Politics

[velvetpage]

Toronto: the vote on the left was split several ways, while the vote on the right was concentrated on one right-wing ideologue who got the ear of the suburbs by promising an end to corruption and a drastic reduction in social services that the suburbs use less anyway. Want to know how it is that a country where most people lean to the left of centre manages to keep electing these clowns? Here's how: there are so many good ideas and decent people on the left that people can't settle on just one, and with a first-past-the-post system, it means the right-wing guy with less than a majority often comes up from beind.

All of which boils down to one thing: it's time for voter reform in this country. A ranked ballot would be an improvement, for example. Rob Ford did not - quite - have a majority of the votes.

Hamilton: Oh, puh-LEASE. Bob Bratina? Really, Hamilton? The a.m. talk radio personality from the eighties with a rep for a short temper and a thin skin during his seven years on council? Don't blame me if City Hall continues to get nothing done, while we continue to miss out on money and services from a provincial government fed up with trying to get us to make decisions. The best thing about Bratina is that his platform boiled down to, "Can't we all just recognize how much we have to offer each other?" I appreciate the "let's all just get along" message - I'd just rather see it coming from someone else.

I didn't really follow any other race closely. How'd it go in Ottawa? I know that race was being closely watched.

Comments

[cafemusique.livejournal.com]

I was listening to the Ottawa coverage for about an hour last night. (Thank you, Internet streaming.)

Jim Watson was elected mayor, getting rid of Mayor O'Brien (who promised so much and delivered so little, except confrontation and bluster, IMO). There are some new faces at the council table, so it won't be like the last election, where people voted change in the mayor's race and mostly re-elected the same old council.

I'm still waiting on results from my old hometown of Arnprior. They went with an Internet/telephone voting system, and the servers crashed around 6:30pm, so they've extended the voting period another 24 hours. (It should be interesting, because there are a couple of councillors (and some others) running for mayor and reeve, the mayor is running for council instead of for re-election...so I'm looking forward to hearing the results on Election Night, Take 2.)

[amarafox.livejournal.com]

Sudbury got a new lady mayor. I didn't mind our current mayor, but I haven't been here long enough to know what the old guy did.

I agree on the ranked ballot thing. Preferential voting is awesome, it's how I learned how to vote in Australia.

[paradoxical-me.livejournal.com]

Our municipal election in Calgary just finished last week, with Naheed Nenshi being voted in. I was impressed at how it went - voter turnout was way up from last time (which is typically a problem in our city). We went from having 13 or 14 candidates, to 3, and they were split pretty even, about 40/34/26. I think he got the upper hand due to his presence in social media - attracting younger people with interaction on Twitter and Facebook and all that.
I'm hopeful that he walks the walk as much as he talked the talk. But it seems that Calgary's election was way less douche-y than Toronto. It was respectful and calm, with everybody pleading their own case, rather than the usual "I'm better than him!" platform.
/2c.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Voter turnout is always a problem in municipal elections. Hamilton is ceiebrating the just-shy-of-40% voter turnout this time - as opposed to about 30% last time and around 60% for federal and provincial elections.

[kisekileia.livejournal.com]

I really don't get why Rob Ford wants to extend the Sheppard subway line. People barely use it, although it's possible it would get more use if it went all the way to Scarborough. The Transit City light rail lines are far more necessary, and getting rid of streetcars is a terrible idea because streetcars have higher capacity and are more enjoyable to ride on than buses. I don't like the rest of Ford's platform either, but that's one of the parts I'm most upset about.

Granted, Smitherman's platform wasn't the greatest either. I really didn't like that he opposes safe injection sites for drug users. I liked a lot of Pantalone's platform, but it had pretty much nothing about fiscal responsibility and the city of Toronto really does need to get its budget situation under control. I voted for Smitherman, but was tentatively planning on voting for Sarah Thomson before she endorsed Smitherman. I do think Toronto could stand to be a little less unfriendly to cars--we should increase transit use by improving transit, not by making driving in the city an even more miserable experience than it already is--but I'm not interested in anything else Ford wants to do.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

My problem with Ford, from the (admittedly half-assed) view of his campaign that I got, is that his good ideas are couched in a political ideology I find repulsive, and that would likely lead to the worst stuff being implemented first and the stuff I might like getting put on a back burner "because we can't afford to do everything at once." I don't trust people who claim to be about cutting spending. It rarely works the way it's supposed to.

[kisekileia.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he seems like a pretty repulsive human being (which is reflected in his political rhetoric), and I put significant weight on that. I agree with you.

[amyura.livejournal.com]

Did you guys have a Parliamentary election this year?

I would LOVE if we had ranked ballots. The FAIL we have here is exemplified by Cosmopolitan's Sexiest Man Alive of 1982, Scott Brown. Ugh.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

No. The Conservatives keep playing chicken with the other parties, taking away their funding and then making every. single. measure. a confidence vote, so either the opposition works with the Cons to pass it (thus giving the Cons a way to say, "You hypocrites supported X when we put it up but campaign for Y!") or they trigger an election for which they have no money. Meanwhile, character assassination is the order of the day for all of them. Canadian politics is UGLY these days.