Regional Council Election Discussion

[YKF]

Maybe he thinks he can pull a Rob Ford and unilaterally cancel Transit City.
He actually seems to be the Rob Ford of Candidates focusing on what he can stop rather than what he can do to improve the region.

This. Jay Aissa is the anti-vision. The Record had a quote from Ken Seiling not too long ago about how he (Seiling) got involved in politics not because he was angry about something, but because he wanted to better his community.

That's a good point.  What are his other ideas for the Region? hah

lol exactly. As far as I know, the LRT is a done deal. How would Aissa deal with other pressing regional issues like the ROP appeal, the new waste management collection contract to be tendered in a few years, the airport. I can go on and on. The fact is that Aissa is running a single issue campaign.

[neonjoe]

Seems like Jay Aissa doesn't know how to follow the rules in the election. I saw two signs on Block Line Rd by Rittenhouse Park. Signs are only allowed on Regional Roads.
Councillor Tom Galloway also tweeted about signs on Bearinger Rd (city portion) yesterday.

I hope the public doesn't elect a chair that doesn't even know what roads are Regional Roads or City Streets.

[fakepnijjar]

I really wish that more people would take pictures of signage violations that they see, and then make those violations public. I have heard all kinds of rumours on Twitter, but without visual evidence it is all hearsay, and hearsay can't be printed in the Record.

[fakepnijjar]

Although I believe the placement of this sign is legal (it is on Lancaster near the plaza), I thought it was good evidence that Aissa enjoys strong support in the "Abandoned KFC building" demographic:



I know it not a great image, but I hope it gets the point across. The sign is placed in a fairly sneaky way; at first glance I thought it was a private sign that indicated actual support and not just a sign placed publicly. (Mind you, I see a fair number of Aissa signs on private property as well.)

While I was in the neighbourhood, I snapped two pictures of the sign that (I think) was referred to in this tweet: https://twitter.com/mikeboos/status/520691098533253120





(edit: shrank these images to preserve my bandwidth quota)

On a moderately related note, I found the two videos below long, but worthwhile. I will put the first video in this post and the other one in my next post, because the forum software will only let me embed one video per post.

[fakepnijjar]

I think there are a number of interesting/worrying things going on here:

- Aissa's campaign manager is doing a good job of molding him into a politician that can repeat the right soundbites. He is learning quickly (which will be my only condolence come Oct 28, I expect)
- Aissa has enough knowledge of the region to sound reasonable
- Aissa has no compunctions about making promises he clearly won't be able to keep, such as those about getting GO Transit in Cambridge as the "first thing" he's going to do
- Seiling understands the nuances of the situation and it makes him a much worse politician (although it probably makes him a better administrator)
- Greg Durocher is doing his usual thing of trying to appear fair, but he clearly prefers Aissa. This really surprised me, because I thought he and Ian McLean were criticizing Aissa (without calling him out by name) on an earlier episode of Business to Business on 570 News.

[neonjoe]

From looking at twitter and my home phone it looks like Jay did a blast of robocalls this afternoon.

[panamaniac]

Yeah, I got one. Something about me having a decision to make about LRT and taking a hit in the pocket book. I didn't listen to it all.

[goggolor]

Saw this on Twitter - Jay Aissa's lawyer is threatening people for stating opinions and making jokes: https://twitter.com/ScottPiatkowski/stat...20/photo/1

[ookpik]

Jay Aissa's lawyer is threatening people for stating opinions and making jokes

Rob Ford Lite™ strikes again. Mudslinging local politics stinks 

Moving on to the campaign of Jay Aissa, who is challenging Regional Chair Ken Seiling, some ugly things are happening.

A flyer that was delivered to some homes — complete with a photo of a man with duct tape on his mouth and the caption "Get Your Voice Back" — alleged that "Ken Seiling has "forced LRT on the Region."

No, he didn't. Light rail was approved in a 2011 vote of Waterloo regional council. Seiling is one voice of 16 on that council.

The flyer also alleges that under Seiling's watch the region's debt load rose to $548 million by the end of 2014.

Also untrue. Regional staff say that the debt will be $507 million by the end of 2014.

Today, homes across the Region — mine included — received anti-Seiling robocalls from the Aissa campaign.

The call said that voters have a choice to make on light rail transit.

"You can protect your money against increased debt that will raise your taxes by voting for Jay Aissa, or you can vote for Ken Seiling and watch your money fly right out the door," says the recorded message.

"The LRT is not a done deal, as Seiling would have you believe," it continues.

"You will have the last word on the future of the LRT. The only way to protect your money and our future is to vote for Jay Aissa."

It would take nine votes of Waterloo regional council to stop the light rail project. A survey by this newspaper has identified only six regional councillors who would vote to halt it. So it's a little sketchy to suggest that a vote for Aissa can stop light rail.

[fakepnijjar]

Saw this on Twitter - Jay Aissa's lawyer is threatening people for stating opinions and making jokes: https://twitter.com/ScottPiatkowski/stat...20/photo/1

Somebody could use a theme song.



(Am I being juvenile? Yeah, I guess I'm being juvenile. Such is the voice of despair.)

[ookpik]

I just got a robocall from Aissa's campaign that characterizes Seiling as a "wolf." A real class act from Rob Ford Lite™  

[DHLawrence]

They started leaving a message on our machine. Pressed the stop button and they went away!

[fakepnijjar]

I just got a robocall from Aissa's campaign that characterizes Seiling as a "wolf." A real class act from Rob Ford Lite™  

Not just a wolf. An "old wolf", which continues Aissa's narrative of Seiling being old and tired. I just hope I am as "tired" as Seiling if/when I am his age -- the guy is a ball of energy. I would imagine that old people might be upset by this characterization of older people, but apparently not. Nothing sticks to Aissa.

Also: poor John Wolf. I wonder whether Aissa's team even considered that Wolf was in the race before using this "old wolf" metaphor.

[Pheidippides]

Does anyone think that Cambridge being the only community to have electronic voting this year and also being the community seemingly most upset by lrt will influnce the regional chair vote by a significant degree?

This vote could be very close given that last time around Milligan got 20,000 votes to Seiling's 77,000 using very few resources.

The new video ads on Aissa's site, particularly the one with in the style of the artist's hand diagramming the narration are worse than the wolf radio ads I think.

[mpd618]

If you want to fight Aissa, Ken Seiling's campaign could use your help. You can find his page on Facebook, where there are a number of canvassing / flyer distribution events this weekend you can join.