Halifax Regional Council

[fenwick16]

I just read in the allnovascotia.com that 80,000 people tune into EastlinkTV each week to watch the HRM Council proceedings. It is good to see that so many people take an interest in local politics. It must be one of the most popular shows in HRM.

[halifaxboyns]

Mayor, most councillors plan to re-offer
What shape next HRM government will take is yet to be determined in wake of URB call

The mayor and most Halifax regional councillors are planning to run for re-election next year, council members said Thursday.

But where councillors will run in October 2012 and which of their colleagues they may end up competing against are questions that remain unanswered.

The Chronicle Herald contacted all 23 councillors — 19 replied — and asked if they are intending to re-offer next year. Mayor Peter Kelly has repeatedly said it is his intention to seek another four-year term.

Most councillors who answered The Herald’s email survey said they are planning to run in 2012.

Coun. Bob Harvey (Lower Sackville) and Coun. Jerry Blumenthal (Halifax North End) won’t be re-offering.

The full story at the Chronicle Herald.

My two cents: Glad to see Jerry has decided to throw in the towel. Let the north end developments commence following the election!

[someone123]

I was hoping McCluskey would also announce her retirement.

There's no guarantee of improvement but 23 -> 16 with Blumenthal gone is a good start!

[halifaxboyns]

Originally Posted by someone123

I was hoping McCluskey would also announce her retirement.

There's no guarantee of improvement but 23 -> 16 with Blumenthal gone is a good start!

Depending on how Dartmouth gets divided up, McCluskey may end up running against a number of her colleagues. Although frankly, I'd rather her than Barkhouse. At least McCluskey seems to have been reasonable when it has come to the Dartmouth viewplane exercise. Barkhouse - she might as well just write down her no vote on a piece of paper, fax it in and skip the public hearing. She's rarely been supportive of development.

It will also be interesting to see how the Halifax Peninsula gets divided up, because you could see one district where Watts, Sloane and Uteck end up having to run against each other. That could be quite interesting.

[someone123]

I'd say that McCluskey is mediocre when it comes to development issues. From what I have seen she follows the common and horrible "folk knowledge" school of decision making. For example, during the United Gulf sessions I recall her saying that she was almost blown over by the Maritime Centre and so tall buildings cause wind and that was that -- so much for studies done by qualified engineers!

McCluskey's worst quality as a regional councillor is her pro-Dartmouth parochialism. It is fine to like your district but she takes it to the point where it is impractical and poisonous to debate. Putting the new central library in Dartmouth would have been awful, for example, because it would have been much less convenient for the average user.

[halifaxboyns]

The boundary review process has begun. There are several scenarios which you can have input on.

Visit here.

[someone123]

Thanks for posting this. At first glance I prefer Scenario 1, and I think that it is a better setup for the core than what we have currently. It would result in a North End and a South End + Downtown district, with the West End and Fairview merged into a third central district.

I dislike how right now the old North End and downtown are combined while "North of North" is its own separate district. My impression is that Dawn Sloane has closer ties to her North End constituents and that the South End/downtown/Spring Garden are more aligned. Blumenthal has the "Novalea" attitude and refused to allow the Hydrostone strip to be associated with the Gottingen/Agricola business district. People living North of North should be very interested in improving Gottingen!

I would actually like a special "downtown" district not based on population but unfortunately that would not be allowed.

[halifaxboyns]

I agree; I like scenario 1. There is a survey with the link too.

[Dmajackson]

Scenario 1 definitely.

I suggested they move the boundary on Kearney Lake Road to better reflect neighbourhoods. Basically include all of the area west of Hwy 102 in one distict and move the boundary east of Hwy 102 to keep neighbourhoods intact.

[someone123]

PS - this totally seems like one of those "illusion of choice" type surveys where afterward they can say "we did a survey! the people have spoken!"

[planarchy]

Only took a quick look, but neither seem like they will do much to strengthen the vote of the urban core. Option 1 even splits downtown Dartmouth into 3 parts - this seems ridiculous!

[beyeas]

Originally Posted by halifaxboyns

I agree; I like scenario 1. There is a survey with the link too.

Another great reason to support scenario 1 is that Tim Bosquet supports scenario 2. I am taking the George Costanza approach to this and decide that whatever Bosquet thinks, I will do the opposite :-)

Admittedly though, I don't really think either necessarily improves urban representation all that much. Having said that, I think that there is no reasonable way to do that with the existing municipality anyway, unless downtown development issues were left purely to a local sub-committee made up of only urban councillors, and the only things that went to a vote of full council were by-laws and issues that have a budgetary impact etc that actually affect the entire region.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by beyeas

Admittedly though, I don't really think either necessarily improves urban representation all that much. Having said that, I think that there is no reasonable way to do that with the existing municipality anyway, unless downtown development issues were left purely to a local sub-committee made up of only urban councillors, and the only things that went to a vote of full council were by-laws and issues that have a budgetary impact etc that actually affect the entire region.

This used to be the case with the Peninsula Community Council and it was even worse than regional council. The PCC only has 4 members and a tie vote means an application is denied, so 2 councillors could lock down the entire system and prevent proposals from even going to public hearing (funny how we tend to hear about how wonderful public consultation is only when it's convenient!). This is what happened to the original 27 storey brewery tower proposal in 2003 or so.

Basically if your council is made up of horrible members it doesn't matter if there are 4 of them or 23.

Fundamentally the problem with urban representation is that council seats are based on population and there are not many people living on the peninsula. That isn't going to be solved by fiddling with district boundaries.

My hope is that the larger districts will be a net win because they will improve the quality of candidates somewhat. Better suburban councillors could theoretically even help the city.

[Dmajackson]

Looks like a new candiidate will announce his running for mayor tomorrow afternoon.

Tom Martin is a retired police officer who was an assistant in Shiela Fougere's mayoral race in 2008. He lives in Elmsdale (note not in HRM) and is currently a farmer. He worked for Halifax Regional Police for thirty years

[Wishblade]

Originally Posted by Dmajackson

Looks like a new candiidate will announce his running for mayor tomorrow afternoon.

Tom Martin is a retired police officer who was an assistant in Shiela Fougere's mayoral race in 2008. He lives in Elmsdale (note not in HRM) and is currently a farmer. He worked for Halifax Regional Police for thirty years

Great just what we need, A farmer from Elmsdale running the show

[Jonovision]

This guys good. I'll vouch for him. I worked on Sheila's campaign with him.