Browsing posts in the ‘Political Theory’ category

The things that don’t bother me…

4
September 14, 2010 - By

In my twitter-stalking of the #yycvote hashtag over the last few months, I’ve noticed that different things bother different people about candidates. Everyone has a right to decide what is going to allow them to remove a candidate from their potentials list, although I secretly hope (not so secret now) that people do so because they believe that whomever they have crossed off is because they do not believe that person is capable of doing the job as well as someone else. This would be opposed to, random thing X that causes me to hate this person.

I know people are going to disagree with me, and I encourage you to state your opinion if that’s the case.  We all see things different ways.

Campaign Strategy

I’ve looked for research on Daemon Dialers… I’m probably not looking in the right place… but I cannot find ANYTHING that supports nor denounces the use of these machines from a political standpoint.  If anyone knows of any research that clearly links the increase/decrease of votes to these machines, I would love to see it.

So devoid of research, I can tell you, there is a belief among the political community that these things [...]Read More

Categories: Political Theory

Twibate Tuesday

9
September 12, 2010 - By

Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday. Get ready for mayhem mayhem mayhem.

This Tuesday, CalgaryPolitics.com is having our first Twibate, starting with the mayoralty candidates. I have received confirmations that quite a few will be participating, and we look forward to this being a very interesting event for the Calgary Political scene.

The Twibate will start at 7:00pm and go for two hours (officially). However, discussions and conversations that spring from it may very well last until election day.

What if you don’t have/want Twitter??
On the day of the Twibate, navigate over to TwitterFall. You can essentially “watch” the Twibate, even if you are not going to participate.

On the left side of the screen, you can configure searches. You will want to add these two:
#yycTBq
#yycTB
The first will be the questions posed by @CalgaryPolitics to the candidates, so you can see the “official” questions. The second is for all tweets that have to do with the Twibate (as long as people tag them with it)
#yycvote is another you can watch as well, and that covers the election in general

On the right side you can configure a number of options to make [...]Read More

Categories: Events, Political Theory, Public Service Announcements

How the tables have turned

September 11, 2010 - By

With less than 40 days to go to Calgary’s civic election, the pressure in many campaign camps is rising. As my attention span waivers thanks to cliché or vague promises, it occurs to me that we are actually in a huge position of power as voters. Think of the 2010 election as an interview. Instead of sitting back and waiting to hear what the candidates have to offer, why aren’t we as voters making our expectations more clear? We are, after all, the interview panel. Our votes will count towards making someone the successful candidate.

Most of us have had to interview for a job at one time or another. So, I got to thinking what those experiences were like. For starters, we got to the interview stage by meeting certain requirements. Then, we had to back up that experience by sharing past accomplishments and a strategy for how we would deliver in the new position. Practically speaking, the election process occurs the same way for me.

What I would like to see for Calgary is simple:

Property tax freeze: these are slated to go up drastically over the next few years. I think council has proven in the last [...]Read More

Categories: Calgary Issues, Political Theory

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

Return to Sender

5
September 3, 2010 - By

Each day, I come home to an earless black cat (yes, earless) and a mailbox full of bills and junk mail. But yesterday, amongst the clutter, I noticed a direct mail piece from candidate Naheed Nenshi. First reaction: “that must have been expensive.” Since I don’t get cell phone reception in the elevator (thanks Telus), I gave the Nenshi marketing piece a read. Fast Forward to this morning and I can’t tell you what was actually on the full-colour, double-sided postcard. What I do remember is skimming an article the other day about campaign disclosures.

Fast Forward Weekly reported Nenshi promised on May 27 to “immediately unveil his donors on a weekly basis” (see full article). Here we are three months later and Nenshi is now saying September 20, 2010 is the big day based on advice from his “volunteer lawyers.” Yup… those are the exact qualities I’m looking for in a mayor. Promise one thing, deliver on another.

Anyway, you can bet come September 20, I will be looking for the generous donor or donors who contributed to a direct mail strategy that cost at least a healthy five figures. After chatting to some friends, at [...]Read More

Tags: ι Categories: Mayor of Calgary, Political Theory

Welcome to the big leagues

4
August 30, 2010 - By

It’s time to put my money where my mouth is. Admittedly, it’s a bit nerve-wracking being coaxed into a spotlight where every word and idea is subject to merciless scrutiny. But, those are the same circumstances that gave me a voice in the first place. Frustrated by packaged campaign speeches and slogans, I took to the web and lost my blogging virginity.

Relying on my public relations experience, my objective was to breakdown the meaningless phrases of “accountability,” “transparency,” and “fiscal responsibility.” What does that all really mean anyway? All I want to know is: what are you going to deliver, when can I expect it, and how much is it going to cost?

