Just hype?

"I never had an opponent." On October 27, 2009 Darren Hill sent out a letter saying his opponent was running a smear campaign on him based on his "family life." He stated that many of his lawn signs had been defaced and that he received threatening calls as a result of his lifestyle. He seems to believe that his opponent, that he claims is supported by both Trost and Vellacott were behind it. He suggests they should google these two MPs and verify their positions on GLBT. He stated they have an army of finances and volunteers behind my opponent he needs help to fight this. And lastly he states "I am asking for you to stand up and show them that when it comes to our city - they do not have the control here! WE DO!"

I don't don't know who the collective "we" is.

The letter was then circulated by Peter Garden of Turning the Tide Bookstore, who was the political activist who organized the protest march during Bush's visit to Saskatoon.

Interesting enough, about a week prior to the election, someone was stating in the north end of the ward that Carol Reynolds was gay in an attempt to solicit the christian vote. And her signs were destroyed or went missing as well.

Interesting enough, the press are usually quick to hop on a "hate" issue during a campaign. Nothing seems to have been reported to the police or news.

Interesting enough, Ward 1 is, in my opinion, one of the enlightened wards in the city as evidenced by their election of Lenore in 2000, and Darren in 2006 and have not let sexual preference issues turn their vote.

Offensive is stating that two MPs elected by some of the same voters that he is courting should surrender "control" (whatever that means) to him and his supporters.

This whole thing is bizarre. And while defending an act of intolerance against one party these same people exhibit intolerance of others and their beliefs.

And finally Mr. Hill did have an opponent and I think the hype was his.

Perhaps Ward 1 has safe water issues too.

What's new?

Lots of good news. We have an old council but a new direction. Six incumbents promised not to increase taxes beyond the rate of inflation. We will hold Hill, Neault, Heidt, Wyant, Penner and Dubois to that promise! I guess the follow up question should have been "What about infrastructure levies?"

The party machines did not succeed, but should be brought out of the closet anyway. A good day for independents.

There are lessons to be learned from this election. Mr. Hill's arrogant comment ". . . I never had an opponent" "It was a lot of hype" makes me question his tactics and comments about his opponent during the campaign if he believed that to be true. What a classy guy. Lesson for Carol Reynolds - Queensbury Rules do not apply when your in a street fight.

Pat Lorje seems to have gotten the message. "This is a wake-up call" "The fact that so many votes were cast against the major - especially in this time of economic buoyancy - says people don't want (council) to do the same old things the same old way." Do we hear the beginnings of the 2012 mayoralty campaign?

Apparently Atch did not receive the same wake-up call. He said "The people of Saskatoon believe we are going in the right direction, that the city is doing fine the way it is."

Nor did Gord Wyant's alarm go off:"There's a lot of people in the city comfortable with the direction of city council." Gord, remember your promise - no tax increase beyond the rate of inflation.

Bad news. I lost $20.00.

The task ahead, hold them to their promises.

Congratulations to the successors and special thanks for those who tried. Your efforts are appreciated.

E-Day

Please get out to vote and encourage others to do so.

Thank you to each and every candidate for offering to serve the public.

We'll being doing a recap tomorrow.

The Future - To be or not to be

This election period has brought to attention the fact that, unlike federal or provincial governments, civic government has no real opposition or opposition critics. I intend to use this site for that purpose. I hope you will join me and share your thoughts as the upcoming term unfolds.

The Crystal Ball

We are on the eve of election day and I am curious as to how you think this election will end. So I would like to hear both your predilections and predictions. If the Atch prevails will he take to the office in the next term the concerns expressed by taxpayers regarding city debt? Or will it be same old, same old. If not him, will incumbents being returned come out of dreamland and take election feedback before raising their hands to support mega spending? Your thoughts please.

Holy Bejezus

I was almost speechless when I read about the City finances in today's SP. A 275% increase in debt over three years! On the horizon is a 300 million dollar bridge, 30+ million more for a destination centre on River Landing, the continuance of the 25th Street project ($ unknown), moving the bus barns ($ unknown), 3rd Avenue rejuvenation ($ unknown), the library 50 million, police station 100+ million, transit mall 7 million and only the incumbents know what else is pending. Add to that the ever-increasing infrastructure charges that come on utility bills. Operating costs will increase to maintain these facilities and, unlike debt that can be paid off, operating costs are eternal and growing.

Meanwhile we will in all likelihood get a per bag charge on garbage, core areas will remain concerned about lead leeching into drinking water, streets and boulevards will continue to decay and day-to-day services will take a backseat to mega projects.

The fact that five incumbents refused to answer the question on future tax increases was in fact an answer. Three of the incumbents are already seated and at least two look good for re-election. Add to that the one challenger in Ward 4 (Sean Shaw), who also refused to answer, means, if he is elected, the majority vote for increases is established.

Recently I had a councillor say to me that Standard & Poors gave the city a good credit rating. Yeah, but Standard & Poors also gave Lehman Bros a good rating before its collapse.

As much I enjoy some of the development I think its time to start pacing the spending. We are going to be taxed out of this city. Further spending on River Landing should be suspended until such time as there is tax revenue from the site to pay for whatever else might be wanted. Instead of 55 million for a new art gallery go back to the one million dollar development plan we already paid for and do the expansion at less than half the cost.

While I'm ranting as much as I appreciate city employees, especially firefighters, an 18% contract increase is not acceptable during a recession.

And I hate acclamations because I can't vent my opposition to what is happening with a vote.

If I had a nickel . .

for every time I heard Children are our most important/best resource, Children are our future, A well-educated youth is essential for our society, or Do it for the kids I could live my fantasy life in a penthouse in Upper East Side Manhattan, including limo service, box seats at the theatre, opera, lazy days at the Met and MOMA, dinner at Elaines, martinis at the Algonquin . . and still have spare change.

Today the SP beat me on comments regarding the lack of interest in the school board candidates. 35,000+ students in this city can be affected by the people sitting at the board tables making decisions on policy and programs. They negotiate employee contracts. They decide on school closures, repairs and new construction. Board members still have the responsibility of appropriately spending three to four hundred million dollars. Previously these board members could simply increase the mill rate for what might be considered necessary spending. This term some hard decisions may have to be made as they attempt to live within a budget. Those decisions could be critical to the education delivered to thousands of students.

Last week on the John Gormley Show municipal candidates were invited to call in and share - except for school board candidates. The insert in Saturday's Star Phoenix did not include school board candidates - they were relegated to Monday's paper. Sadly many voters have come to rely on the SP insert to review all candidates prior to election and keep the insert for study prior to election day. Some of the same voters may only take the papers on weekends. And not everyone owns a computer to access the city's website.

No one seems much interested to whom we entrust our children for their care. Pretty sad that this valuable resource is treated so lackadaisically.