Jump to content

      



























Photo

Ben Isitt | Victoria | Councillor (incumbent)

Victoria

  • Please log in to reply
184 replies to this topic

#21 John M.

John M.

    John M.

  • Member
  • 414 posts

Posted 04 September 2014 - 03:14 PM

He broke the news of how disgraced City Manager Gail Stephens intercepted a consultant's draft report on organizing City Hall and secretly rewrote it for Council. Even if your politics are to the right of Genghis Khan you have to give him credit for that. In fact, right wingers, libertarians and other government haters should thank him for uncovering that sleazy backroom government antic.

Its not that I don't think he has never done anything good while in office. I wouldn't vote for him because I never agree with what he says when I see him on TV, I disagree with his vote record on civic issues while he has been in office, and I know that he is an active member of a party I oppose and seems intent on making city council just as partisan as his own vitirol. 


  • Nparker likes this

#22 Mike K.

Mike K.
  • Administrator
  • 83,184 posts

Posted 04 September 2014 - 03:35 PM

He's all partisan, 100%. That stuff has no place in municipal politics yet he can't shake it.

I just don't understand how someone like Shellie Gudgeon fell for his way of doing things. It's like they were attached at the hip with the Point Hope Shipyards issue and speed limits.

Know it all.
Citified.ca is Victoria's most comprehensive research resource for new-build homes and commercial spaces.


#23 SamCB

SamCB
  • Member
  • 665 posts
  • Locationvictoria

Posted 04 September 2014 - 06:57 PM

I don't think he'll be content to sit as a councillor after this next term. I think he'll run for mayor next time around, and then move into provincial politics. This guy thinks too highly of himself to sit at this tier much longer. And he does have a devoted fanbase of socialists from his time at uvic and on council.
  • Mike K. and Mixed365 like this

#24 mysage

mysage
  • Member
  • 515 posts

Posted 04 September 2014 - 07:40 PM

I don't think he'll be content to sit as a councillor after this next term. I think he'll run for mayor next time around, and then move into provincial politics. This guy thinks too highly of himself to sit at this tier much longer. And he does have a devoted fanbase of socialists from his time at uvic and on council.

Sheeple!



#25 jonny

jonny
  • Member
  • 9,211 posts

Posted 05 September 2014 - 07:38 AM

I don't like extremists, and that counts for politicians too. I just think they're too impractical and base too many decisions on deep rooted ideologies rather than common sense.


  • Nparker, AllseeingEye and AndrewReeve like this

#26 spanky123

spanky123
  • Member
  • 20,976 posts

Posted 05 September 2014 - 07:45 AM

I don't think he'll be content to sit as a councillor after this next term. I think he'll run for mayor next time around, and then move into provincial politics. This guy thinks too highly of himself to sit at this tier much longer. And he does have a devoted fanbase of socialists from his time at uvic and on council.

 

There are a lot of people who live in Victoria who do not want any change, especially as the population ages and we continue to have more and more people retiring downtown. Many retirees come here for peace and quiet and don't want development, congestion and noise.

 

I think a lot of these people vote for Ben and his friends because they don't get anything done, not because they are symbols of a democratic movement them want to support. I think that if Ben plans to raise his sights he should keep that in mind.



#27 AllseeingEye

AllseeingEye

    AllSeeingEye

  • Member
  • 6,543 posts

Posted 05 September 2014 - 08:01 AM

I don't like extremists, and that counts for politicians too. I just think they're too impractical and base too many decisions on deep rooted ideologies rather than common sense.

Exactly, a position that applies here and could even be extended to the BCTF-Government discussion. The sooner both left and right figure out that the vast vast majority of BC residents are neither aspiring "Red Guards" with a burning desire to foment a global workers revolution - who ***** cares? Communism as a force is spent and deader than Mao - any more than we are proto-typical US Republican party-style neo-conservatives dedicated to the burning notion of "profit motive" above and to the exclusion of all else in life, the better off we will all be IMO. The individual or party that eventually figures this out and carves out a niche comfortably in the middle of the spectrum, would be unbeatable.



#28 spanky123

spanky123
  • Member
  • 20,976 posts

Posted 05 September 2014 - 12:39 PM

Exactly, a position that applies here and could even be extended to the BCTF-Government discussion. The sooner both left and right figure out that the vast vast majority of BC residents are neither aspiring "Red Guards" with a burning desire to foment a global workers revolution - who ***** cares? Communism as a force is spent and deader than Mao - any more than we are proto-typical US Republican party-style neo-conservatives dedicated to the burning notion of "profit motive" above and to the exclusion of all else in life, the better off we will all be IMO. The individual or party that eventually figures this out and carves out a niche comfortably in the middle of the spectrum, would be unbeatable.

 

And that is why you have the media polarizing people. The middle is shrinking as more and more people identify with and move to the extremes.



#29 John M.

John M.

    John M.

  • Member
  • 414 posts

Posted 05 September 2014 - 04:57 PM

And that is why you have the media polarizing people. The middle is shrinking as more and more people identify with and move to the extremes.

Respectfully disagree. Rather then people drifting to the extremes in a linear fashion, it seems to me like humanity goes through stages where they are more extremist then others (1900 to 1945 being the latest example). Right now, at least in Canada, it seems like policies from the "mushy middle" rather then far-left or far-right fringes are most attractive to the general population (although that is certainly not the case in Europe, as we have seen with their most recent EU parliament elections)



#30 E-P-G

E-P-G
  • Member
  • 16 posts

Posted 13 September 2014 - 01:47 PM

I don't think he'll be content to sit as a councillor after this next term. I think he'll run for mayor next time around, and then move into provincial politics. This guy thinks too highly of himself to sit at this tier much longer. And he does have a devoted fanbase of socialists from his time at uvic and on council.