I got to thinking about why I suddenly cared. It occurred to me that Calgary is at a real turning point and with that comes opportunity. It mirrored my life and what brought me to this city in the first place. Like most, I came to make something of myself. And like most, for the past few years, I’ve had my head in the sand, working 60 – 80 hour weeks. When I have a moment to breathe, you can bet that I’m not looking up [...]Read More

Categories: Alderman - Ward 11, Political Theory

The Unscientific Results

5
August 19, 2010 - By

My unscientifically determined statement: Voter engagement looks to be higher this election, or at least among those who are on social networks.

How did I get to this conclusion, besides hearsay?  Well, I performed a survey, of course.

Now, why do I call it an unscientific statement?  Well, because, for a number of specific reasons, I cannot tell you that the survey was random, un-biased, or that I had enough sample to really make much of a difference.  THAT said, I am publishing the questions, the methodology, and the results, and you can make your own decisions.

Last week, I was talking to a friend who is working for one of the Aldermanic candidates (in a race that I’m not covering, I might add), and he asked me, “Have any polls come out yet showing what voter turnout is going to look like this fall?”  I knew there were results for a few that showed that some people did not know who the candidates were, but I cannot remember anything specifically that talks to turnout and nothing else.

The Survey

The questions were as follows, with the ones with an asterisk required:

*1. Please indicate if you voted in the [...]Read More

Categories: Political Theory

Does a new mayor matter if we ignored the other 14 races?

2
August 16, 2010 - By

Knowing about city council and understanding how it works are two very different things. If we considered the amount of coverage we receive in terms of mayoral candidates compared to the amount of coverage on all aldermanic races, we might want to consider increasing coverage on those 14 key races. Why would we want to know more about aldermanic races than an exciting open seat race for the mayor’s chair? Here are some few points to consider:

1. One vote out of 15: Since there are no political parties at the local level, a spokesperson like the mayor is only effective as the other 14 aldermen allow him/her to be one. Since we are dealing with just one vote, we may see the “tone” and “direction” of city council go the way of council rather than the mayor. Yes, the mayor is elected by all Calgarians and holds a very interesting position, but when it comes down to voting, he/she will only have one vote, and we should keep that in mind.

2. A council dependent on city administration: Since there are 4 open races in the aldermanic elections, we will see at least 4 new aldermen. There are also [...]Read More

Tags: ι Categories: Political Theory

Election Handbook “oops”

August 11, 2010 - By

By now every potential Calgary Municipal Election candidate who has picked up a nomination package from the City should have received the following letter. The letter informs candidates of an error in the handbook that was part of their nomination package.

An “oops” to be sure, but no harm, no foul, right? I’ll give you one guess as to what Sections 147.3(1) (a), (b) and (c) of the Local Authorities Election Act deals with. If you have been following the relationship between the municipalities and the Province at all for the past three years you probably guessed right away: campaign finances.

Here is specifically what that section of the act says:

So what does this little “oops” mean?

At first glance it looks like it means that all bets are off and there are no campaign contribution limits. This is however not the case. Section 147.2 of the Act deals with limitations and it is in full effect still.

All this mistake means is that you don’t need to keep your campaign monies in a bank account. Sock it away under your mattress for all the Provincial Government cares.

Presumably these clauses have not been proclaimed [...]Read More

Categories: Political Theory, Public Service Announcements

Guest Blogger John Santos on the Global Poll

4
July 31, 2010 - By

Nation, it’s funny how small a world this is when you think about it…

I received a Facebook “friend request” a few months ago, from a young man named John Santos. It turns out that his brother had attended a music school at which I had been a teacher. The message that John sent along with his “friend request” indicated that he had long been a reader of The Enlightened Savage, and now that he realized there was a personal connection, he’d be sure to read even more often.

Well, it turns out that John is quite the political animal, and when the Global/NRG poll came out this Thursday night, John made sure to point out on Twitter that, “Not that the overall picture would change, but there are methodological issues with the Global poll.”

Now, many would disagree with me on this point, but I firmly believe that methodology MATTERS in these things… a badly-constructed poll, whether by circumstance or by purposeful design, leads one to believe that certain things are true, when in fact they’re not – and donors, volunteers, and supporters pay attention to the numbers that these polls trumpet as STONE. COLD. FACT. A poll that’s [...]Read More

Tags: ι ι ι ι ι Categories: Mayor of Calgary, Political Theory

Don’t Fire Until You See The Whites Of Their Eyes…

3
July 29, 2010 - By

Nation, the silly season is upon us in full force, as we have (at last count) 12 candidates for mayor, 44 confirmed aldermanic candidates, and 11 candidates for trustee spread out over 2 school boards – all vying for public attention, donor dollars, media coverage, and the all-important momentum, going into the October 18th vote.

