HRM Municipal Election 2012

[kph06]

News 95.7 is reporting Waye Mason is running for District 7, Peninsula South Downtown.

[resetcbu1]

Originally Posted by kph06

News 95.7 is reporting Waye Mason is running for District 7, Peninsula South Downtown.

Haven't heard from him on here in a while, he musta been gearing up for this... wonder who'd be worse him or sloane lol?

[kph06]

Originally Posted by resetcbu1

Haven't heard from him on here in a while, he musta been gearing up for this... wonder who'd be worse him or sloane lol?

I think he will be going up against Uteck, as she will remain the southend councilor, I bet Sloane will run in Downtown/Northend. I think it would be pretty hard to uproot Uteck from the Southend.

I'm not sure if I have missed it earlier, but has there been any talk if Fougere will run for her old seat at council? I would like to see her back over Watts.

[Waye Mason]

Originally Posted by kph06

I think he will be going up against Uteck, as she will remain the southend councilor, I bet Sloane will run in Downtown/Northend. I think it would be pretty hard to uproot Uteck from the Southend.

I'm not sure if I have missed it earlier, but has there been any talk if Fougere will run for her old seat at council? I would like to see her back over Watts.

Dawn and Sue are both likely to run in the new district.

The new district is huge... it runs from Jubilee to Oxford, up to Quinpool, across to North Park, then up to Cornwallis, and along Cornwallis to the Harbour.

So I might be running against Sue and Dawn. But I am running in a new district that neither can claim to be the incumbent of, so it will be a very interesting race.

Mostly I am running for change.

I won't be on the board all that often as I will be knocking on doors, but more info is on the website: http://wayemason.ca

[haligonia]

Congrats, Waye! I fully support your goals and hope to see you on council come October.

[someone123]

I wish you luck, but I think it will be a tough race.

I really think the downtown needs more councillors to sell it as an economic engine of regional importance. Council needs to buy in to that and invest reasonable amounts of money. They also need to overcome the inertia and opposition to change that has built up after decades of neglect. Not everybody is going to be happy about every plan and some things will need to be pushed forward.

[halifaxboyns]

Wouldn't that also mean that it would be Waye, Sue, Dawn and Jennifer Watts?

That's a good point Waye, they could only claim a small portion of the district as their 'home'. I'm not able to vote, but if you could uproot Jennifer, power to you.

Have you put your platform on line yet?

[Waye Mason]

Jennifer is in the new Peninsula North, if she runs.

[sk8tr]

Wouldn't it make sense for Savage to put together a slate of candidates? That way, he could be part of a wholesale change that the public might be ready for.

Someone123, isn't this how municipal elections work in Vancouver?

Do you think that Halifax is ready to 'throw the bums out?'

[someone123]

Originally Posted by sk8tr

Someone123, isn't this how municipal elections work in Vancouver?

Yes. As far as I know there are two municipal parties in Vancouver -- Vision Vancouver (related to COPE) and the ironically-named Non-Partisan Association. The mayor, Gregor Robertson, is the leader of Vision Vancouver and most councillors belong to that party (Vancouver has only 10 councillors).

I'm not sure how much party discipline exists in Vancouver council, but presumably at the very least the Vision Vancouver members are able to get together and agree on policy ahead of time.

This may or may not be a good setup but Vancouver seems to have a much more effective municipal government than Halifax. At the very least, they accomplish much more (they have several advantages like sky-high property values, but some disadvantages as well compared to Halifax, like more poverty). There's still some hardcore NIMBYism, but I am amazed at how there is a steady stream of successful projects here while very minor projects are mired in studies and then left to die by HRM regional council. A few years ago for example they talked about revamping Granville Street in downtown Vancouver. A while later it was done, and that was that. Everything is supposedly complicated in Halifax but other cities manage.

Transit planning in metro Vancouver also seems pretty different from Halifax and is much, much more on the ball. There's some flip-flopping about some projects (like the SFU gondola or UBC line) but there is a steady stream of projects like the Millennium Line, Canada Line, and Evergreen Line that are far more extensive and sophisticated even after correcting for the size of the two cities. Halifax is 1/5 to 1/6 the size of Vancouver but its capital investment in transit is probably on the order of 1/20. I would expect that the operating cost subsidies are much lower as well.

[kph06]

Epstein was interviewed recently and said he would like to gather and support like-minded candidates to run for council... that would be terrible if the Howard Epstein Party of Halifax ruled council.

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by kph06

Epstein was interviewed recently and said he would like to gather and support like-minded candidates to run for council... that would be terrible if the Howard Epstein Party of Halifax ruled council.

Imagine 10 Jennifer Watts clones there. Chickens in every yard and no building taller than 4 floors allowed.

[Halifax Hillbilly]

Originally Posted by Waye Mason

Sloane lives in the new Peninsula North District on Creighton, and Watts lives on Duncan, so they get to face off.

Linda Mosher run unopposed by an incumbent, as will Sue Uteck.

I find it interesting that no one has talked about the suburban councillors. Walker, Dalrymple would be on my list to get rid of.

Walker has been acclaimed several times. He also seems to be one of the worst examples of protecting his own turf and the status quo at the expense of the whole municipality. I think it's time for him to move on - I believe he's been four plus terms.

If anyone runs proposing term limits they'd get my attention. If you can't accomplish anything in two terms, you're not going to get any better.

