Browsing posts in the ‘Alderman – Ward 14’ category

Ward 14 Recount

2
October 21, 2010 - By

Nation, just because I didn’t already have ENOUGH to do today… The City has indicated there will be a recount of the Ward 14 Aldermanic ballots, scheduled for 12 noon today.

What, exactly, triggered this recount is unclear at this time, although it seems somewhat unusual given the margin of victory for Election Day winner Peter Demong.  Early suggestions are that to trigger a recount like this requires a formal request from another of the candidates, or a minimum of 100 rejected ballots per polling station.  You may recall that Ward 14 DID experience some ballot shortages on Election Day, so it may be related to that issue.

We’ll be all over this story as it develops.

As a reminder, the “unofficial results” at the conclusion of the first count were:

Demong, Peter – 8483
Dur, Richard – 7188
Fox-Mellway, Linda – 5187
Gerelus, Ken – 1324
Kao, Shawn – 5647
Tummonds, Billy The Butcher – 1201

Stay tuned.

- E.S.

Tags: ι ι ι ι ι Categories: Alderman - Ward 14

Calgary, meet your new council

1
October 19, 2010 - By

The unofficial results are in and we have seen a mix of change and returning of the old guard happening. It’s a whole new ball game now; an entirly new dynamic. Here’s the list of who the fifteeen around the table will be:

Mayor - Naheed Nenshi
Ward 1 – Dale Hodges
Ward 2 – Gord Lowe
Ward 3 – Jim Stevenson
Ward 4 - Gael Macleod
Ward 5 – Ray Jones
Ward 6 - Richard Pootmans
Ward 7 – Druh Farrell
Ward 8 – John Mar
Ward 9 - Gian-Carlo Carra
Ward 10 – Andre Chabot
Ward 11 – Brian Pincott
Ward 12 - Shane Keating
Ward 13 – Diane Colley-Urquhart
Ward 14 - Peter Demong

The biggest question facing how this new council will work together is what kind of a chair will Naheed Nenshi be. Will he be a bullying mayor (not likely) or more laissez faire in his control of meetings? Or might he be more like Bronconnier and give alderman some leeway, but keep them on a short leash if they stray too far outside what is prescribed in the procedural bylaw. An alderman like Druh Farrell will live and die [...]Read More

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Ward 14 Profile

October 17, 2010 - By

(before choosing a candidate for Alderman, please see my post on what the job actually entails)

Ward 14 includes most of the communities south of Southland Drive, in between MacLeod Trail and the Bow River.  It is a study in contrasts, with swanky lake communities and some of the oldest standing buildings in the city, within the area formerly occupied by the Town of Midnapore.  Fish Creek Provincial Park and the green belt along the eastern bank of the Bow River bless the area with natural appeal – which is one of the reasons the POES (Parents Of the Enlightened Savage) chose to settle there when I was just a wee little Savage.  Issues most often listed as high priorities in Ward 14 include transportation (including the SE C-Train extension), property taxes and snow removal.

The candidates (listed in alphabetical order, by first name) are:
 

Billy The Butcher Tummonds

Tummonds is a local business owner – I’m a little unclear, as of my print deadline, what business he’s in, though.  Deeply involved in the community, Billy has been able – up until now, that is – to keep his deep, dark past a secret…  but no longer.  [...]Read More

Tags: ι ι ι ι ι Categories: Alderman - Ward 14

yyc Twibates Part II: Aldermanic

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October 17, 2010 - By

This is Part II of getting the Twibate answers up.  There’s some more information about format and decisions on our first post, yyc Twibates Part I: Intro and Mayoral.

We held two twitter debates for aldermanic – one for odd-numbered wards and one for even-numbered wards.  We had 10 participants on the first night, and 12 on the second night.

Because of the number of participants, I will merely list answers in order that they came in rather than a column for each candidate.  Unless you don’t want it to be readable

A number of candidates answered with multiple posts.  They are grouped together, and the time of the first post determines order.

