76 replies to this topic

[yodsaker]

36% in OB! :-(
If people don't vote they can't complain.

[aastra]

Gotta love Victoria politics, everyone is fed up with the status quo so the voters return basically the same crowd who's done nothing about these big issues for the past few years...

I think it is telling that not one current community association board member won a seat and yet ca's claim to speak on behalf of their constituents. If that was true they should have been shoe-ins.

How can we come to any conclusions about what Victorians want based on a 27% turnout?

I'm starting to wonder if Victorians are actually fed up at all. If they are fed up, then how do we account for the fact that ~75% of them stayed home? Do ~75% of the voters really believe they can't make a difference?

[Icebergalley]

I have no words (for a change) except my thoughts turn to a quote by someone famous I cannot recall about "people deserving the gov they get".

And, I'm wearing my "I voted City of Victoria" upside down..

[Newlywednotnearlydead]

How can we come to any conclusions about what Victorians want based on a 27% turnout?

I'm starting to wonder if Victorians are actually fed up at all. If they are fed up, then how do we account for the fact that ~75% of them stayed home? Do ~75% of the voters really believe they can't make a difference?

It's a big issue. I think part of the problem is that nobody knows what municipal candidates stand for. I read every pamphlet that came to my door and it was all the same dribble about promoting affordable housing, working on sewage treatment, making our streets safer, blah blah blah. I don't think I read any materials that listed any specific action plan or strategies that people would take.

I also think our local media did a fairly poor job informing the public, although the municipal elections were extremely overshadowed by the Canadian and American federal elections. People here seemed to care more about Barack Obama than who the next mayor would be.

From all the conversations I have with people, I'm convinced that people aren't happy with the current municipal government. However, until we have some local leaders who can mobilize a credible number of voters, there won't be any change. I'd actually like to see some local parties, at least in Vancouver you can vote for a slate of candidates who you sympathize with.

[Lover Fighter]

Wow, Saanich turnout only rose 2%. Yikes!

[ted - 3 - dots]

thank you! Council members oversee or have responsibility for City departments, don't they?

Also city councillors are appointed to CRD water board and other appts?

Any guesses how that will shake out or is it too early for speculation?

------ aaaaahh , why wait , let's speculate -----------

I'll start ...!

Is it possible that Rose-Henry will get "appointed" to the Mayor's Task-force on homelessness ...? I mean she really know her stuff on topic ...! But, is it possible with her experience & connection's to the street , that the City will use her to lead the direction on the "homelessness" file ...?


ted... ( yes I know , it's not the kind of "Water-Board" conversation you were expecting )

but , putting all of the "pun's" a-side for a moment ,,,
I think that Rose-Henry is worthy of some kind of appointment...!


so can we put the "Water-Board" Suggestion to bed ...? (as far as Rose is concerned )


:{-

.

ok

[LJ]

So - Intergracious, have you checked out the Langford results?

Not exactly a throw the bums out election was it?

Hate to say I told ya so but..........

BLNT

[Coreyburger]

36% is up over 7 percent, or 1000 votes in absolute terms. Not bad, given there really isn't any one huge pressing issue driving people out to the polls.

[Bernard]

50 incumbent councilors ran in this election, 44 were re-elected.

10 incumbent mayors ran in this election, 7 were re-elected. Four of the six new mayors were sitting councilors during the last term.

In total 70 people that sat on council from 2005-2008 ran for council or mayor in this region this time. 55 of those people are back on council again as mayor of councilor, about 80% success rate. Keep in mind that in six mayoralty races there were two people who had sat in the same council competing for the top job.

The total of new people on council in this region is 36 - 34 councilors and 2 mayors.

