Waterloo Region District School Board

[jgsz]

We don't have children so the School Board elections were never that important to us.  But this year I want to vote for candidates who oppose Doug Ford's regressive education policies.  I can vote for four candidates (public school) but I only found three candidates I would vote for.  

I'm considering voting for:


Samantha Estoesta

David Kuhn

Laurie Tremble

???

Any suggestions on who is progressive on education issues?

[tomh009]

The other topic is French immersion. The concern is the early division of students into standard and French immersion, with the latter being more likely to be high performers. Some trustees want to drop French immersion altogether, but Samantha Estoesta's approach is more thoughtful (French immersion does have value in our country) so she got my vote.

[jgsz]

The other topic is French immersion. The concern is the early division of students into standard and French immersion, with the latter being more likely to be high performers. Some trustees want to drop French immersion altogether, but Samantha Estoesta's approach is more thoughtful (French immersion does have value in our country) so she got my vote.

Too bad there wasn’t French immersion when I was in school.  It would have been my third language but many young people learn languages easily.

[plam]

The other topic is French immersion. The concern is the early division of students into standard and French immersion, with the latter being more likely to be high performers. Some trustees want to drop French immersion altogether, but Samantha Estoesta's approach is more thoughtful (French immersion does have value in our country) so she got my vote.

Too bad there wasn’t French immersion when I was in school.  It would have been my third language but many young people learn languages easily.

I grew up in Montreal and French is in fact my third language (I'm fluent), but I didn't really learn it in school despite attending what was called a "bilingual program," which was one step beyond immersion: we took the same high school provincial exams as those in French schools and some courses with supposedly the same standards as in French schools (French, geography, history...) The thing is that kids speak to their peers in English and that's where most language learning happens.

Having said that, I do think there's value in having immersion. We should at least pay lip service to the other official language. Actual fluency stats for French in Ontario are pretty poor and I don't see that changing, but I appreciate the effort. It feels like the francophone population in many other parts of Canada is higher (the Yukon in particular, about 20% francophone).

[robdrimmie]

We don't have children so the School Board elections were never that important to us.  But this year I want to vote for candidates who oppose Doug Ford's regressive education policies.  I can vote for four candidates (public school) but I only found three candidates I would vote for.  

I'm considering voting for:


Samantha Estoesta

David Kuhn

Laurie Tremble

???

Any suggestions on who is progressive on education issues?

I have Natalie Wadell on my list to vote for (along with Estoesta and Tremble), I think she has a good track record.

I have Rehman-Ullah Khan on my "good vibes" section (along with Kuhn). I haven't yet decided on my fourth, but it will likely be either Kuhn or Khan.

[JoeKW]

I think I'm politically aligned with you guys... any reason you're not considering brandon van dam? I put him on my list after my first pass through the candidates last night.

[robdrimmie]

I think I'm politically aligned with you guys... any reason you're not considering brandon van dam? I put him on my list after my first pass through the candidates last night.

Uncharitably, I just keep forgetting about him. His positions are in line with what I'm interested in seeing, and I think having a young and enthusiastic trustee would probably be a good thing. I think he'd do a fine job and I won't be disappointed if he is elected, he just isn't sticking for me for some reason.

[DavidK]

Hey WR Connected!


I would have posted on here sooner but my old account wouldn't let me log on after I reset the password a month or so ago or just now. But I gave up and made a new account.


Thanks for your consideration, jgsz. Hopefully I can earn your vote on Monday! You too, robdrimmie!


Also, a big thank you to WRC members, Spokes, and the initiative to get people involved, engaged and voting this election. 

Obviously as a candidate I'm running to win. Change is needed within the public board. Not just new faces (we're guaranteed at least one in Kitchener, Cambridge and Woolwich respectively), but new perspectives and a different way of approaching the role.  

Beyond my candidacy, I really hope people vote! 30% (or less) voter turnout is terrible (it's below that for the WRDSB Trustee election) and I think the more we can do to get people informed, excited about and voting in our local elections is awesome.
 
--

David Kuhn

[Xiaoming]

We don't have children so the School Board elections were never that important to us.  But this year I want to vote for candidates who oppose Doug Ford's regressive education policies.  I can vote for four candidates (public school) but I only found three candidates I would vote for.  

I'm considering voting for:


Samantha Estoesta

David Kuhn

Laurie Tremble

???

Any suggestions on who is progressive on education issues?

[jgsz]

We don't have children so the School Board elections were never that important to us.  But this year I want to vote for candidates who oppose Doug Ford's regressive education policies.  I can vote for four candidates (public school) but I only found three candidates I would vote for.  

I'm considering voting for:


Samantha Estoesta

David Kuhn

Laurie Tremble

???

Any suggestions on who is progressive on education issues?

I did  NOT include your name on my list.  It is deceitful to suggest that I did.  But it doesn’t matter since I voted this morning and I didn’t vote for you.

[Spokes]

For the record, I changed the quotes to reflect the ACTUAL post jgsz made. And let me be clear, changing someone's words like this to misrepresent them and what they actually said is completely unacceptable.

[Rainrider22]

For the record, I changed the quotes to reflect the ACTUAL post jgsz made.  And let me be clear, changing someone's words like this to misrepresent them and what they actually said is completely unacceptable.

Sorry,  what did I miss here ?????

[jamincan]

He quoted jgsz's post, but then added his name into the list of people jgsz was planning on voting for.

[ijmorlan]

He quoted jgsz's post, but then added his name into the list of people jgsz was planning on voting for.

If proven, the appropriate penalty for this offense should be disqualification from this election, and a ban on running for any elected office in the country for a period of not less than 5 years. That is flagrant dishonesty of the sort that indisputably indicates the person is unfit for office.

[Drake]

He quoted jgsz's post, but then added his name into the list of people jgsz was planning on voting for.

If proven, the appropriate penalty for this offense should be disqualification from this election, and a ban on running for any elected office in the country for a period of not less than 5 years. That is flagrant dishonesty of the sort that indisputably indicates the person is unfit for office.

I understood the quoted (and edited) reply of X to an attempt at humour. It was obvious the quoted text and original text didn’t match.