Odd-Numbered Wards

Participants include:

Ward 1: Ric Lockhart and Chris Harper (First two questions answered during, the rest answered later that evening)

Ward 3: Gary Tremblay

Ward 7: Michael Krisko (Krisko’s tweets unfortunately did not show up on the feed, but we acknowledge his participation), Druh Farrell (answered all questions after)

Ward 9: Steve Chapman, Gian-Carlo Carra

Ward 11: Brian Pincott, Wayne Frisch, James Maxim, Ernest McCutcheon (post-event – see comments section)

Ward 13: Andrew [...]Read More

Tags: ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι Categories: Alderman - Ward 1, Alderman - Ward 10, Alderman - Ward 11, Alderman - Ward 12, Alderman - Ward 13, Alderman - Ward 14, Alderman - Ward 2, Alderman - Ward 3, Alderman - Ward 4, Alderman - Ward 5, Alderman - Ward 6, Alderman - Ward 7, Alderman - Ward 8, Alderman - Ward 9, Events

What Do These Schmucks Do? – Alderman Edition

1
October 14, 2010 - By

(Nation, the following is a re-post, with edits and additions, of a post I put out in October 2007.)

The City of Calgary, whether by design or by unbelievable oversight, has NO information available on-line as to what, exactly, an Alderman’s job really IS.

Therefore, I have little recourse but to consult the Book of Armaments – er, I mean, the Queen’s Printer, and take the words right from the legislative horse’s mouth:

General duties of councillors

Councillors have the following duties:
(a) to consider the welfare and interests of the municipality as a whole and to bring to council’s attention anything that would promote the welfare or interests of the municipality;
(b) to participate generally in developing and evaluating the policies and programs of the municipality;
(c) to participate in council meetings and council committee meetings and meetings of other bodies to which they are appointed by the council;
(d) to obtain information about the operation or administration of the municipality from the chief administrative officer or a person designated by the chief administrative officer;
(e) to keep in confidence matters discussed in private at a council or council committee [...]Read More

Categories: Alderman - Ward 1, Alderman - Ward 10, Alderman - Ward 11, Alderman - Ward 12, Alderman - Ward 13, Alderman - Ward 14, Alderman - Ward 2, Alderman - Ward 3, Alderman - Ward 4, Alderman - Ward 5, Alderman - Ward 6, Alderman - Ward 8, Alderman - Ward 9, Political Theory

Text: Interview with Ward 14 Candidate Richard Dur

1
October 14, 2010 - By

Nation, I had the pleasure over the past several weeks of exchanging emails with Ward 14 Aldermanic candidate Richard Dur.  I took advantage – as you’d expect – to send some questions his way.  His responses are below.  And, based on his final answer, I’d think he’s a natural to show up to the CalgaryPolitics.com Election Night Party at Beckham’s. 

Richard’s interview begins…  now.

*****

E.S.: Snow removal in the city, particular in Ward 14, is – as you put it on your website – “a farce”. How do we get Calgarians moving in the winter, and keep our roads – including residential roads – in safe, drivable condition, without the huge tax increases that the current council has insisted would be required?

R.D.: By eliminating wasteful spending at city hall such as what we’ve seen with the $25 million designer bridge so that there is more room in the budget for things Calgarians really care about such as snow removal. I also favour use of private contractors to bolster city ice clearing crews and allowing Calgarians who own snow-removal equipment to get approval to use this equipment to help clear streets and pathways that may [...]Read More

Tags: ι ι Categories: Alderman - Ward 14

Text: Interview with Ward 14 Candidate Bill Tummonds

October 8, 2010 - By

Nation, not everyone has time to sit down with a blogger and record an audio interview about the election – some folks are a little busy trying to get ELECTED. 

With that in mind, I had the pleasure of exchanging some emails with Ward 14 Aldermanic candidate Bill “Billy the Butcher” Tummonds.  Mr. Tummonds agreed to respond to some questions through that medium, which I sent, and he sent back with answers.

His answers appear below.

E.S.: You talk about the need to accelerate expansion of C-Train platforms to accommodate 4 cars as a way to increase transit capacity. Are you in favour of increasing the frequency of trains, or of instituting 24-hour C-Train service?

