HRM Municipal Election 2012
 

There are only about 9 months before the next HRM Municipal election. It will be interesting since the number of districts is being reduced from 23 to 16. Here are links of the new (draft) district map versus the old district maps.

Any predictions of which Councillors will be facing off? For example, for the new district 9 there is an overlap of Jennifer Watts current district 14 and Linda Mosher's current district 17. Linda Mosher seems to be more pro-development than Jennifer Watts (is this a correct assessment?) Based on halifax.ca votes, Linda Mosher voted for the Trillium and The Alexander. Opinions?

Councillor Sloane could possibly move to the new district 8, which includes part of her current district 12 and also Councillor Blumenthal's District 11. There have been rumours that Councillor Blumenthal plans to retire. Or Councillor Sloane could face off against Councillor Uteck in the new District 7.

I have a question - if Councillor Uteck decides to run for Mayor then would she also be eligible to run as the new District 7 Councillor?

I have had a chance to meet a few of the Councillors and correspond by email. I have a different view with regard to some opinions on this forum. For example, I have found Councillor Sloane to be fairly pro-development although she seems to be against tall buildings. She also seems to find time to correspond not only to people in her own district but also to ex-residents such as myself. She has also been pro-stadium.

I favour pro-development Councillors since I think the HRM needs to encourage progress and job development.

Jennifer Watts isn't the most pro-development councillor, but she is very progressive. She listens to her constituents, is respectable at council meetings and is quite intelligent. A personal favourite.

Don't get me started on Sloane. She is first on the hit list of councilors who must go.

Watts is intelligent but takes a lot of very dumb positions. She is against all development and is an enviro-loon. "Progressive"? That is a word gaining favor these days, but it all just means lefty to me. Odds are she will get re-elected since that is the area that keeps voting for Epstein and she is his puppet, but that doesn't mean she is a member that should be returned to council.

Fred Connors of FRED announces his intent for a run for mayor.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/metro/5...-mayor-halifax

My first impression when I read this last night was "well, Kelly just got re-elected." I think Fred will get a decent amount of votes, but unfortunatley, I bet the number of strong Kelly atlernatives will split the non-Kelly votes and Peter will scrape by. I think he's lost some of his regulars, but because Connors and Savage will probably have a stong campaign they will get a decent percentage each, but not enough to knock Peter off the chair. Too bad the competition can't hold some pre-election election, where only one wins and gets to run as Kelly's challenger.

That's what I thought too.

The runoff system could be built into the process (i.e. you rank multiple candidates and if your top pick gets eliminated, your lower picks are used), but I doubt that will change anytime soon.

Fred is a fringe candidate at best. He may get some of the hipster vote but aside from the chicken lobby he cannot be considered as a serious candidate by most people.

I don't think he will do much off the peninsula, but where he seems to be "Halifamous", he might be getting people to vote who wouldn't normally.

Yep. Municipal elections can be funny beasts. With turnout of only 36% last time, there is lots of room for new candidates to enter the race. If they can attract voters who didn't participate last time, having more than one won't necessarily hand things to Kelly.

Keith, why isn't Fred a "serious" candidate? He's a successful enterpreneur, a community activist and from the accounts I have heard, a thoughtful man. What would be your criteria for a serious candidate?

I don't think there's much point in sending letters to Gloria McCluskey. If you want to have an impact, send the letters to the media, post stuff on facebook, etc., and instead of focusing on McCluskey talk about why this was so bad and why it is in everybody's best interest to have more infill in areas like this.

Like I said before, I was under the impression that McCluskey won't be running in 2012, but I may be incorrect. I think a couple of other bad councillors will also be gone. However, there's no guarantee that they won't be replaced with new councillors who are also terrible. Jennifer Watts was new in 2008 and didn't she just try to pull a "Gloria" on that 8 storey proposal on Quinpool...?

I believe that Blumenthal has said he is retiring. Bob Harvey possibly as well, which is too bad because he is on the right side of most things.

Watts and Barkhouse are the two NDP puppets on council. Both are intelligent people but their priorities are very skewed and they are anti-development. Jim Smith is an absolute moron and tends to be on the wrong side of many things and should go too.

Of the rest, Sloane and McCluskey obviously need to go. Mary Wile is an embarrassment and needs to be replaced. Reg Rankin seems to be suffering health woes and may not re-offer I suspect. Peter Lund is another weak councilor. Debbie Hum is erratic and sometimes takes odd positions.

