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Calgary Civic Election, 2021
Oct. 7th, 2021 11:19 amI'm planning on voting today. Here are my thoughts:
For Mayor, my first priority is keeping Jeremy Farkas out. The front runner is Jyoti Gondek, and I'm likely to vote for her on the basis that she's not conservative, and seems to be a policy wonk. That's not to say that she's progressive - she identifies as a centrist, which could mean damn near anything. I'm hoping it means "progressive, but not willing to admit that in Calgary when an election is going on", rather than "social progressive/fiscal conservative" which is always bullshit.
My current councillor is Sean Chu, who is: 1) against everything that's good, 2) for everything that's bad, 3) almost certainly going to be re-elected.
That's not to say he's the worst candidate for Councillor. That would be Shane Roberts, who lets his freak flag fly on his website, immediately comparing mask mandates to the Holocaust.
That leaves the two grown-up: DJ Kelly and Angelea McIntyre. They both seem OK, and support a lot of things I like, the Green Line for example. McIntyre wants to work against continued sprawl, and that pushes her ahead of Kelly in my book.
For public school trustee, there are four new candidates and the incumbent. I think the new curriculum, dragging Alberta back to the 1930s, is the big issue.
Althea Adams is the current trustee, and she's been inoffensive. Her website seems to be pretty weaselly about needing to "work on" the new curriculum.
Claudia Fuentes is part of the Take Back the CBE slate, which seems to be a stealth Conservative group. That rules them out for me.
Najeeb Butt has a ton of glowing language about equality on his website, and no policy priorities that I can find. Could be good, could be bad, who know?
Oun Saegh appears to be a paper candidate. No web site, did not respond to the media. If he can't put in the effort to run, I won't put in the effort to vote for him.
Laura Hack is likely getting my vote. She doesn't like the new curriculum, which is a plus. Also, she seems to be the most progressive.
If I vote for anyone for the bullshit "senator" election, it'll be Duncan Kinney on his explicitly "this is some bullshit" platform. White hat trolling is something I can get behind. Normally, I'd formally decline my ballot (I've done that in previous "senate" elections), but some idiot decided paper ballots you put an X on are too old fashioned, so all of the provincial ballots are combined into a single scantron. Declining isn't an option if I want to vote on the other two questions. And if I don't pick anyone, they can't tell if that's a refused ballot, or I'm just a clueless moron. Pretty fucking unhappy about that.
The other bullshit referendum is on the transfer payments. Since Alberta isn't actually hard done by in Federation, and I understand how transfer payments work, I'll be voting to keep them.
In the almost-but-not-entirely-bullshit referendum on time zones, I'll vote for the status quo, on the basis that UTC-7 for five months of the year is better than UTC-6 for twelve months of the year. We really should match BC at UTC-8 (we literally use 120°W - the center of ideal UTC-8 - as part of the border between the two provinces), but that's not one of the options.
And finally, of course I'm going to vote for fluoridation.
For Mayor, my first priority is keeping Jeremy Farkas out. The front runner is Jyoti Gondek, and I'm likely to vote for her on the basis that she's not conservative, and seems to be a policy wonk. That's not to say that she's progressive - she identifies as a centrist, which could mean damn near anything. I'm hoping it means "progressive, but not willing to admit that in Calgary when an election is going on", rather than "social progressive/fiscal conservative" which is always bullshit.
My current councillor is Sean Chu, who is: 1) against everything that's good, 2) for everything that's bad, 3) almost certainly going to be re-elected.
That's not to say he's the worst candidate for Councillor. That would be Shane Roberts, who lets his freak flag fly on his website, immediately comparing mask mandates to the Holocaust.
That leaves the two grown-up: DJ Kelly and Angelea McIntyre. They both seem OK, and support a lot of things I like, the Green Line for example. McIntyre wants to work against continued sprawl, and that pushes her ahead of Kelly in my book.
For public school trustee, there are four new candidates and the incumbent. I think the new curriculum, dragging Alberta back to the 1930s, is the big issue.
Althea Adams is the current trustee, and she's been inoffensive. Her website seems to be pretty weaselly about needing to "work on" the new curriculum.
Claudia Fuentes is part of the Take Back the CBE slate, which seems to be a stealth Conservative group. That rules them out for me.
Najeeb Butt has a ton of glowing language about equality on his website, and no policy priorities that I can find. Could be good, could be bad, who know?
Oun Saegh appears to be a paper candidate. No web site, did not respond to the media. If he can't put in the effort to run, I won't put in the effort to vote for him.
Laura Hack is likely getting my vote. She doesn't like the new curriculum, which is a plus. Also, she seems to be the most progressive.
If I vote for anyone for the bullshit "senator" election, it'll be Duncan Kinney on his explicitly "this is some bullshit" platform. White hat trolling is something I can get behind. Normally, I'd formally decline my ballot (I've done that in previous "senate" elections), but some idiot decided paper ballots you put an X on are too old fashioned, so all of the provincial ballots are combined into a single scantron. Declining isn't an option if I want to vote on the other two questions. And if I don't pick anyone, they can't tell if that's a refused ballot, or I'm just a clueless moron. Pretty fucking unhappy about that.
The other bullshit referendum is on the transfer payments. Since Alberta isn't actually hard done by in Federation, and I understand how transfer payments work, I'll be voting to keep them.
In the almost-but-not-entirely-bullshit referendum on time zones, I'll vote for the status quo, on the basis that UTC-7 for five months of the year is better than UTC-6 for twelve months of the year. We really should match BC at UTC-8 (we literally use 120°W - the center of ideal UTC-8 - as part of the border between the two provinces), but that's not one of the options.
And finally, of course I'm going to vote for fluoridation.