 

Heck, he almost wasn't content to sit as a councillor for _this_ term, putting his name forward for the federal NDP nomination that Murray Rankin won not even a year into his term. I think he even acknowledged that people didn't vote for him because he'd finally already been elected to a job he hadn't really started doing yet.

(Huh. Never thought I'd think of disparate people like Ben Isitt and Sarah Palin in a similar manner, but anyway).

Hey, that's a question - if I wanted to see incumbants voting records, did they ever put together that "summary" method or webpage (as opposed to pouring over every council minutes)?



#31 AndrewReeve

AndrewReeve
  • Member
  • 91 posts
  • LocationVictoria

Posted 13 September 2014 - 02:20 PM

Hey, that's a question - if I wanted to see incumbants voting records, did they ever put together that "summary" method or webpage (as opposed to pouring over every council minutes)?

I seem to recall that OpenVictoria was working on a voting record "report card" of sorts for all the incumbents. If they're still going ahead with that I would assume it'll be released closer to the election.


Andrew J. Reeve
andrewjreeve.ca | @andrewjreeve 


#32 John M.

John M.

    John M.

  • Member
  • 414 posts

Posted 13 September 2014 - 03:16 PM

Heck, he almost wasn't content to sit as a councillor for _this_ term, putting his name forward for the federal NDP nomination that Murray Rankin won not even a year into his term. 

I can't even begin to describe how much I wish Ben Isitt would have won that nomination. Picture this: Ben Isitt resigns from council to contest the by-election, gets creamed by Galloway, and now Victoria is rid of both Isitt on council and federal representation by the NDP. 


  • Mixed365 likes this

#33 Mixed365

Mixed365
  • Member
  • 1,042 posts

Posted 15 September 2014 - 08:29 PM

It is embarrassing how against development and density Ben Isitt is. For quick proof look at the council document regarding the Duet. He said it himself that he cant support "any additional height" and that the vertical wall "lacks creativity". 

How does somebody so "sustainable" disregard density so easily. 

Ugh.  :whyme:


“To understand cities, we have to deal outright with combinations or mixtures of uses, not separate uses, as the essential phenomena.”
- Jane Jacobs 


#34 mysage

mysage
  • Member
  • 515 posts

Posted 15 September 2014 - 08:54 PM

I can't even begin to describe how much I wish Ben Isitt would have won that nomination. Picture this: Ben Isitt resigns from council to contest the by-election, gets creamed by Galloway, and now Victoria is rid of both Isitt on council and federal representation by the NDP. 

We have a winner!!! Good call!!



#35 Mixed365

Mixed365
  • Member
  • 1,042 posts

Posted 15 September 2014 - 09:00 PM

We have a winner!!! Good call!!

A great call indeed. 


“To understand cities, we have to deal outright with combinations or mixtures of uses, not separate uses, as the essential phenomena.”
- Jane Jacobs 


#36 Mike K.

Mike K.
  • Administrator
  • 83,184 posts

Posted 15 September 2014 - 09:03 PM

This has been an issue of contention from years back. Ben Isitt, the environmentalist, socially-minded politician, never had anything good to say about high density development proposals. His idea of high density is social housing a la commie blocks Russia and eastern bloc countries are famous for.


  • Mixed365 likes this

Know it all.
Citified.ca is Victoria's most comprehensive research resource for new-build homes and commercial spaces.


#37 AllseeingEye

AllseeingEye

    AllSeeingEye

  • Member
  • 6,543 posts

Posted 15 September 2014 - 09:14 PM

This has been an issue of contention from years back. Ben Isitt, the environmentalist, socially-minded politician, never had anything good to say about high density development proposals. His idea of high density is social housing a la commie blocks Russia and eastern bloc countries are famous for.

Yep some of the absolute worst examples of 20th century architecture: post 1945 Moscow was a poster child for hideous, sterile, and antiseptic cookie cutter high rise development. Those awful edifices represent some of the most unabashedly ugly structures built by any society in the last century. That all said has Isitt ever stated, publicly, what his actual position is on higher, denser development? I can only imagine but would like a link to a direct quote if possible.



#38 Mike K.

Mike K.
  • Administrator
  • 83,184 posts

Posted 15 September 2014 - 09:19 PM

He doesn't like suburbs, that much is clear.


Know it all.
Citified.ca is Victoria's most comprehensive research resource for new-build homes and commercial spaces.


#39 Holden West

Holden West

    Va va voom!

  • Member
  • 9,058 posts

Posted 16 September 2014 - 06:19 AM

. His idea of high density is social housing a la commie blocks Russia and eastern bloc countries are famous for.

 Say what? Says who?


"Beaver, ahoy!""The bridge is like a magnet, attracting both pedestrians and over 30,000 vehicles daily who enjoy the views of Victoria's harbour. The skyline may change, but "Big Blue" as some call it, will always be there."
-City of Victoria website, 2009

#40 rjag

rjag
  • Member
  • 6,363 posts
  • LocationSi vis pacem para bellum

Posted 16 September 2014 - 07:50 AM

Is there someone on this forum that voted for Ben Isitt? Or will vote for Isitt? Please step forward so I can understand. Surely to God someone on here voted for him?

 

Perhaps Mr Isitt himself who I'm sure reads all these posts could counter the comments noted above?


  • John M. likes this

You're not quite at the end of this discussion topic!

Use the page links at the lower-left to go to the next page to read additional posts.
 



0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users