B.T.: I’d like to see 24-hour service sometime in the future, but right now I’m happy with the service hours for the C-Train. I believe they are already running for over 20 hours per day. Where I would like to service extended is to our bus network. Currently, it can be very difficult to travel by bus outside of peak hours, especially the farther away from the core you get. In addition, if you don’t live near a C-Train station, service after midnight isn’t [...]Read More

Tags: ι Categories: Alderman - Ward 14

Analyzing The Aldermanic Polls

10
October 7, 2010 - By

Today, VoteCalgary released their All-Wards Aldermanic Poll done by O’Connell Enterprises. In each ward, 280 people were surveyed, which allows for a ±5.8% margin of error, 19 times out of 20. Here is the voter breakdown for those surveyed:

Age 18-34: 11%
Age 35-49: 25%
Age 50-64: 33%
Age 65+: 30%
Refused: 2%

Now, it’s clearly a skewed poll when you consider only 36% of the respondents were younger than a half-century, but clearly there wasn’t an age quota guideline for this poll. This was indicated by the fact that age was the LAST question instead of a screening question. Regardless, they did a solid job of matching their gender quota 50/50 split.

For the purpose of analyzing this poll, we will take “total support” as the first number and include the firm support, e.g. Candidate X – 20% (15%).

Ward 1
Dale Hodges – 37% (24%)
Chris Harper – 3% (1%)
Ric Lockhart – 2% (1%)
Bill Scott – 2% (1%)
Judi Vendenbrink – (1%)
Undecided – 43%

It looks like Ald. Hodges is well on his way to re-election, as the amount of voters for the also-rans don’t [...]Read More

Categories: Alderman - Ward 1, Alderman - Ward 10, Alderman - Ward 11, Alderman - Ward 12, Alderman - Ward 13, Alderman - Ward 14, Alderman - Ward 2, Alderman - Ward 3, Alderman - Ward 4, Alderman - Ward 5, Alderman - Ward 6, Alderman - Ward 7, Alderman - Ward 8, Alderman - Ward 9

cjsw’s 2010 civic election coverage!

October 6, 2010 - By

HOLY. So basically CJSW 90.9FM is super rad. We’ve launched our civic election coverage featuring over 80 interviews and forum recordings and honestly, it blows my mind. Back in August when we started sending out e-mails I honesty had no idea how it would turn out and how many interviews we’d really be able to do – there were so many candidates! Click the image to check it out!

Each interview had to be booked (and then re-booked, as the case was at times), conducted, edited and uploaded. We also needed a rad website to showcase all our interviews and Aendrew and Reid nailed it. In short, we had about 25 volunteers who put this all together for your benefit. Twenty five volunteers, two months, and over eighty interviews. I’m insanely proud of it. Kudos to Joe Burima, CJSW’s News Director, who works like a madman 24/7 and makes the world a better place.

Anyways, listen to the interviews, subscribe to the podcast and take our interviews on the go. Be informed. AND VOTE. Don’t let all our hard work go to waste. Kudos to all the candidates who were [...]Read More

Categories: Alderman - Ward 1, Alderman - Ward 10, Alderman - Ward 11, Alderman - Ward 12, Alderman - Ward 13, Alderman - Ward 14, Alderman - Ward 2, Alderman - Ward 3, Alderman - Ward 4, Alderman - Ward 5, Alderman - Ward 6, Alderman - Ward 7, Alderman - Ward 8, Alderman - Ward 9, Calgary Issues, Mayor of Calgary

Audio: Interview with Ward 14 Candidate Linda Fox-Mellway

3
September 23, 2010 - By

Nation, to say that I was a “busy little Savage” this past week would be something of an understatement.

In the middle of all the running around I had to do, I managed to get in touch with equally busy Ward 14 Alderman (and candidate for re-election) Linda Fox-Mellway, whose campaign for re-election seems to have hit full stride.

We had a great talk in the friendly confines of “Ice Cream Plus” in Lake Bonavista Promenade – which, I am sorry to say, is closing its doors after more than a decade of wreaking havoc on my waistline. 

This is the 3rd of 4 booked interviews for Ward 14 – if you’re not one of those 4, you’re falling behind.  I’m not hard to find. ;)

 - E.S.

(Please follow the link to The Enlightened Savage for audio of the interview)

Tags: Categories: Alderman - Ward 14

Audio: Interview with Ward 14 Candidate Peter Demong

1
September 23, 2010 - By

Nation, I had the pleasure earlier this week of sitting down with Ward 14 Aldermanic contender Peter Demong at his campaign headquarters.

