Who are you choosing for mayor this election?

[Northern]

Originally Posted by milomilo

I'll be embarrassed for our city if Smith gets in. It does have echoes of Ford cancelling transit projects when Toronto needed them most and permanently costing the city.

What part of city council votes do people like not understand? You do realize Smith can't cancel the green line on his own don't you?

[Northern]

Originally Posted by suburbia

With Nenshi, while he might annoy a few people, he is thoughtful, smart, and makes logical defensible decisions. With Smith, you have a bought candidate who is on record as intending to increase residential taxes in support of his big business backers.

He's an asshat, and I'm not voting someone I dislike. Smith might not be ideal, but he's only one vote on a council, and the next election is only three years away. Hopefully the next round of candidates will have learned a lesson from this election.

[jawagord]

Originally Posted by Corndogger

Nenshi and his supporters don't realize how much insults like that hurt their cause. Playing the race card doesn't work in 2017.

They think it does.

http://nationalpost.com/news/local-n...e-ae6444ae5898

[Corndogger]

Originally Posted by Northern

He's an asshat, and I'm not voting someone I dislike. Smith might not be ideal, but he's only one vote on a council, and the next election is only three years away. Hopefully the next round of candidates will have learned a lesson from this election.

Sadly, Redford changed the election cycle to four years when it should have been dropped to two years to keep these guys on their toes all of the time.

You're absolutely right about the mayor being only one vote but Suburbia's been tasked with trying to convince people that Smith will be a puppet of the rich Flames' owners. I guess he missed Smith declaring he's getting no support from them and that by law he has to reveal his donor list. It would be beyond stupid for him to lie about something like that because it will prevent him from getting anything done the next four years and make him totally unelectable in 2021.

[sammyd]

Originally Posted by Northern

He's an asshat, and I'm not voting someone I dislike. Smith might not be ideal, but he's only one vote on a council, and the next election is only three years away. Hopefully the next round of candidates will have learned a lesson from this election.

Umm, you appear to be the asshat. Nenshi brought respectability to this city’s operations.

[speedog]

Originally Posted by Northern

He's an asshat, and I'm not voting someone I dislike. Smith might not be ideal, but he's only one vote on a council, and the next election is only three years away. Hopefully the next round of candidates will have learned a lesson from this election.

When did they change municipal elections back to a three year term?

[suburbia]

Originally Posted by Northern

What part of city council votes do people like not understand? You do realize Smith can't cancel the green line on his own don't you?

So what you're saying is that your choice for mayor doesn't even understand the role. Wow!

I noticed you've only joined this construction forum shortly before the election, and you've never actually made any construction related post. LOL!

[milomilo]

Originally Posted by Northern

What part of city council votes do people like not understand? You do realize Smith can't cancel the green line on his own don't you?

Originally Posted by suburbia

So what you're saying is that your choice for mayor doesn't even understand the role. Wow!

I noticed you've only joined this construction forum shortly before the election, and you've never actually made any construction related post. LOL!

What suburbia said. Smith doesn't understand the role, doesn't have any real policies and doesn't have any conviction. If he can't 'review' (that means cancel) the Green Line, why is he promising to do it?

[milomilo]

Originally Posted by Corndogger

Sadly, Redford changed the election cycle to four years when it should have been dropped to two years to keep these guys on their toes all of the time.

You're absolutely right about the mayor being only one vote but Suburbia's been tasked with trying to convince people that Smith will be a puppet of the rich Flames' owners. I guess he missed Smith declaring he's getting no support from them and that by law he has to reveal his donor list. It would be beyond stupid for him to lie about something like that because it will prevent him from getting anything done the next four years and make him totally unelectable in 2021.

He's already totally unelectable but that doesn't appear to stop people. Trump and Ford were completely unelectable too.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Northern

He's an asshat, and I'm not voting someone I dislike. Smith might not be ideal, but he's only one vote on a council, and the next election is only three years away. Hopefully the next round of candidates will have learned a lesson from this election.

