2010 civic election wpg

[CDDF]

Originally Posted by Kinguni

Great idea but 120 positions over 4 years? 30 spots a year! That's nothing! 120 positions a year might help! Perhaps she is listening, but she's certainly out of touch.

No kidding. 120 jobs over four years at a minimum estimated cost of $12 million works out to $100k per job.

How can anyone think that's an effective use of money?

[jmt18325]

Originally Posted by Boreal

You will not see Ed Clark or Kevin O'Leary making the jump. Ever.

Well, I thank God every day that I won't see Kevin O'Leary run. The government isn't a business and shouldn't be run as such. You mention Ed Clark. What about John McCallum? There are many many examples. We just don't like to admit that there are smart politicians who do a good job.

[Boreal]

Originally Posted by jmt18325

Well, I thank God every day that I won't see Kevin O'Leary run. The government isn't a business and shouldn't be run as such. You mention Ed Clark. What about John McCallum? There are many many examples. We just don't like to admit that there are smart politicians who do a good job.

I suppose that's where we have a fundamental difference of opinion. I see a city, a province and certainly a country as a business to be run when broken down to it's key components.

As for John McCallum, yes, he did in fact hold the post as chief economist of the Royal Bank for the better part of a decade (I'm guessing 7, 8 years maybe?), there are two important distinctions to make. He was a good academic, and a good economist, but not a manager in the sense of an Ed Clark. As well, the time he served as chief economist of the RBC was during a relative boom time, when it was hard not to be a good chief economist. Not trying to discredit him, he was half decent, but he is an economist, not a manager.

In the end of the day, my personal world view is that if the business climate is healthy then the country is healthy, or at least moving in the right direction (a la China, India, Brazil, etc.). The dependence on social programs is negatively correlated with income. Thus, my contention is that the most important thing in any city, province or country is wealth creation. People with money don't go hungry. People with money don't require social housing. People with money tend to commit far less crime. People with money tend to have fewer problems with substance abuse. For these reasons, I see a city, province and country to be run like a business, though one that certainly differs in definition from that of a standard corporation or sole proprietorship or partnership.

Kevin O'Leary is uncanny. Nary everything he touches turns to gold (less the Mattel dispute... but that's a discussion for another day).

...I wish Dave Angus would have run. Though he wouldn't have won, I would have at least had someone to vote for.

[Kinguni]

Originally Posted by Boreal

...I wish Dave Angus would have run. Though he wouldn't have won, I would have at least had someone to vote for.

Maybe next time? I don't think he'd run if he didn't think he could win. Would be nice to have someone to vote for though.

[jmt18325]

Originally Posted by Boreal

I suppose that's where we have a fundamental difference of opinion. I see a city, a province and certainly a country as a business to be run when broken down to it's key components.

Yes, well, as a Liberal, you're certainly not going to get that from me. And I still hold that the examples of Paul Martin and Danny Williams don't fit your mold.

[CDDF]

Originally Posted by jmt18325

Yes, well, as a Liberal, you're certainly not going to get that from me. And I still hold that the examples of Paul Martin and Danny Williams don't fit your mold.

Martin's an outlier, driven by his goal (IMHO) not necessarily to be PM, but rather to achieve what Paul Martin Sr. failed to achieve. Had his dad ever managed to win the Liberal leadership and become PM, I'm of the view that Jr. wouldn't have pursued the leadership so vigourously. He seemed to approach it as if fulfilling a family destiny.

Danny Williams seems consumed with a desire to obtain publicity for Danny Williams. What better way to do that than become a nationally recognized politician?

[1ajs]

anyone els going out to this
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=107407675986887&ref=ts

i am canoeing to it since my bike got stolen

[Andy6]

Simply because a city isn't a business doesn't mean that the management skills and financial understanding that a businessman would (hopefully) have wouldn't be extremely important to running a city successfully. It is never difficult to sit around dreaming about ways to spend other people's money. It is very difficult to make the right choices about the limited resources that the city actually has and, in particular, to resist the temptation to tax the city into oblivion in order to pursue pet projects.