Our discussion covered a much wider array of issues than I had thought, as result of his breadth of knowledge on the various issues. The follow-up questions were fast and furious, and he handled them with aplomb and without hesitation.

(Please follow the link to The Enlightened Savage for audio of the interview)

Tags: ι Categories: Alderman - Ward 14

How Many Calgary Municipal Election Candidates Will Get The Nomination Day Blues?

2
September 6, 2010 - By

Anyone that is actively following the 2010 Calgary Municipal Election scene should be getting excited that the races for Alderman, Mayor and School Board Trustee are about to become official!  With nomination day fast approaching, the race is also on for some of the candidates to get their paperwork in order in advance of the September 20, 2010 deadline. 

The 2010 election is expected to include the most candidates that Calgary has ever seen and some of the races are becoming more and more crowded every day, which is a good thing for local democracy.  While I believe that everyone has a democratic right to run for office and respect those who put their names forward for this election, I wonder how many of these candidates will actually be on the ballots after nomination day.  I took a look at the City of Calgary website for more information on the nomination requirements, which I have summarized below:

Required Signatures

All candidates must be nominated by eligible electors. The required number of signatures are:

  • Mayor – 100 Signatures

 

  • Alderman – 100 Signatures

 

  • School Trustee – 25 Signatures

If running for Alderman, and/or Public or Separate School [...]Read More

Tags: Categories: Alderman - Ward 1, Alderman - Ward 10, Alderman - Ward 11, Alderman - Ward 12, Alderman - Ward 13, Alderman - Ward 14, Alderman - Ward 2, Alderman - Ward 3, Alderman - Ward 4, Alderman - Ward 5, Alderman - Ward 6, Alderman - Ward 7, Alderman - Ward 8, Alderman - Ward 9, Calendar, Mayor of Calgary, Political Theory, School Board Trustees - Calgary Board of Education, School Board Trustees - Calgary Catholic School Board

Audio: Interview with Ward 14 Candidate Shawn Kao

2
August 19, 2010 - By

Nation, it was back to the grind for your humble scribe as I sat down last night for a good talk with Ward 14 Aldermanic candidate Shawn Kao.

As with previous candidate interviews, much of the first portion of our discussion was getting background for my later candidate profile of Shawn.  He consented to being recorded for posting to this blog, and the result is posted below, in all its “recorded on an iPhone using the Voice Memos app” glory.

(Please follow the link to The Enlightened Savage for audio of the interview)

Tags: ι Categories: Alderman - Ward 14

Who’s running for Calgary City Council in 2010?

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April 4, 2010 - By

There sure are a lot of names coming out of the proverbial woodwork right about now saying they are going to run for Calgary City Council. Now it’s a long way off from nomination day on September 20, and everyone can change their minds still, but it’s already getting hard to figure out who is who, and who’s saying their running and who is not.

So with this in mind I decided to put together a list of everything I’ve seen reported, heard personally and have heard rumour of. I’ll try to update this list regularly as we hear or see other things. If you know of anyone missing, please just let me know and I’ll add it!

PS – Try not to read too much into the difference between “rumoured” and “declared”. At this point it doesn’t really mean much. It’s more a degree of veracity in their statements up till now that made me choose one over the other. Some however, are just rumours.

Mayor
Dave Bronconnier – Incumbent (not running)
Craig Burrows (rumoured)
Joe Connelly (rumoured)
Bob Hawkesworth (rumoured)
Kent Hehr (rumoured)
Paul Hughes (declared)
Alnoor Kassam (declared)
Jon Lord (declared)
[...]Read More

Tags: ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι Categories: Alderman - Ward 1, Alderman - Ward 10, Alderman - Ward 11, Alderman - Ward 12, Alderman - Ward 13, Alderman - Ward 14, Alderman - Ward 2, Alderman - Ward 3, Alderman - Ward 4, Alderman - Ward 5, Alderman - Ward 6, Alderman - Ward 7, Alderman - Ward 8, Alderman - Ward 9, Mayor of Calgary, School Board Trustees - Calgary Board of Education