Nenshi’s also only one vote. If you think putting someone with veiled intentions and a serious lack of education into the mayor’s office is worth the gamble I caution you to look at what happened when Toronto elected Rob Ford. Ignoring the extreme stuff like smoking crack he went and unraveled their lrt plans and generally plunged their city council into chaos.

[Corndogger]

Originally Posted by milomilo

He's already totally unelectable but that doesn't appear to stop people. Trump and Ford were completely unelectable too.

And their opponents even more so. Looks like the same is true now for most people.

[suburbia]

What is very peculiar about this election is how many people are using the same language. Nenshi is supposedly, "arrogant". Really? How, why, when?

As it turns out, this narrative is one being pushed by the Smith / Ready2Engage / CSEC / NeoCitranHaze crowd, and is being repeated again and again to try and get into people's heads. The piece that there is truth to is that Nenshi speaks up for what is right. If that is arrogant, so be it!

Here is a great article on this concept of politicians with arrogance:
https://medium.com/@bridget.erin.bro...e-ea31b7d79e07

Instead of representing Naheed Nenshi for what he has been — an outspoken advocate for the city, a man who tells it like it is — they paint him as “arrogant” or “egotistical,” dog-whistle words reminding people that due to an ugly, racist streak of Calgary, some people would like us to believe he is lucky, as a person of colour, to hold the office he holds.

Lucky, instead of talented, hard working, and the same brand of frank and plainspoken that all Calgary politicians have always been.

I understand why the mayor’s campaign probably will never speak to this narrative. His main opponent and their supporters would say people are “too politically correct” these days.

Dog-whistle politics are easy to categorize that way. After all, the whole point is plausible deniability. You aren’t outwardly mentioning race, gender or any other reason your target is unpalatable when you call them arrogant, or egotistical or high-handed.

There is much more to that article - read it.

And here is a random photo:
https://twitter.com/jimprentice/stat...69461909209088

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by suburbia

What is very peculiar about this election is how many people are using the same language. Nenshi is supposedly, "arrogant". Really? How, why, when?

As it turns out, this narrative is one being pushed by the Smith / Ready2Engage / CSEC / NeoCitranHaze crowd, and is being repeated again and again to try and get into people's heads. The piece that there is truth to is that Nenshi speaks up for what is right. If that is arrogant, so be it!

Here is a great article on this concept of politicians with arrogance:
https://medium.com/@bridget.erin.bro...e-ea31b7d79e07


There is much more to that article - read it.

And here is a random photo:
https://twitter.com/jimprentice/stat...69461909209088

Decent article. To be fair though I think Nenshi has alienated people by never budging from his position. He is arrogant. My dad said it reminds him of how Bronconnier was at the end and how mayors can never go for more than 2 terms without it going to their heads. I don’t see it as racism. I do however think it’s fair to say to people “So what?”. If he can do the job then fine.

PS is Prentice giving Bettman a handie in that picture?

[Chinook Arch]

It's the opinion of one person (the person who wrote the article). That person might think it's helping, but IMO it's most likely to hurt him. I don't doubt that Nenshi receives hate based on racism. He's brown skinned, and he's aligned with a religion with negative image. He's behind the eight ball right away.

Still, playing the race card only suits to annoy a lot of people - rightly or wrongly. Left wingers in the media, especially social media have spent the last decade gratuitously using the race card, and now when it might actually be needed it comes across like the usual ploy. The most likely result is people will ignore it, or be annoyed with it. Those who would be sympathetic to it, were already going to vote for Nenshi anyhow. Anyone on the fence at this point doesn't like Nenshi or they would already be voting for him. This isn't going to help.

Originally Posted by jawagord

They think it does.

http://nationalpost.com/news/local-n...e-ae6444ae5898

[DoubleK]

Our household is going to hold our noses and vote Nenshi.

