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+---- Thread: Waterloo Region Council Election Discussion (/showthread.php?tid=1172)
RE: Waterloo Region Council Election Discussion - Spokes - 09-27-2018
Kitchener Regional Councillors seem a bit more cut and dry than Waterloo for me.
RE: Waterloo Region Council Election Discussion - SammyOES - 09-28-2018
Do I have to watch an hour long debate?
I'll do it if its the best information we have, but I follow Provincial / Federal / American politics pretty closely and one thing I've learned is that a debate is a generally poor way to judge candidates.
RE: Waterloo Region Council Election Discussion - robdrimmie - 09-28-2018
(09-28-2018, 01:13 PM)SammyOES Wrote: Do I have to watch an hour long debate?
I'll do it if its the best information we have, but I follow Provincial / Federal / American politics pretty closely and one thing I've learned is that a debate is a generally poor way to judge candidates.
These debates are somewhat better in that everyone lets each other speak. Everyone gets a turn to respond to a question, and typically they're well-prepared responses. I don't know if they get to see the questions first, but the topics of the questions are pretty standard with moderate variants - what do you think about the LRT/transportation, what do you think about housing, what do you think about jobs, what do you think about opioids, etc. etc. I've been gradually working my way through the ones relevant to my location at 1.5x speed.
The answers seem a bit better than written responses to news outlets as even coming from largely prepared statements there's some amount of space for extemporaneous responses and at a minimum you can learn whether or not a prospective candidate can speak their mind effectively.
Ultimately though, the problem that there's no way to predict performance is pretty consistent. The best you can do is find someone who professes to be in alignment with you, and to do that yeah you do actually need to put some time into it.
RE: Waterloo Region Council Election Discussion - robdrimmie - 09-28-2018
Take some time away from American politics and put it into municipal politics. Your blood pressure will go down and you'll actually be able to have meaningful impact.
RE: Waterloo Region Council Election Discussion - Spokes - 09-28-2018
(09-28-2018, 01:13 PM)SammyOES Wrote: Do I have to watch an hour long debate?
I'll do it if its the best information we have, but I follow Provincial / Federal / American politics pretty closely and one thing I've learned is that a debate is a generally poor way to judge candidates.
You do, yes! There WILL be a test.
I tend to agree with you with regards to debates. Thought it was a good resource for those who wanted it at least.
RE: Waterloo Region Council Election Discussion - welltoldtales - 09-28-2018
Speaking of debates being poor judges... Jay Aissa actually sounds somewhat reasonable in the chair debates.
Rob Deutschmann thinks we should have a pause on Phase II and Jay is basically you can't half do something. If we are moving to a transit oriented region, than we can't half do it.
Which I... agree with?
RE: Waterloo Region Council Election Discussion - Spokes - 09-28-2018
There's now an online record of you saying that. Can't take it back!!!!
Such a shift from four years ago. So weird.
RE: Waterloo Region Council Election Discussion - SammyOES - 09-28-2018
(09-28-2018, 01:36 PM)robdrimmie Wrote: Take some time away from American politics and put it into municipal politics. Your blood pressure will go down and you'll actually be able to have meaningful impact.
Well, American politics has a pretty big impact on me. Plus its definitely crazier.
(09-28-2018, 01:42 PM)Spokes Wrote: You do, yes! There WILL be a test.
I tend to agree with you with regards to debates. Thought it was a good resource for those who wanted it at least.
Hah, just to be clear, it was a helpful link.
My problem with debates is that there's always a right answer to questions like "Do you support lower taxes", "Do you support being fiscally responsible", "Do you support public transportation", etc. The devil is in the trade offs and it seems like those only really become clear when you see people actually making them (or even just reacting to actual votes that are happening).
Municipal elections should involve every candidate proposing a budget for year 1. Then we'd see some trade offs.
RE: Waterloo Region Council Election Discussion - tomh009 - 09-28-2018
(09-28-2018, 02:23 PM)SammyOES Wrote: Municipal elections should involve every candidate proposing a budget for year 1. Then we'd see some trade offs.
Other elections probably should, too. But sometimes parties don't price out their promises. And other times their math makes no sense at all.
RE: Waterloo Region Council Election Discussion - ijmorlan - 09-28-2018
(09-28-2018, 01:48 PM)welltoldtales Wrote: Speaking of debates being poor judges... Jay Aissa actually sounds somewhat reasonable in the chair debates.
Rob Deutschmann thinks we should have a pause on Phase II and Jay is basically you can't half do something. If we are moving to a transit oriented region, than we can't half do it.
Which I... agree with?
Wait, Jay is in favour of completing the LRT? What’s his game? Or is he just making a point about how dumb our politicians are in his world?
I think we should have a pause on electing non-transit-enthusiastic candidates to Regional Council. I guess that gets it down to Redman vs. d'Ailly.
RE: Waterloo Region Council Election Discussion - Spokes - 09-28-2018
(09-28-2018, 02:23 PM)SammyOES Wrote:(09-28-2018, 01:36 PM)robdrimmie Wrote: Take some time away from American politics and put it into municipal politics. Your blood pressure will go down and you'll actually be able to have meaningful impact.
Well, American politics has a pretty big impact on me. Plus its definitely crazier.
(09-28-2018, 01:42 PM)Spokes Wrote: You do, yes! There WILL be a test.
I tend to agree with you with regards to debates. Thought it was a good resource for those who wanted it at least.
Hah, just to be clear, it was a helpful link.
My problem with debates is that there's always a right answer to questions like "Do you support lower taxes", "Do you support being fiscally responsible", "Do you support public transportation", etc. The devil is in the trade offs and it seems like those only really become clear when you see people actually making them (or even just reacting to actual votes that are happening).
Municipal elections should involve every candidate proposing a budget for year 1. Then we'd see some trade offs.
Those are easy ways to easy votes for some. Some people will simply just go for who's going to lower their tax bill
RE: Waterloo Region Council Election Discussion - neonjoe - 10-04-2018
When did Jay become "PRO"-LRT?
https://votejay.ca/my-platform/
Quote:I am committed to developing and supporting a more efficient and equitable Rapid Transit system within Waterloo Region.
My transportation plan is simple.
I will find a way to make the existing Light Rail Transit (LRT) system in Kitchener-Waterloo work.
I will follow the existing Regional Transportation Master Plan while extending the LRT from Kitchener to Cambridge.
RE: Waterloo Region Council Election Discussion - Spokes - 10-04-2018
RE: Waterloo Region Council Election Discussion - ijmorlan - 10-05-2018
(10-04-2018, 11:40 PM)Spokes Wrote: Well things are getting messy.
Apparently, according to Beisan Zubi, Jane Mitchell called her "an ethnic." From Twitter:
Given that this is the only thing I know about Zubi, I find the inference we are presumably to take from the allegation to be unbelievable (it’s possible that Mitchell said something that wouldn’t look good on a transcript, but the inference, that she is some sort of racist or xenophobe, is not believable based on the evidence at hand).
I can’t help but point out that this sort of thing probably wouldn’t happen under a ranked-ballot system, especially in races such as this one which will be won by more than one person (Waterloo elects 2 representatives to Council, in addition to the Mayor).
RE: Waterloo Region Council Election Discussion - Spokes - 10-05-2018
To focus on the ranked ballot system, the regional election is the PERFECT system to try this out. They're foolish for not doing it. With multiple people being elected, why not try.