Municipal Politics - Page 10

Snark · #**181** Posted **Oct 14, 2014, 11:55 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by haljackey

Ignore the Free Press comments. I almost lost my sanity after reading a few.

The comments section in the online Freep is utterly beyond anything remotely resembling intelligent discourse. I swear that the most ignorant, maladjusted, hate-filled individuals in the entire City post there. Almost all of the ideas they espouse are simply batshit crazy, tainted with a hearty dose of hate.

This is however a property of Sunmedia (Fox news north), and a main business strategy of far-right media is to manufacture rage amongst the unwashed masses. Hopefully when the new ownership comes in, standards in the entire publication (not just the comments) will rise - because God knows it's pretty much at rock bottom right now.

Blitz · #**182** Posted **Oct 15, 2014, 4:01 AM**

This is a bit scary. Cheng doesn't seem to have a clue about what the mayor's powers are versus what they aren't.

GreatTallNorth2 · #**183** Posted **Oct 15, 2014, 8:31 PM**

We can only hope the Cheng gain won't be able to find the polling stations. If he does get into power, we can only hope that we get some good new councillors that will be able to push through the London Plan and curb the sprawl.

haljackey · #**184** Posted **Oct 15, 2014, 9:20 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by GreatTallNorth2

We can only hope the Cheng gain won't be able to find the polling stations. If he does get into power, we can only hope that we get some good new councillors that will be able to push through the London Plan and curb the sprawl.

You will be happy to know that Paul Van MeerBergen actually has legit competition this time.

Also check out this twitter farce https://twitter.com/NotVanMerbergen

GreatTallNorth2 · #**185** Posted **Oct 16, 2014, 12:26 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by haljackey

You will be happy to know that Paul Van MeerBergen actually has legit competition this time.

Also check out this twitter farce https://twitter.com/NotVanMerbergen

Yep, Virginia Ridley is a good candidate and would represent ward 10 much better than Paul VMB. I went to the debate and Paul was very uncomfortable due to being questioned on the fact that he hides from his constituents right after he is elected, and he never answers emails, etc. Hoping Virginia can make a good show as I think she has a lot of grassroots support.

jaradthescot · #**186** Posted **Oct 16, 2014, 1:21 AM**

Do any of the veterans of London know anything about David Winninger? I just went to the Ward 13 debate and I was impressed with him and John Fyfe-Millar, but while JFM has a very professional website, I can find next to nothing online about Winninger. I know, thanks to wikipedia, he was previously a candidate until 2010, so do any of you have any information about him (or JFM for that matter)?

Snark · #**187** Posted **Oct 16, 2014, 2:15 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blitz

This is a bit scary. Cheng doesn't seem to have a clue about what the mayor's powers are versus what they aren't.

Everything I've heard that has come from Cheng's mouth very strongly implies that he hasn't the foggiest idea how an Ontario municipality operates, or even what a municipality actually does. Not a clue. He doesn't seem to understand where the jurisdictions of a municipality, school board, and the provincial/federal governments lie. He doesn't seem to understand the severe limitations on the authority of the position of mayor. He seems to have no appreciation that London, as a single-tier municipality, is in at least 50 distinct lines of business (in fact he denies it).

Lastly, he seems to fail to grasp that a key role of a mayor in Canada is very often as a consensus builder. Any mayoral candidate that would accept only pre-screened questions for a "public" Q&A session - and then threaten ejection for any attendee who deviates from the script when presenting their question (is it even a question by that point?) - would seem to imply someone with autocratic and control-freak mindset. So much for consensus-building.

If he were to get in, he will be in for some rude awakenings and it will be ugly in general.

Snark · #**188** Posted **Oct 16, 2014, 2:27 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaradthescot

Do any of the veterans of London know anything about David Winninger? I just went to the Ward 13 debate and I was impressed with him and John Fyfe-Millar, but while JFM has a very professional website, I can find next to nothing online about Winninger. I know, thanks to wikipedia, he was previously a candidate until 2010, so do any of you have any information about him (or JFM for that matter)?