Bill Smith would be bad for the city messing around with the Green Line is an absolute non-starter.

Nenshi can come across as a pompous d-bag, but having Bill Smith running amok revisiting a bunch of decisions will put the city back 10 years.

[ST1]

Good points and valid points, which I'm sure will be argued by the two opposing minsters of propaganda (Corndogger and Suburbia)

I find if you simply filter out those two guys, the discussion is actually pretty good.

Originally Posted by Chinook Arch

It's the opinion of one person (the person who wrote the article). That person might think it's helping, but IMO it's most likely to hurt him. I don't doubt that Nenshi receives hate based on racism. He's brown skinned, and he's aligned with a religion with negative image. He's behind the eight ball right away.

Still, playing the race card only suits to annoy a lot of people - rightly or wrongly. Left wingers in the media, especially social media have spent the last decade gratuitously using the race card, and now when it might actually be needed it comes across like the usual ploy. The most likely result is people will ignore it, or be annoyed with it. Those who would be sympathetic to it, were already going to vote for Nenshi anyhow. Anyone on the fence at this point doesn't like Nenshi or they would already be voting for him. This isn't going to help.

[patm]

Why would anyone want to cancel the green line?

It's probably the most needed piece of infrastructure in the city right now.

God, people's partisan BS is going to vote in a moron.

[Tobyoby]

Agreed. I'm voting for Nenshi either way, but I agree with you that bringing up racism issues isn't going to help.
Everyone already knows racism exists, but it exists from all sides and is exacted by all types of people in all types of ways. People with brown skin aren't any less racist than whites or blacks.
Almost all Ismaillis, Muslims and most people of Indian subcontinent descent in the city will vote for Nenshi, whether they like his policies or not. While that wouldn't constitute the same kind of on-line racism Nenshi gets it's still a form of racism. The folks playing the racism card are opening up a whole other can of worms that will probably detract from the election and his support.

Originally Posted by Chinook Arch

It's the opinion of one person (the person who wrote the article). That person might think it's helping, but IMO it's most likely to hurt him. I don't doubt that Nenshi receives hate based on racism. He's brown skinned, and he's aligned with a religion with negative image. He's behind the eight ball right away.

Still, playing the race card only suits to annoy a lot of people - rightly or wrongly. Left wingers in the media, especially social media have spent the last decade gratuitously using the race card, and now when it might actually be needed it comes across like the usual ploy. The most likely result is people will ignore it, or be annoyed with it. Those who would be sympathetic to it, were already going to vote for Nenshi anyhow. Anyone on the fence at this point doesn't like Nenshi or they would already be voting for him. This isn't going to help.

[Calgarian]

Originally Posted by Northern

What part of city council votes do people like not understand? You do realize Smith can't cancel the green line on his own don't you?

So why do Nenshi opponents blame him for everything, he's just one vote afterall...

Originally Posted by DoubleK

Our household is going to hold our noses and vote Nenshi.

Bill Smith would be bad for the city messing around with the Green Line is an absolute non-starter.

Nenshi can come across as a pompous d-bag, but having Bill Smith running amok revisiting a bunch of decisions will put the city back 10 years.

I was considering voting against Nenshi as he has turned so many people against him and having a divided city isn't a good thing. Chabot doesn't really stand a chance and I agree 100% about what Smith will try to do (even though he likely won't be able to deliver on his promises if some of the more progressive Councillors win). We need someone who wants to make the city a better place, not try to further their political career, and the latter is the impression I get from Smith.

[SteveP]

From what I've seen here and on Facebook, etc.. some of the Nenshi opponents don't like him as a person, and some blame him for other stuff, that may or may not be his fault, like the Peace Bridge, etc.. Many are just plain conservative. I do know some liberal types that voted for him in the past and aren't this time. It seems to be a mixed bag of reasons.

Originally Posted by Calgarian

So why do Nenshi opponents blame him for everything, he's just one vote afterall...