[Only The Lonely..]

Originally Posted by Andy6

Simply because a city isn't a business doesn't mean that the management skills and financial understanding that a businessman would (hopefully) have wouldn't be extremely important to running a city successfully. It is never difficult to sit around dreaming about ways to spend other people's money. It is very difficult to make the right choices about the limited resources that the city actually has and, in particular, to resist the temptation to tax the city into oblivion in order to pursue pet projects.

This is the smartest thing i've read on SSP all day.

[Only The Lonely..]

Originally Posted by CDDF

No kidding. 120 jobs over four years at a minimum estimated cost of $12 million works out to $100k per job.

That's one HELL of a summer job!

[Jets4Life]

If Judy is elected Mayor of Winnipeg, this is what we can look forward to in 6 months:

[rrskylar]

Some fresh Black Rod, dig in:


Brooms sweeping top dogs out of 510 Main before civic election

What's going on?

First, Winnipeg's top bureaucrat announces he is leaving the big city to go back to Hooterville.

Then, yesterday, the head of the Winnipeg Parking Authority took time from polishing the award he got in May, for doing such a bang-up job here, to deliver his resignation.

It was Biebermania for big folks when Glen Laubenstein was hired in 2008 to be Winnipeg's Chief Administrative Officer, the man responsible for turning the levers that make the city run. Councillors swooned in his presence. They wrote poetry over his plans to rewrite the book on running a city.

And then....poof. Gone. From reading multi-million dollar contracts he's reading the bus schedule to Wood Buffalo (nee Fort McMurray), Alberta, population 64,000 counting coyotes.

And what about the parking authority's Dave Hill. Four months ago he was collecting the award for "Parking Professional of the Year," at the International Parking Institute Convention & Expo in Las Vegas.

"It's the Academy Award of parking," he said at the time.

Today he's Lindsay Lohan. Two weeks notice before they black out his name on the marquee and replace it with TBA.

St. Boniface Councillor Danny Vandal mused that Winnipeg is just a dysfunctional city that makes it impossible for city administrators to thrive.

Or is it that the city administrators are too dysfunctional to make the city thrive?

Lest we forget that Laubenstein was the bureaucratic power behind the Disraeli Bridge Fiasco and the New Stadium Disaster, projects that are going to wind up costing us tens of millions of dollars more than expected.

City councillors gave Laubenstein carte blanche authority to handle the job of replacing the venerable Disraeli Bridge. By the time he got through with it, the public's wishes had been flushed down the toilet and the final design reflected the opinions of a tiny lobby group that somehow got his ear. And the cost was, well, unknown ---but somewhere far, far north of the most expensive option specifically rejected during the farcical so-called "public consultations."

Exactly how big a hole Laubenstein left in the budget won't be known until the bridge is built in a year or two.

By then we may also know the size of the stadium disaster. What we know so far is that the city is a partner to a facility nobody can describe being built at a cost nobody knows. But we've agreed to pay millionaire moocher David Asper millions of dollars in profit for his construction company to build the thing even though he's reneged on his promise to cover all cost overruns and wants to stick the Winnipeg taxpayer with the bill.

You can understand why Laubenstein doesn't want to stick around for that cheque.

Dave Hill, also known as the man who thought putting parking meters in residential areas was a peachy idea, was supposed to be raising money to pay for Laubenstein's follies. But to do it, he got "creative."

Like when he ordered tickets for parking on Saturday after 3.30 PM, and on civic holiday Mondays. When people complained that weekend parking was free, he sneered 'It's a custom, not a law.'

So is tarring and feathering, but the public has restrained itself so far.

The decapitations at the top of two of the city bureaucracies may be a signal that the working model of the city is under review.

You have to look beyond the trees to see the forest.

Under Sam Katz, the city was slowly being decentralized. The running of the city was being spun off from City Hall to obscure independent agencies.

Dave Hill ran the parking authority. There's a transit authority. Council last year approved a water authority to handle water and sewer services, and a garbage authority. And goodness knows how many other "authorities" there are and what they do.