[Ginger Snap]

Poll by poll results are now online, for candidates (or anyone else) who might wonder how well you did in any given area.

http://www.victoria....lts_pxp2008.pdf

[Bernard]

In looking at the poll by poll results, not a lot of candidates did dramatically better in any specific neighbourhoods - here are some notable exceptions

Chris Coleman polled well at Glenlyonn Norfolk house.
John Fraquharson did much better at Glenlyon and Sir James Douglas than elsewhere
Rose Henry has a bit of bump at George Jay
Wayne Hallon did well at Fairfield New Horizons and SJD
John Luton did badly at James Bay New Horizons
Rob Randall did well at Central Baptist
Tim Van Alstine did very well in James Bay, averaging over 6% in that area, the only loser to poll above 6% anywhere in the city
Peita VanDyke did her best at James Bay New Horizons but not as good as Tim Van Alstine. Their total votes were about equal but she beat him at every poll in the city but for those in James Bay.
Geoff Young did best at Glenlyon Norfolk house.

The poll by poll results also show us some stuff about voter turn out.

46% of the votes on election day were cast at two polls in James Bay and two in Fairfield. Those of you running in 2011 should note where people in this city vote and where not.

[Rob Randall]

I did best at Fairfield New Horizons. That station has some Fairfield/Downtown overlap.

----

It’s All Over Now

Posted By: Jason Youmans
11/19/2008 8:00 AM

A smattering of observations from Saturday’s municipal elections around the capital region

• Voter turnout in municipal elections never ceases to disappoint and the 2008 horse races were no exception. Saanich once again plumbed the depths with 21.01 percent of eligible voters casting a ballot. The lone bright spots, so to speak, were North Saanich with 52.1 percent and the Highlands with a characteristically high turnout of 72.1 percent of eligible voters going to the polls.

• Voters in Victoria promoted two-term city councillor Dean Fortin to the top spot, besting local entrepreneur Rob Reid by 600 votes. It was obvious from the outset Fortin’s campaign was going to be a juggernaut, but the mayor-elect did not return Monday’s calls by press time to respond to rumours that NDP party faithful were imported from Vancouver to help get the vote out.

• In trying to distance himself from the notion he was a two-term member of a do-little council, new mayor-elect Dean Fortin told Monday in a pre-election interview that too often he found himself on the losing end of 6-3 votes, with councillors Sonya Chandler and Pam Madoff rounding out the defeated side.

So what do the folks on the other side of that perceived split think now that they could find themselves in the minority on crucial votes?

“Well, I didn’t see quite the frequency of that particular division that Dean was referring to,” returning councillor Geoff Young told Monday. Young is widely viewed as a fiscal conservative around the table, encouraging other members to consider the implications of their policy decisions.

“Certainly I would say it is true that Dean clearly has a team now, and he would certainly expect to be able to get adopted any plans that he might have, and I would say that it will certainly be the case that if he wants to do something, he can pretty much do it,” he says.

So how does Young see his role on what Fortin’s supporters are referring to as a “progressive majority”?

“If I have a message, or will be having a message, it is, ‘Let’s look at the longer-term impact of some of the things that we’ll be doing,’” says Young.

• A Fortin camp press release Monday received just prior to the election read in part, “[. . .] endorsed Victoria city council candidates Lynn Hunter, Pam Madoff, Philippe Lucas, Sonya Chandler and John Luton, all of whom are running in association with Dean Fortin.”

Monday couldn’t help but wonder what “running in association” meant, especially considering Chandler and Lucas were ostensibly carrying the Green Party banner, while the Dean Team was very much an NDP-backed project.

“Our campaign meetings were often four people,” Lucas told Monday. “I’d love to state that we have a big political machine of seasoned political activists behind us, but that’s just not the case. What we have are some really caring friends and, in many cases, family that helped us out with the campaign, and Sonya and I ran as independently as anyone else that did or did not have a party associated with them.”

Lucas says he and Chandler received no financial backing from the Fortin camp and added the Victoria Greens did not draw any financial support from the provincial or federal levels of their party, with the exception of paying half the cost of their Fort Street campaign headquarters, which they split with the party’s provincial wing.

