Issue 6.5, Volume 2
A quick note before you vote...
Sorry, no on the streets edition or music; this is just a quick note heading into the mayoral elections today.
Before You Vote
...listen to my opinion
...but seriously
I’ll give you my opinion on the mayoral candidates, but the important thing be ultimately that you look at what every candidate stands for and vote based on that, even in your ward. Make the best educated decision you can about all the candidates you will be electing or making a decision on, the city’s future depends on it.
The Candidates
First, the Mayoral candidates. I will say I’m pro Iveson, but more specifically I’m anti-Diotte. So, while I’ll be casting my ballot for the former ward 10 councilor, I wouldn’t mind, say, if Karen Libovici won the race. I will say I feel like Iveson really champions the city; as my ward’s council member, he has been transparent and accountable, and had always responded to my requests. I feel he knows what the city needs and has the tools and earned the experience to know how to get it done. Diotte, on the other hand...I think he wants the city back to the way it was 20 years ago. I’ve heard a lot of facetious facts and interesting spins, and stuff that downright is ludicrous for an educated grown man to say or do. First of all, there’s the ‘do you smell that, it’s the arena deal, it stinks.’ tagline that he uses over and over again. I actually saw him use this in debate, it’s freaking horrible; it’s like watching epic fails. It’s a bad movie where you feel embarrassed for the main character. You might remember the dubious association of this tag line for the campaign video that Diotte shot at the Blue Plate Diner. The owners had asked that the video not specifically show details of the restaurant, but the video clearly did, and the restaurant took the brunt of anti-anti-arena protests and was shunned. The owners asked for the video to be taken down, and Diotte did what was exactly the opposite I would expect from anyone trying to garner the public’s support: he said NO! Eventually he took it down, after two weeks of bad press. Why would you argue with that? Other arguments are against bike lanes (I was initially against bike lanes but I’ve noticed they’ve been becoming more used and less confusing the more cars and bikes use them to coexist), against the airport closure (note the airport does not allow us to develop downtown buildings over a certain height, and takes up a significant portion of what could be a large residential area), pro urban sprawl (indirectly - Diotte thinks the suburbs are cheaper for people to live in and therefore to expensive to update the city’s core). Our outgoing mayor once called him an idiot on television. I agree.
What Is A Mayor For?
I’ve read a lot of rhetoric in people’s comments, and it’s clear to me that citizens don’t always know what municipal government is responsible for. Remember your three levels of government, municipal, provincial and federal? This isn’t meant to slam any of you dear readers personally, but it’s a good idea to think about specifically what we’re electing for.
Municipal
Roads and Infrastructure, Arts and Entertainment within the city, city planning, schools, trying to get funding from other levels of government, city public transportation, city recreation centers, property taxes, municipal bylaw enforcement, city crime enforcement, fire department.
Provincial
Provincial infrastructure (outside of the city), funding to schools, healthcare (including ambulance services), funding to cities for their infrastructure projects, provincial taxes if any (income tax, sales tax). Partial funding to post secondary institutions, provincial law enforcement and jurisdiction
Federal
federal income and sales taxes, partial funding to post secondary institutions, employment insurance, pension plan, military, federal law, jails, bureaucracy.
Ultimately what you can take away from this are the things the mayor is actually going to be able to take care of and what they aren’t going to take care of. Rejuvenation of the quarters, repaving roads, deciding on road projects, deciding on development permits - these are the things you can worry about. School closures, that’s definitely a city one. Crime inside the city, another city thing. What I’ve heard from arena neighsayers are that the mayor could have spent that money elsewhere like on healthcare. Well, no, unless you’re talking about any applicable provincial portion of it. Otherwise, the healthcare is dealt with by the province. I’ve heard criticisms about spending time building a highway to fort mac (63). Well, no, the municipal government feels it would be better for residents of Edmonton that commute and work there to have a better highway, so they’re lobbying the provincial government. I’ve heard lots against bike lanes. People fear change, I guess. The most ridiculous one I heard was to ‘widen all the sidewalks instead.’ Wow, okay, so how are you going to do this, spend billions of dollars buying and/or annexing a couple of feet of everyone’s property lines? And billions more on construction of sidewalks? You thought painting some lines and putting up some signs were expensive?
The Worst Thing That Could Happen Before An Election
Anything to do with the city that makes you wonder if someone isn’t doing their job. So this morning, all the left hand turning lights stop working, as well as lane indicator signals causing pretty much all my colleagues to be late or later than usual. I am lucky I live so close to work. This really can’t be attributed to any one candidate. But imagine that? Big city screw up; something you’d normally complain to your elected official about. But there’s no one to complain to today.