We know what they're supposed to do---take the heat off the city councillors. So the transit authority would set bus rates, and the water authority would determine your water bill and the garbage authority would ultimately decided how your garbage was picked up and how much it would cost you, because, don't kid yourself, pricing garbage removal is the ultimate goal.

As these decisions were farmed out to "independent" agencies, city councillors couldn't be held accountable. Just like the Disraeli Bridge fiasco.

What, exactly, would be role of city councillors under this model? Sitting around and pontificating about "vision" or "the big picture?"

Puh-lease. Between the pet projects of the Aspers and Sam Katz's grandiose plans electric trains we're already being bled dry.

Hooterville looks better every day .

[vid]

I heard that our previous city manager ran off to another city because he met a woman there, but don't tell anyone I told you.

We have different departments making decisions here and all city council does is decide whether or not they're acceptable with their solid gold rubber stamp. People still hate city council for it, completely ignoring that we and I would imagine almost every other city in Ontario is a dictatorship under its city administration and city council is just their puppets. Very rarely does city council vote against what administration or one of its departments proposes, though they spend hours asking silly questions to make it look like they're fighting for "us".

[JayM]

Originally Posted by Jets4Life

If Judy is elected Mayor of Winnipeg, this is what we can look forward to in 6 months:

I don't know raising the PST isn't the move Id vote with.

[1ajs]

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Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION
Wasylycia-Leis unveils 'green plan'

By: Bartley Kives
Posted: 24/09/2010 11:29 AM

Winnipeg mayoral candidate Judy Wasylycia-Leis has unveiled a "green plan" that would offer small grants to community organizations, share the cost of placing bike racks outside of businesses, increase the tree-pruning cycle, create a local food-policy council and re-establish a formal environment committee at city council.
Speaking to reporters outside Red River College’s downtown campus this morning, the former Winnipeg North MP also promised to fast-track the implementation of existing city environmental studies and reiterated her pledge to complete the Southwest Rapid Transit Corridor as a busway – and begin a second rapid-transit route, probably from downtown to Transcona – within her first term as mayor.
Wasylycia-Leis pledged to increase the city’s tree-pruning cycle to 12 years and make tree-banding more accessible to community groups by adding $300,000 to the city’s operating budget. She promised to offer grants of up to $1,000 to schools or other organizations who want to develop rooftop gardens or greener alleyways, up to a maximum of $75,000. She said her bike-rack plan would cost the city $50,000.
But the $425,000 in spending she announced today does not include any implementation costs associated with city studies, which include a plan to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. It also did not include the cost of completing the first phase of the the Southwest Rapid Transit Corridor, which incumbent mayor Sam Katz has pegged at anywhere from $220 million to $270 million.
Wasylycia-Leis’ "green plan" resembled aspects of an environmental platform unveiled by Katz during the 2006 civic election campaign. Wasylycia-Leis said Katz has made some good small steps, but said much more must be done to make Winnipeg a sustainable community.

[roccerfeller]

Hmm.

What's her deal with the RT? I've been out of the loop with this lady.

[1ajs]

shes all for it including just getting the whole thing done and adding more

[Kinguni]

At least she states her positions clearly. I like what she says about rapid transit. I'll vote for her on that basis alone, and more power to her if she can get it done! Sam hasn't even been able to synchronize traffic lights like he promised. I curse him almost every trip I make down Pembina Hwy, and that's 5 trips each way a day.

[vid]

Are they set randomly or do they cascade? Our lights will change one after the other so if you're lucky, you can get across town without hitting a single one, and if you're unlucky, you will stop at every single red light. It's frustrating sometimes. Fun to watch though.

[Kinguni]

Pembina seems quite random, although the lights are spaced quite far apart. Biggest problem with lights on Pembina is that the timings don't allow enough traffic through on each green with the effect being traffic backing up. Without priority measures in place for Transit I can only imagine the frustration of my passengers. McGillivray through Chevrier south do appear to be synchronized at rush hour though. In the daytime however the lights seemed to be times to slow traffic down.