Tonight's Waterloo mayoral debate could be summed up like this, from left to right:
Jan d'Ailly: I bring experience, leadership ability, and a proactive approach.
Barbara Halloran: I've done a super job.
Franklin Ramsoomair: Ummmm.
Dale Ross: Slash the budget!
Actually, Ramsoomair had some interesting things to say, but he was unable to articulate a vision for his mayoralty. In fact, his ability to articulate his ideas was a problem throughout.
Ross, on the other hand, articulated his vision all too well. He wants to cut spending. Really - that's it. When asked about specific issues, he repeatedly said he'd have to get someone to tell him what to do or form a committee. His plan is to put the city through ten years of extremely restricted spending in order to pay down our debt.
The questions were excellent. Neil Acheson was a great moderator - when he asked the audience to not applaud, it created a much better debate than most. One quibble: I was disappointed by all the answers about bylaw enforcement: they all focused on unmaintained lawns and noise complaints, without mentioning the vital accessibility issue of snow clearance.
Bottom line: This is a two horse race, between Halloran and d'Ailly. I approach elections like a hiring process, and look for qualifications, experience, intelligence and vision. To my mind, d'Ailly is the best choice. But I enjoyed listening to all four of them. d'Ailly and Halloran were both refreshingly candid, and d'Ailly in particular was very detailed and informative. Good job all around.
Upcoming debates:
- Wednesday, Sept 22 - Waterloo Ward 1 candidates, Hauser Haus, WMRC
- Tuesday, Sept 28 - Waterloo Ward 3 candidates, Community Room, McCormick Community Center
- Wed, Sept 29 - Waterloo Ward 4 candidates, Room 207, RIM Park
- Thurs, Sept 30 - Waterloo Ward 5 candidates, Room 208, RIM Park
- Tues, Oct 5 - Waterloo Ward 6 candidates, Hauser Haus, WMRC
- Wed, Oct 6 - Waterloo Ward 7 candidates (uptown), Hauser Haus, WMRC
- Thus, Oct 7 - Regional Council candidates, Adult Rec Center
- Tues, Oct 19 - Public school board candidates, TBD
- Wed, Oct 20 - Regional Chair candidates, TBD
- Thurs, Oct 21 - Waterloo mayoral candidates (Round 2), Hauser Haus, WMRC
More info on the upcoming debates: WaterlooVotes.com
Update: The Waterloo Regional Record is also hosting its own debates. For a list of times and places, see here.
Update: Rogers TV schedule of debates on TV on Karen Scian's blog
Update: You can watch videos of debates on the Record's Vote 2010 site.
24 comments:
Yeah, whatever. You're going to have to cite sources before you throw allegations like this around.
Well Brenda wears flip flops and jump around, there were not sound arguments. She keep stating that the success Waterloo has had is because of her - Hell no! She just happened to be at the right place at the right time, and taking credit for what some of the companies have done here (RIM). The Queen didn't come here to see Brenda or visit the City, she came to visit RIM. I saw a video of her on Youtube and she mentioned the word "beautiful" like a 100 times, top issues that the city is facing '0' times... If she get re-elected and something happens to RIM (sales are dropping for the coming quarter since the new Torch is not doing that well) we are all screwed. And what’s up with these people keep saying, "If the citizens want I will do as they say", that is a really dumb thing to say when only 18% of the population Vote. We need leaders with a backbone, who can represent and make those snap decisions when the time comes.
Agree with your comments on the debate, especially the excellent job done by the moderator.
This is clearly a 2 horse race and like you I would side with d'Ailly. Waterloo needs to get to the next level and I don't think Brenda has the skills to do it. She has been lucky to be Mayor during boom times, but I don't see a coherent vision of where she wants to go, except more of the same.
Wow - thanks to twitter for sending me here.
Jan was chair of the finance committee and he's blaming Brenda for the financial issues?
Jan supported giving Balisillie (a billionaire who can throw money away on a hockey team) a piece of land worth millions in Uptown, but didn't support selling a building the city had a contract to sell to a business man who had invested heaps of money restoring it and drawing clients to Uptown.
Ask any resident of Northdale what they think of his honesty, leadership ability, failure to keep promises.