The crazy train arrived a little earlier than normal this election cycle, with word earlier this year that mayor Dave Bronconnier would not be seeking re-election. From the day that announcement was made, it was only a matter of time before all heck broke loose – and break loose, it did.

3 sitting aldermen are seeking the mayor’s chair: Ric McIver, Bob Hawkesworth and Joe Connelly. As well, Alderman Joe Ceci has announced he won’t be seeking re-election. So, right there, you have 4 wards that will seat new alderman at the first council meeting this fall. That’s assuming no incumbents taste defeat – an unlikely situation, as the acrimonious and controversial nature of this past council hasn’t been seen in these parts since Danielle Smith was a CBE Trustee. People are hungry for change – and it’s not overstating the matter to suggest [...]Read More

Tags: ι ι ι ι ι ι ι Categories: Mayor of Calgary, Political Theory

“Never erase the past”

1
July 28, 2010 - By

The very first issue of 2600 magazine I ever saw had the following quote displayed on an illustration of a computer monitor on the cover:

Never erase the past

Today, local newscaster Barb Higgins entered the race for Mayor in Calgary. Unfortunately, she or her campaign team have chosen to hide her old Twitter feed.

Now, admittedly, there was nothing particularly interesting in the feed (not very many tweets on there — I had read through it a few days earlier when rumours of her candidacy started cropping up again). I doubt there was any “sinister intent” in this action. They may very well have just been trying to prevent people from confusing her old Twitter account with the new one for the campaign.

But, for me, that’s not the issue. The issue is transparency and accountability of those in, or vying for, public office.

Rather than leaving up an inconsequential record of some things she had previously said publicly, she has chosen to try to wipe the slate clean. If this is how she treats the record of the past on things that wouldn’t have any negative impact for her, what could we then expect of her [...]Read More

Tags: Categories: Mayor of Calgary, Political Theory

Polling mayoral candidates in July

3
July 14, 2010 - By

Let’s get right down to it (and you probably know the reason why this post is up if you’ve been following the 2010 municipal election). A recent poll released by Alberta Courage Network says that Wayne Stewart is in the lead of the mayoral race with 34% of those who responded. It also made the following conclusions:

- 73.4% indicated that denser neighborhoods was a good idea
- 78.8% wanted more walkable neighborhoods
- 77.4% suggested new highways and ring roads was a low priority
- 82.8% said rapid transit is a high priority
- 68.0% supported an LRT to the airport

This poll was conducted over a period of 6 days with 206 Calgarians.

So what’s wrong with this poll? If you aren’t a Calgarian, then chances are you’ll think this seems OK. However, if you knew a few things about this city, you’ll know that something feels not so right about the results of this poll. And you’re not only. It’s being heavily criticized by many people. Mike Blanchard from AM 770 CHQR said the following:

With all due respect to Mr. Stewart, I don’t buy the result. I don’t hear Stewart’s name [...]Read More

Tags: ι ι ι Categories: Mayor of Calgary, Political Theory

Filed under “Things You Probably Don’t Want To Get Wrong”…

3
July 9, 2010 - By

 ”There’s been a misconception that I have already made an announcement regarding our Muncipal Election, and that is incorrect…”

Well.  Except for that time on February 27th.

(credit to Kirk Schmidt for the find)

Note to candidates: Twitter counts. People read it.

In fairness, here’s the speech Alnoor gave at his SECOND announcement (but his first “official announcement”, I guess) of his candidacy for Mayor, on June 28th:

*****

Welcome

Good morning and welcome.  I’m glad you were all able to attend this morning. And I hope you enjoyed the Alnoor cakes that were sent to you Friday morning! (I believe Chris already guessed…)

I’ll take a few minutes with prepared comments and then answer your questions.  We will be done in about a half hour.

First and foremost, I’d like to announce that after much consideration I have decided to run for Mayor of Calgary.

There’s been a misconception that I have already made an announcement regarding our Muncipal Election, and that is incorrect, I have been seriously considering it for the past 3 months, but  today I am officially announcing my decision.

Why am I running?

 I’ve been talking to [...]Read More

Tags: Categories: Mayor of Calgary, Political Theory

Wanted: A Few Good Women

10
May 6, 2010 - By

Nation, I’ve never been a fan of “gender balance for its own sake” when it comes to the workplace. I don’t believe that an employer should be forced to give a position to a less qualified candidate simply because the office hasn’t met its “50/50″ state of complete gender balance. For that reason, I’ve also not been a big fan of the never-ending caterwauling that accompanies every cabinet announcement in the history of EVER when the same old suspects rise up to decry the “institutional sexism” that exists in our governments – Prime Minister, Presidents and Premiers should be appointing the most qualified people to fill the challenging roles of cabinet positions, not appointing empty suits in an effort to keep their constituents satisfied that there are enough women, men, people of colour, people with mobility challenges, or people of Ukrainian descent in a cabinet at any given time in relation to the percentage of population.