That's 11 people out of a new council of 16 who should be replaced.

We'll see what happens but I don't really expect Sloane to be re-elected given the redrawn boundaries. I think the new South End/Downtown district 7 is far more likely to go to Sue Uteck, which would be an improvement. Maybe we will finally have a downtown councillor with an appreciation for the area as a business district. Sloane seems to treat it as a kind of outgrowth of her own Gottingen neighbourhood. I doubt that voters living in condos along Spring Garden or whatever are thrilled with her. She almost lost in 2008 and had only 1144 votes.

The new District 8 is only maybe 1/3 Sloane's old constituents. If Patrick Murphy were to re-offer he'd probably have a better chance to win. I don't remember a ton about him from 2004-2008, but the fact that he hasn't done anything horrible enough to be memorable places him in front of many other councillors.

I think it's pretty likely that the new council will be an improvement over the old one. The only big risk I see is more Watts/Barkhouse-style candidates -- so the equivalent of a Bev Miller getting one of the districts that's up for grabs. Not a pleasant thought!

Good stuff, KeithP and someone123. Excellent assessments on the quality of the councillors. Though pretty discouraging to think 11 of 16 must go. But we're making progress on the "HRM Pro-development Campaign 2012."

Do you think we should start a new thread? (I don't want to distract any further from the Prince Albert Rd. issue - I'm sure there's lots more to be said on that one and this is a broader topic ... and exploratory at best thus far.) I'm new to the forum - please advise.

I hope I didn't offend you with my comments. I now understand your point.

On the wind study, my understanding is that it is normally released before a scheduled hearing along w other reports. Since a hearing was never scheduled, it may never be released (unless they go to appeal). Given that staff recommended the project (and they should know what they're doing), you should simply refer to the premise of a "positive staff" report and not worry about the details (i.e., that's what HRM staff is for and that's what the councillors are supposed to rely on as well).

On writing a letter, the more it comes from you the better it will read. Suggest you send to all the councillors and copy Mayor Kelly.

cheers ...

Heard rumours that Karsten may be re-comsiderring his options, probably due to re-organization of the districts - That would be a pity. Karsten's district has been consolidated with Barkhouse's. People need to get behind this and let Karsten and other good leaders know that there is support. Given that it only takes in the 1,000 to 2,000 range of people to get elected (20% voting) it would not take much to get the people in a state of Glori-apathy out to vote ... if they have a cause and if one person tells the other.

Social media is changing a lot of things - did you guys hear about wikipedia and other sites shutting down SOPA last week ...

So Facebook, twitter, google and many other forums can be leveraged to effectively get people talking, get them excited and get them voting. It's hard to contest common sense and reason in the face of stupidity so it's just a matter of getting them interested. Easy - Right !

There is a "HRM Municipal Election 2012" thread in the Business Politics and the Economy section. Maybe the mods could move some of these posts over there?

Just picking up the conversation about the Dartmouth Development proposal that got shot down and some 'call to action' - is it me, or is this whole issue with McClusky becoming a really big thing? I'm not saying that's bad - but it's not going away, it's staying in the media and it seems she's getting hit by email and phone calls about all this?

I think Keith's analysis of council is pretty accurate, however I'm not sure what's going to happen with Watts/Sloane. I suspect it will be a mutual cancellation of votes - because wouldn't they end up running for the same 'seat'? If so, I suspect Sloane's supporters won't like Watts and vise versa.

Councillor Blumenthal did announce he was retiring and it is a shame about Councillor Rankin's health, although I don't know how much of a contribution he's really been.

I think if development issues and public opinion are going to be an issue for the election - then people should be asking questions about those things. Frankly, go to debates and ask about the whole lack of public input or people's opinion's on development. Keep the issue up front and centre.

Sloane lives in the new Peninsula North District on Creighton, and Watts lives on Duncan, so they get to face off.

Linda Mosher run unopposed by an incumbent, as will Sue Uteck.

I find it interesting that no one has talked about the suburban councillors. Walker, Dalrymple would be on my list to get rid of.

Barry Dalrymple is an absolute moron. Outhit has been pretty good, though. He should retain his district.

^ Yes, please get rid of Dalrymple. He hasn't done a good job at all.