[RyeJay]

Originally Posted by Halifax Hillbilly

Walker has been acclaimed several times. He also seems to be one of the worst examples of protecting his own turf and the status quo at the expense of the whole municipality. I think it's time for him to move on - I believe he's been four plus terms.

If anyone runs proposing term limits they'd get my attention. If you can't accomplish anything in two terms, you're not going to get any better.

A mandate for term limits is also to assume that voters are either too stupid or too apathetic to vote for someone else.
(Exhibit A: HRM?)

For any case in which either holds true, another case can be found in which a lack of term limits was extremely benefitical due to the councillor's reliably progressive decisions. To set a limit for this 'good find' of a councillor means that the voters are forced to find another councillor of similar intentions -- which is often very difficult, if not impossible, to find.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Halifax Hillbilly

Walker has been acclaimed several times. He also seems to be one of the worst examples of protecting his own turf and the status quo at the expense of the whole municipality. I think it's time for him to move on - I believe he's been four plus terms.

This is, I think, in large part a result of the small size and lack of importance of the HRM districts. These seats aren't competitive because nobody wants them.

The reduced council size should help a lot. At the very least we will have many cases where two old incumbents will be competing for the same seat. On top of that there is the upside of having a smaller group to make decisions -- we really do not need a procession of 23 people making 5 minute vanity speeches about every chicken or cat bylaw.

[Halifax Hillbilly]

Originally Posted by someone123

This is, I think, in large part a result of the small size and lack of importance of the HRM districts. These seats aren't competitive because nobody wants them.

The reduced council size should help a lot. At the very least we will have many cases where two old incumbents will be competing for the same seat. On top of that there is the upside of having a smaller group to make decisions -- we really do not need a procession of 23 people making 5 minute vanity speeches about every chicken or cat bylaw.

Another thing that hopefully comes out of larger districts is fewer councillors protecting their own turf instead of looking at the bigger picture. I've honestly heard of councillors passing the buck on problems (crappy streets, vandalized infrastructure, poor bus service, etc.) in the district next door, like it doesn't affect their constituents. Not my problem, talk to councillor X,Y or Z.

[Halifax Hillbilly]

Originally Posted by RyeJay

A mandate for term limits is also to assume that voters are either too stupid or too apathetic to vote for someone else.
(Exhibit A: HRM?)

For any case in which either holds true, another case can be found in which a lack of term limits was extremely benefitical due to the councillor's reliably progressive decisions. To set a limit for this 'good find' of a councillor means that the voters are forced to find another councillor of similar intentions -- which is often very difficult, if not impossible, to find.

There would be that downside, obviously. I guess one of my main thoughts is with few exceptions politicians seem to become more entrenched in the system and less responsive to the needs of the communities they represent the longer they serve. It's like there is a little political bubble that 90% of them build and never pop. To my eyes many of the worst councillors today were decent councillors two terms ago. There is a certain amount of inertia and tone-deafness that seems inherent in politics - better to limit it if possible. You will kick some good people out along the way, but I bet in many cases a fresh face will be an improvement over someone who stopped caring two terms ago.

[Haligonian88]

This surprises me a bit, maybe people are starting to see that Peter Kelly has had his time and we need a change.

Savage at 53%, Kelly at 25% in new poll
February 17, 2012 - 7:02pm BY DAVID JACKSON STAFF REPORTER

A new poll has Halifax Mayor Peter Kelly well behind Mike Savage in the mayoral race, capping off a difficult week for the incumbent.

Of about 300 decided voters in the Corporate Research Associates poll, 53 per cent said they’d vote for Savage if an election were held today.

Kelly was second at 25 per cent. A similar poll in November, before Savage had even declared he was in the race, had Savage at 41 per cent support and Kelly at 37 per cent.

Savage announced his candidacy on Feb. 6. Kelly has said he has every intention of running but is holding off on officially entering the race because it would distract him from his work at city hall.

Retired police officer Tom Martin garnered nine per cent support in the poll released Friday. Businessman Fred Connors was at eight per cent and Dalhousie University student Matthew Worona at five per cent.

The poll of 400 residents of Halifax Regional Municipality was done Feb. 6-16. Twenty-six per cent didn’t pick any of the candidates. The margin of error is 4.9 percentage points, 95 per cent of the time.

...

http://thechronicleherald.ca/metro/6...ly-25-new-poll

The article goes on to talk about the story in the Coast this week about Kelly.

[Keith P.]

Be careful of those poll results:

1. It is a CRA/Don Mills poll. He is the arch-enemy of Kelly, pondered his own run for mayor, and was behind the anti-Kelly movement last time.
2. He is a Mike Savage supporter and attended the campaign launch.
3. The poll was taken the day after the campaign launch.

I don't doubt that this time Kelly has some real opposition. I would rather have polls from other sources than CRA though.

[Waye Mason]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

Be careful of those poll results:

1. It is a CRA/Don Mills poll. He is the arch-enemy of Kelly, pondered his own run for mayor, and was behind the anti-Kelly movement last time.
2. He is a Mike Savage supporter and attended the campaign launch.
3. The poll was taken the day after the campaign launch.

I don't doubt that this time Kelly has some real opposition. I would rather have polls from other sources than CRA though.

This.

That said, I do think Kelly's support is at an all time low, but nine months is a lifetime in politics.