He sat on the Town and Gown commmittee when police and bylaw implemeted a policy to not charge students, completely contrary to the promise of 2004 of practive zero tolerance enforcement.
He said there was no money for a traffic study of Albert street whle the city had money for rusty bells, skateboard parks, parks in Mary Allen, etc. - the study was also promised in the SAS 2004.
He had no problem with a traffic count being done on Albert between University and Columbia in May - when all the students have just left town.
And - there was no annual monitoring done of the neighbourhood, in spite of the neighbourhood flipping rapidly to a ghetto with house after house converting from owner-occupied to rentals.
Again, he said no money, but then he didn't request it and as our councillor it was his job.
And he said that a good solution for the neighbourhood was to drive down property values (it's on record - at a council meeting.)all while repeatedly bringing up the topic of expropriation. Coincidence?
He refused to answer questions when we asked them about what he meant.
And he refused to let the residents present a powerpoint presentation at a Town Hall while allowing the university of waterloo to run a looping video of how beautiful their campus is. You want that in your mayor?
So much of this blog is anonymous. A pity. I like talking to those who will do so openly.
That was an OPENING debate. There is time for issue articulation. One presents first a macro vision before going on to a micro.
By the way, can I send you a picture in which you can actually see me instead of the one you opted for?
Thanks and kind regards,
Franklin Ramsoomair
People make mistakes. Jan has not had legal trouble since and may well be a better person for having made legal, amends. I don't think people should be judged for one incident, many years ago. There are many better criteria to base your vote on.
Besides, what is to be afraid of? Do you think he'll slap Kitchener?
Wow. I have no idea what to say to your incredibly insensitive remarks. That's Brenda's niece. As someone who has had family members with disabilities, I pray that you never have to go through the same struggle.
People with CP have not lost the use of their brain function.. cite: Steven Hawking... I assure you that if she did NOT want that shirt on, it would not have been on.
I pity you.
Hi Franklin -
I apologise for the crummy photo. I took it with my BlackBerry... I should have remembered my camera. If you have a better one that includes all four candidates, I'll replace it. My email is yappadingding@hotmail.com.
Thanks again and I look forward to the next debate!
Ruth
You people do not deserve to have the vote, carrying around vile and archaic attitudes like that! Read your comments! Neither one of these PEOPLE deserve those terrible statements to be unleashed.
Shocking, truly shocking.
Hi Anon at 8:11 -
Thanks for the clarification, and my apologies for saying you were wrong.
Ruth
A friend sent me the link to this post seeing as I was specifically named in one of the comments...
Just want to make some corrections, seeing as "Wloo Citizen" does not have all the facts straight.
First off, it's not my company that Brenda has "hired" to help with her campaign. In fact, she did not "hire" anyone... we're volunteers who believe in her abilities -- same as the "Students for Brenda" who have no expectation of anything and do it because Brenda truly cares about them. No one gets a dime, and no one expects anything but to help make sure she can continue to lead our City.
As for her answering messages, etc... I can assure you that when she does answer, it's Brenda, not part of her team. Yes, sometimes it takes a bit before she does, but she also has a full time job running the city... Brenda's "team" assists with managing the website and content and social media but never pretends to BE Brenda. Every bit of content that is published comes through Brenda.
Becoming involved in Brenda's campaign has certainly been an eye opener! I sincerely hope that none of the posts are from members of the other candidates "camps".. some of the comments are really below the belt, and in some cases outright lies.. and quite frankly, reflect poorly on the candidate.
I support her because I believe in her. I know what she has done for this City, for the homeless, the many cultural groups, the reduction in debt, the attraction of new business from around the world, the promotion of the City and the people that live in it and the countless other things that she has done. And I look forward to Brenda being able to continue with the momentum that she, her council and the city have been successful at doing together.
To "A Person" -
I signed up for Twitter but have never got around to using it. Someone on this thread said they heard about my post through Twitter, but it didn't have anything to do with me. (People Twitter about posts written by other people, you know.)
I have commented on my own blog to respond to comments addressed to me. I used my handle (Yappa) and signed my name (Ruth).
If you're looking for conspiracy theories, please look elsewhere.
Ruth
I switched to Geico
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