Briefly, my endorsements (by process of somewhat superficial elimination) for the local Surrey elections. This is a work in progress - come back later to see the final result.
Candidates for Mayor (Pick One)
- Dianne Watts: Did not anger me during her last term, even though she attempted some goofy roundabout taxation. Supports term limits for municipal offices.
Murray Weisenberger: Running on a Green Party platform.
- Tom Gill
- Linda Hepner
- Gary Hoffman
- Mary Martin
- Par Singh
- Barbara Steele
- John Wolanski
- Judy Villeneuve: Endorsed by the New West Labour Council.
- Barinder Rasode: Ex-SCC, and "Surrey has never had a visible minority candidate elected to council," said Rasode. "Obviously there's something wrong."
- Rina Gill: Involved in racially exclusive groups, too interested in "diversity".
- Gary Robinson: ex-Union President, and "fair wage" supporter.
- Marvin Hunt: Ex-pastor for an unusually nutty church.
- Neil Murtsell:
His "platform" is entirely pie-in-the-sky silliness.OK, he's cleaned up some of the nonsense from his campaign page, and actually has some reasonable things to say about sustainability in Surrey, but he still has a picture of himself with an Obama sign. I don't consider Obama support to be a disqualifying factor, but the poor judgment of bringing US politics into a local campaign can't be ignored. - Stephanie Ryan: Actually has a website with information on positions! Unfortunately it confirmed my suspicions that SCC likes grand government run social experiments. All SCC candidates are out for this reason, in spite of having an effectively anti-growth policy that I like.
- Bob Bose: SCC
- Jim McMurtry: SCC
- Grant Rice: SCC
- J.B. (Jag) Bhandari: Running a bizarre campaign for Mayor of Whistler as well.
- Paul Hillsdon: Light rail supporter, cares about climate change.
- Bernadette Keenan: Proud union member and into "social justice".
- Nick Caumanns: Believes in a minimal homework policy.
- Wayne Jefferson: Puts students ahead of unions.
- Reni Masi: Advocated making counter-propaganda available with regards to "An Inconvenient Truth". Awesome.
- Alex Dantzer
- Pam Glass
- Malkiat Singh Kang
- Steven Moore
- Anne Van Rhyn: Bitter about CUPE, but autism focused.
- Laurence Greeff: Major union dude.
- Ijaz Ahmed Chatha: Special needs focus
- Shawn Wilson: On the cutting edge of converting schools to prisons.
- Terry Allen: CUPE President, and United Way... perhaps my hatred for United Way is irrational, but the workplace harassment has got to stop.
- Paul Hillsdon: Language immersion programs? Blech. And running for two positions is tacky.
- Laurie Larsen: Another CUPE President...
- Kate Taschereau: Autism focus?
7 comments:
lol Pie in the Sky Sillyness eh, let go for a beer and talk. Ill buy.
Yo bro. It's hard to keep up with all this campaign nonsense when you're busy. Here's what I do when I just don't have much info and it's election time. I look for the list of pols endorsed by the local labour council -- and then I make sure not to vote for any of them. Okay, it ain't citizen democracy at its finest, I know, but try it and you won't likely go wrong. Here's the relevant list of bad actors for your area.
I am shocked, shocked to hear that a brother isn't down for United Way. Next time they hit you up at the office, tell them to google the name of William Aramony.
deep blue:
Thanks for the comment! Your link would have saved me a bit of time up front (hopefully I remember it next time around), but it does still knock off a few more candidates.
There is so little information for most of the candidates that making a meaningful decision is really challenging. I wonder what makes or breaks most of them? Aside from endorsements from influential bloggers, of course :-)
Regarding Aramony... that story is inspiring me to start my own charity!
Fascinating site and I am not endorsed by the Labor Council.
Another reason to "not endorse" Hunt. All I can say is... wow.
Well these pictures are just for fun and When I was in Wilmington Ohio (which is about as exciting as it sounds) I had the opportunity to pick up some souvenirs from the Local Obama Campaign office. The stares I received walking in there from the "Folks" was quiet bizarre. Its a Really "Red" Area. The people where real happy to actually be able to give out some stuff from there office.
I am confused and please forgive me for sounding too harsh, but what the heck? I'm don't want to debate on who you endorsed (that's your choice), but some of the criteria you've used confounds me.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but these are issues which you see as mostly irrelevant or opposed to:
- climate change or the environment
- diversity
- special needs
The last I checked, these are valuable interests and ones that should be profiled more not less. Even if you aren't on the green bandwagon, I don't think anyone argues that it is a bad thing to care about our environment!
You mentioned Reni Masi's counter-propaganda on "Inconvenient Truth". Personally, I support Mr. Masi as I do know him, but I think you misunderstood the issue. It was more about the fact that the school board was not licensed. If in fact, it is about counter-propaganda well I'm all for presenting all sides of the issue.
But shame on Heather Stilwell for suggesting the "Great Global Warming Swindle"! Have you seen this film? It's atrocious and doesn't even have the production quality to hold your attention. That a school trustee would consider this of educational quality scares me! And furthermore as I referenced earlier, what is the logic in presenting material that actually implies we don't need to consider or care for the environment because global warming is a myth? That's what this film does!
Finally, Mr. Murtsell. REALLY? First of all, GO OBAMA! I am not defending Neil's campaign by any means, but come on - its Facebook. Can't a guy put up a photo? That's just reading into it too much I think.
Let me guess: you voted Conservative a month ago and you would have liked for the Republicans to continue their reign of terror with John McCain?
Again, forgive me for getting all riled up. Maybe I am misunderstanding the context of your words. But this is what I think it comes across as to myself and possibly other readers.
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