ALL that said, though, I think it’s a real problem that we have such a hard time attracting female leaders of our community into the political realm, to put their names on a ballot.

Now, there are literally HUNDREDS of ways in which women [...]Read More

Tags: ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι ι Categories: Political Theory

May 3rd, 2010

May 5, 2010 - By

While you might not think May 3rd was any special day, it is to the Calgary blogosphere. Well… let’s be specific on what I mean by that. Blogs are not new. Interviews with bloggers is not a new thing. Calgary blogs are not new. Heck, interviews with Calgarian bloggers are not new as well. With all that said though, Shane over at Calgary Rants started something extremely important. He’s the first blogger that I know of who has interviewed someone in Calgary related to politics and has talked about it. I’m sure I’m missing some dude who did the same thing 3 years ago, so update me if that’s the case. This is a very, very big thing, at least for me, and it speaks volumes about the direction of where media will go over the next little while. So what’s so important about it if this isn’t new?

This interview by Calgary Rants with a Ward 11 contender for the upcoming 2010 municipal election will begin a very healthy and much-needed challenge to the mainstream media in Calgary. It’s not saying that the media in Calgary hasn’t done its job to report the news and give people [...]Read More

Tags: Categories: Alderman - Ward 11, Political Theory

Pluralism or Regime Theory?

2
March 8, 2010 - By

Much like international relations where there are two main schools of thought, realism and liberalism, there’s also two main schools of thought on city politics.

Pluralist Theory:

One is classified as the pluralist view of city politics. In Robert Dahl’s Who Governs, he asked the fundamental question of who governs, and his response was, well, everyone. He took the example of New Haven, Connecticut as his case study to prove the very point.

He discusses two different types of inequalities:

Cumulative inequalities: In essence one type of inequality leads to another, such as an economic inequality will also lead to political inequality.

Dispersed inequalities: This is where economic inequality is not the same as political inequality.

Dahl concludes that a political system like New Heaven’s had dispersed inequalities. He gave the example that certain groups like immigrants might have the economic disadvantage, but their numbers give them a numeric advatnage when it comes to voting. He also concludes that leaders are heterogenous, meaning that they have less of an ability to shape preferences, and have little overlap in issues between them.

What does this mean? No one group wins on [...]Read More

Tags: ι ι Categories: Political Theory

Taking blogging to the next level and legitimizing it

1
March 4, 2010 - By

If there’s one thing I want to see this election, it’s going to be legitimizing blogs. What do I mean by that?

The Internet has been great at moving information from point A to B at a very fast and rapid level. Every individual blogger on this team has been able to do that. You might give credit to the grandfathers of blogging such as Daveberta and Calgary Grit.

The combined strengths of this specific collaboration between local Calgarian bloggers will give a sense that the blogosphere, at least in Calgary, will be very strong. Yes, blogs are opinion based, but a strength like this will hopefully give rise to a fourth pillar of mainstream media.

But, you said earlier in some post you did that social media isn’t very strong.

I said that social media at its current level isn’t strong, but its progress towards being a main source of information and news is still years away. This current collaboration will hopefully be a starting point, but it definitely won’t be the big one that will launch the Internet onto that level of awesome.

In order to take it to that next level, blogging will have to take it [...]Read More

Tags: ι Categories: Political Theory, Public Service Announcements

Calgary’s Mayoral Race 2010: What I don’t want to see

March 2, 2010 - By

As everyone who pays any attention whatsoever to politics in this city will already be aware, Calgary’s 3-term mayor, Dave Bronconnier, announced last week that he will not be running for re-election this fall. This makes for the first “open” mayoral election here since 2001.

With candidates just starting to announce their intentions, I don’t have anything resembling a preference yet. I do have some notions of what I don’t want to see, though.

Misrepresentation in the media

In 2001, somewhere between a dozen and twenty candidates were on the ballot for mayor (I really cant remember the actual number and couldn’t easily find a reference online). You wouldn’t have known that, though, if your only source of info on the election was the mainstream (primarily corporate) media. They decided that there were only four “legitimate” candidates who merited any substantive coverage. The media gave effectively no attention to any of the other candidates.

I consider that to be viciously anti-democratic. All citizens should have an equal opportunity to learn about every candidate, regardless of how “serious” or “fringe” they may be considered to be by those in power (which includes the media who are currently very much part [...]Read More

Tags: ι Categories: Mayor of Calgary, Political Theory