Basically he's an NDP lifer and "community activist" (using that term in a positive light). I think it fair to say that his politics most probably best align with the left-wing political sector of Toronto municipal politics.

If that's where you sit on the political spectrum, then he's probably your man.

manny_santos · #**189** Posted **Oct 16, 2014, 10:31 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snark

The comments section in the online Freep is utterly beyond anything remotely resembling intelligent discourse. I swear that the most ignorant, maladjusted, hate-filled individuals in the entire City post there. Almost all of the ideas they espouse are simply batshit crazy, tainted with a hearty dose of hate.

This is however a property of Sunmedia (Fox news north), and a main business strategy of far-right media is to manufacture rage amongst the unwashed masses. Hopefully when the new ownership comes in, standards in the entire publication (not just the comments) will rise - because God knows it's pretty much at rock bottom right now.

The National Post is only slightly better. The only news site in Canada with at least somewhat civil comments is CBC, but they moderate the heck out of their comments while the Free Press is virtually unmoderated.

haljackey · #**190** Posted **Oct 21, 2014, 6:42 PM**

Things be heating up now

CTV Debate: http://london.ctvnews.ca/top-candida...bate-1.2062596

Seems like Brown and Swan were teaming up against Cheng. You need to attack both your opponents and set yourself up as clearly different from the others.

It was almost if Swan was vouching for Brown, the lesser of two evils in his mind.

I will actually laugh if Cheng gets elected. Counciler Paul Hubert described him as a 4 year blind date if he's elected.

Also I just realized yesterday that all 3 'front runners' (even though Joe Swan is way behind) all have 1 symbol first and last names.

jaradthescot · #**191** Posted **Oct 21, 2014, 10:02 PM**

syllable?

K85 · #**192** Posted **Oct 21, 2014, 11:02 PM**

Matthew, Joseph, and... um... Paulington

haljackey · #**193** Posted **Oct 22, 2014, 2:22 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaradthescot

syllable?

HillStreetBlues · #**194** Posted **Oct 22, 2014, 12:19 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by GreatTallNorth2

Yep, Virginia Ridley is a good candidate and would represent ward 10 much better than Paul VMB. I went to the debate and Paul was very uncomfortable due to being questioned on the fact that he hides from his constituents right after he is elected, and he never answers emails, etc. Hoping Virginia can make a good show as I think she has a lot of grassroots support.

Can someone give me a summary of Ms. Ridley’s platform and credentials? I grew up in Ward 10, and would welcome the news of van Meerbergen’s ouster, but didn’t know that there was a credible alternative this time around.

haljackey · #**195** Posted **Oct 22, 2014, 1:06 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by HillStreetBlues

Can someone give me a summary of Ms. Ridley’s platform and credentials? I grew up in Ward 10, and would welcome the news of van Meerbergen’s ouster, but didn’t know that there was a credible alternative this time around.

http://www.virginiaridley.com/ should help. Don't really know much outside of what's on that site other than she's not Van Meerbergen.

MolsonExport · #**196** Posted **Oct 22, 2014, 5:15 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by haljackey

Picard's reaction when told that Riker would be his #2.

HillStreetBlues · #**197** Posted **Oct 23, 2014, 3:03 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by haljackey

http://www.virginiaridley.com/ should help. Don't really know much outside of what's on that site other than she's not Van Meerbergen.

Thanks. There’s nothing really on there. A bureaucrat and member of her local OPSEU executive; that doesn’t inspire a tonne of confidence. No mention almost whatsoever of a platform. Some nice words about transit in her blog. I guess it’s true that she’s Not Van Meerbergen, though.

MolsonExport · #**198** Posted **Oct 24, 2014, 1:08 AM**

Not a Meerkat?

HillStreetBlues · #**199** Posted **Oct 24, 2014, 4:54 PM**

I couldn’t say whether she’s a meerkat or not, but I don’t have anything against meerkats anyway.

MolsonExport · #**200** Posted **Oct 28, 2014, 2:23 AM**

So is Matt Brown Mayor yet?