Asked why the local Greens chose to back Fortin’s mayoralty bid over their fellow party member and mayoral contender Steve Filipovic, Lucas had this to say:

“I find it presumptuous to jump from having zero political experience to the mayor’s chair, whether that’s Steve, or coming from Rob Reid, or coming from other past candidates who tried to make that jump.”

• At least one local voter saw the choice of the Burnside Gorge Community Centre as a municipal polling station a conflict of interest that may have served to benefit Dean Fortin’s campaign.

Monday obtained a copy of e-mail correspondence between citizen Norman Clark and the City’s director of legislative and regulatory services, Rob Woodland, in which Clark contends that allowing the BGCC to serve as a voting place constituted an unfair advantage to Fortin, the longtime executive director of the centre.

“Mr. Fortin has been a fixture in the community for some 20-plus years and was the driving force in creating the building in question. All that is to his credit,” wrote Clark on October 31. “However, the strong established linkage between Mr. Fortin and the BGCC constituents is an influence on local voters entering the premises. The influence is obvious. The use of BGCC as a polling station is unacceptable if the 2008 election is to be fair.”

Clark went on to point out that the city would never have let Rob Reid’s Frontrunners shoe store serve as a polling station, so to allow Fortin’s workplace to serve the purpose was wrong.

Woodland responded, “We are faced with dilemmas in many facilities we choose for voting places. We host voting places in schools while conducting elections for the School Trustees. We hold advance polls at City Hall while conducting elections for mayor and councillor. Likewise, churches and fraternal organizations have candidates who are members. It would be very difficult to eliminate all perceptions of conflict from a voting place given that mayor, councillor and school trustee candidates are all active community members.”

Woodland went on to say that the city would remove any reference to Fortin from the BGCC before the election.

Fortin was quick to declare a conflict when City Hall discussed a planned emergency homeless shelter for the Burnside Gorge neighbourhood, but nary a peep was heard from him on the appropriateness of using the BGCC as a polling station.

• The winds of change failed to blow through Langford on Saturday, as mayor Stew Young, who won another term in office by acclamation, had his wishes fulfilled as his entire slate of yes-councillors were returned to the table, with Roger Wade replacing retiring councillor John Goudy. .

Steven Hurdle, who helped galvanize a slate of candidates to run against the incumbents called the Langford Team, came closest to achieving office, at 400 votes behind the lowest-polling incumbent Matt Sahlstrom.

Hurdle, who was the catalyst for the Inside Langford website that chronicles the strange decision-making that goes on in Langford City Hall, says he will continue to monitor the actions of the city’s policy makers.

“I started going to city council meetings out of personal interest and that personal interest remains as strong as ever,” says Hurdle. “It wasn’t something that I did for any reason other than that I wanted to be there.” M

[mat]

The poll by poll results also show us some stuff about voter turn out.

46% of the votes on election day were cast at two polls in James Bay and two in Fairfield. Those of you running in 2011 should note where people in this city vote and where not.

Well done Bernard for pointing that out.

[Phil McAvity]

Anyone else really disapppointed by the left-turn City Council has taken?

[ted - 3 - dots]

Anyone else really disapppointed by the left-turn City Council has taken?

---- What "Left-Turn"...? -------

Today , the city's case against the tent-city that was erected on centenial-square
was toosed OUT OF COURT ...!

ie: The new "red-neck" 7-9 am ~ bylaw , is not enforceable under law ...!!!!!!!!!

-- Simply , how is suing homeless people , for being homeless , a left-turn ...????????

( when it's a "righteous" right-wind poor-bashing type thing to do ...! )



--------- The Province ...? (you say ) ---------

We had a 1-billion dollar surplus ( last week )

Today Colin-Hanson announced the surplus is only 50-million bucks ...!

( how is that a "left-turn"...? )

please explain

ted...

[Phil McAvity]

I guess I am alone is this way which obviously explains how they got elected.

[Caramia]

I worry when either an extreme left or extreme right council gets in. There are some people there I supported but I would have preferred they be balanced by a diversity of voices. But I am willing to see what this council is able to do before I judge. Ask me again in the summer and I will have a lot of opinions...