample underground parking for mill staff commuting to the mill from elsewhere in the region.

Maybe they could even build a tunnel all the way from Wolastoq Park to the pulp mill.

All I know is that it’s incredibly unlikely that JDI doesn’t approach the next council with a new offer for using part of Wolastoq Park as parking. I’d love to hear where Reardon and Ogden stand on the future zoning of this park.

[sailor734]

I get the feeling that people are less unhappy with the mayor and council in recent years than back in the bad old days. There seem to be fewer questionable decisions than in the Court/Macfarlane/McAlary eras and councils in general seem somewhat more serious. It's far from perfect but the city's finances are steadily improving from the mess we were in 10-20 years ago. In short, I don't think there is a great groundswell among voters to shake things up. That may well be contributing to a lack of a strong candidate to run against the incumbent mayor.

[darkharbour]

Originally Posted by sailor734

I get the feeling that people are less unhappy with the mayor and council in recent years than back in the bad old days. There seem to be fewer questionable decisions than in the Court/Macfarlane/McAlary eras and councils in general seem somewhat more serious. It's far from perfect but the city's finances are steadily improving from the mess we were in 10-20 years ago. In short, I don't think there is a great groundswell among voters to shake things up. That may well be contributing to a lack of a strong candidate to run against the incumbent mayor.

I agree with this for the most part, take for example the main public complaint last year seems to have been bellyaching over the roadworks on Main Street which cost barely cost the city $1.5 million (so less than 1% of the annual budget), whereas we had $195+ million in pension fund deficits just 10-12 years ago. Now the city's pension and finances are in order, and in just a couple of years those payments will be finished and ~$10 million/year will be off the books and we can spend those dollars on city infrastructure and services again. If the City's lobbying to the province to review the industrial tax transfers works, that's another $7-9 million a year added to the bottom line.

Basically anyone who runs for mayor and wins just has to hold course and not do anything stupid, and they will come out looking like a saint, as before the end of their term they will be able to either add nearly $20 million in new services or infrastructure fixes or reduce the tax rate even more than it already has recently.

(I know I'm oversimplifying this, but my point is that you are right about the City being in a much better position than it was before)

[bingun]

Originally Posted by darkharbour

I agree with this for the most part, take for example the main public complaint last year seems to have been bellyaching over the roadworks on Main Street which cost barely cost the city $1.5 million (so less than 1% of the annual budget), whereas we had $195+ million in pension fund deficits just 10-12 years ago. Now the city's pension and finances are in order, and in just a couple of years those payments will be finished and ~$10 million/year will be off the books and we can spend those dollars on city infrastructure and services again. If the City's lobbying to the province to review the industrial tax transfers works, that's another $7-9 million a year added to the bottom line.

Basically anyone who runs for mayor and wins just has to hold course and not do anything stupid, and they will come out looking like a saint, as before the end of their term they will be able to either add nearly $20 million in new services or infrastructure fixes or reduce the tax rate even more than it already has recently.

(I know I'm oversimplifying this, but my point is that you are right about the City being in a much better position than it was before)

I agree with you completely. In theory, we shouldn't be in the tough decision era any longer.

However, wouldn't that be a great opportunity for someone new to come in? You get to take credit for all the progress made in the coming years without having to deal with any of the pain.

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Would Don Darling in if he threw his hat back in the ring? Probably.

I’ll definitely be voting for Donna Reardon again if it’s a near binary choice between her and Barry Ogden… but still think the city could much better than either of them.

[CharlotteCountyLogan]

https://www.facebook.com/share/178mnL99wQ/
Mayor of Rothesay not reoffering

[Dengler Avenue]

https://www.ctvnews.ca/atlantic/new-brun...ric-14b-deficit-rise-in-health-spending/

Oh come on…

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

https://www.ctvnews.ca/atlantic/new-brun...ric-14b-deficit-rise-in-health-spending/

Oh come on…

Hardly worth the effort for only $10.4M in annual revenue. This is less than 1% of the anticipated annual deficit.

I am not in favour.

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Hardly worth the effort for only $10.4M in annual revenue. This is less than 1% of the anticipated annual deficit.

I am not in favour.

And… whatever happened to breaking down interprovincial trade barriers…

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

And… whatever happened to breaking down interprovincial trade barriers…

I think it may be partially payback for New Brunswickers still having to pay the toll at the Cobequid Pass. The pass is free for Nova Scotians, but not for anyone else. The same rules will apply at Aulac.

Maybe they will have second thoughts if they get rid of the Cobequid toll booth.

[q12]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

I think it may be partially payback for New Brunswickers still having to pay the toll at the Cobequid Pass. The pass is free for Nova Scotians, but not for anyone else. The same rules will apply at Aulac.

Maybe they will have second thoughts if they get rid of the Cobequid toll booth.

For the cost of 10 minutes of travel time passenger vehicles can take the Wentworth Valley (Highway 4) which is almost as quick and pay no tolls.

New Brunswick probably should have had tolls for years to help keep up the maintenance on the new sections of 4-lane highway it built in the past few decades. The Cobequid pass is the best maintained piece of Highway in Atlantic Canada thanks to the tolls.

I would think an ideal location for the tolls would be between Memramcook, NB and Sackville, NB so as not to cause economic costs to the Sackville, NB local economy from reduced traffic from Amherst, NS.

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by q12

For the cost of 10 minutes of travel time passenger vehicles can take the Wentworth Valley (Highway 4) which is almost as quick and pay no tolls.

New Brunswick probably should have had tolls for years to help keep up the maintenance on the new sections of 4-lane highway it built in the past few decades. The Cobequid pass is the best maintained piece of Highway in Atlantic Canada thanks to the tolls.

I would think an ideal location for the tolls would be between Memramcook, NB and Sackville, NB so as not to cause economic costs to the Sackville, NB local economy from reduced traffic from Amherst, NS.

New Brunswick used to have tolls on the divided portion of TCH. A government got voted out because of that…

[bingun]

It's even worse when you acknowledge that these tolls are not free to set up and operate. A portion of that revenue will be eaten up by costs. I would be surprised if they get half of it back as profit.

They've done this because it was a popular option in the survey they distributed and because it isn't unpopular among NB residents, as NB residents are exempt.

I posted this in the NS subreddit yesterday, and folks were pretty up in arms about it, but on the flip side, NB residents are paying the Cobequid pass, so I am somewhat torn. I know you can get around the pass, but let's be honest, most people aren't bothering for the sake of 4 bucks.

I think tolling commercial vehicles is a no-brainer, and it's a rounding error for most long-haul transportation, but for the folks near the border who travel to Sackville or Moncton regularly, it is tough.

I am also curious about this agreement with the federal government not to have a toll near Quebec; I haven't heard of that before.

[Dengler Avenue]

^ I’m hardly surprised about no toll on the Quebec border. Otherwise Quebec will separate.
Paul Saint-Pierre Plamondon va crier: “Vive le Québec libre. Phoque le Nouveau Brunswick (et l’Ontario).”
(Okay, my language is very coarse these days.)