A sidewalk snow removal machine in Ottawa. Below: Better a hole in the shoe than a hole in the head, as the slogan said. Adlai Stevenson in ’52, campaigning in a bow tie! One of the joys of running for public office in St. Albert, win or lose, is the
Continue readingTag: Municipal politics
Babel-on-the-Bay: Tilting at Toronto transit troubles.
Who won what? How do you compare $660 million from the federal government to $1.4 billion from the province and say Toronto Mayor Ford won? What did he win? And for someone to win, you have to assume somebody lost. Who lost here? And as a former Scarborough resident, you
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Campaign Diary Volume 8: Why I’m running for council & why I went door-knocking Tuesday
Yours Truly, left, showing a patron the new automatic checkout machine at the St. Albert Public Library, one of the facilities in our community that’s worth making an effort to protect. The library is located in St. Albert Place, at 5 St. Anne St. A good friend of mine asked
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Campaign Diary Volume 7: It’s Nomination Day … ‘In for a penny, in for a pound!’
That’s me, David Climenhaga, candidate for St. Albert City Council, handing over my nomination papers yesterday morning to city Chief Legislative Officer Chris Belke. Below: Checking my papers one last time; pausing at the entrance to the East Boardroom of St. Albert Place, where yesterday’s democratic action took place. “In
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The Hair helps His Honour.
You could tell from the news clips of yesterday’s event that the Hair is enjoying his holiday. With Parliament prorogued until late October, the hair has time to visit with friends and cronies such as Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. Of course, the Hair tries to stay out of Toronto so
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Chow for mayor? Don’t bet on it.
The pollsters are telling us that Olivia Chow can be mayor of Toronto after the next municipal election—more than a year from now. The only problem is that the polls are meaningless. They are based on too many suppositions. There are just too many ‘ifs.’ And who is surprised to
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: $35 Million Costs Confirmed in Report
I was told recently that the $35 million projected capital costs for the Central Park redevelopment had been called a “red herring.” That’s verifiably untrue. The actual total amount shown in the final report is $35,251,965.11. This isn’t a made up number, an inflated number or an imaginary number. It
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Bill Blair your tumbrel is waiting.
The two-wheel cart known as a tumbrel was developed originally for agriculture work as it could be pulled by a single draft animal and the simple, two-wheel design made it easy to dump contents, such as manure. The carts came into renown because of their use to haul prisoners to
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: In Wildness is the Preservation of the World
The title of this post is a quote from Henry David Thoreau’s essay, Walking, published posthumously in 1862, but which he wrote and rewrote during the 1850s. I was thinking of that line this week when Council officially opened the new Black Ash Creek Park, in the northeast of the
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: An Indoor Year-Round Rec Facility for Seniors and More
Monday night, I asked for a staff report on covering our lawn bowling rinks, and making it into a year-round facility for Collingwood. This facility would provide recreational opportunities for seniors and older adults. It could include other sports like horseshoes, shuffleboard and croquet. Perhaps badminton and a walking area
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Got trouble with ‘overbearing urban planners’? The Manning Centre wants to help!
A civic election all-candidates’ meeting in Calgary. “Why don’t we pass the time with a game of solitaire?” Actual Manning Centre supported candidates may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Manning Centre namesake Preston Manning; Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi; Calgary developer Cal Wenzel (CTV photo). If on Oct. 21 the
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Reflecting on our successes this term
With just over a year left to go in this term, I’d like to take a few minutes to consider all the accomplishments of this council over the past three years. They are not inconsiderable, and worth celebrating, I think you’ll agree. Most recent are the two new state-of-the-art recreational
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: The progressive left is just an urban legend.
Toronto Council’s left wing councillors love to show off their power. And Mayor Rob Ford could not be a better foil for them. The only problem is that Toronto ends up without direction, leadership, ideas, or a future. It is a shame as it had the potential to be a
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: What is a councillor’s role?
A question was asked of me recently about the appropriateness of the Deputy Mayor being at a meeting last summer to discuss the possible purchase of the new recreational facility structures. From the question I inferred that the asker did not approve of a politician being there. I disagree, and
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Joining the Fords to defend democracy.
Issues often make strange bedfellows. You would have thought that the entire left wing of Toronto Council would have voted with Mayor Ford on Monday. Instead, most of these people just reacted to the mayor’s position rather than taking a position of their own. Anyone who believes in democracy was
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Campaign Diary Volume 6: Still asking for money … in tiny increments
On hand: one cool election lawn sign. Needed: funds to help print additional copies. The pitch is simple: Small donations can help make a big difference! As previously noted in this space, a big part of running for public office is asking for campaign donations. Some people can’t stand it,
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Helping health units that hate gambling.
“For some individuals, gambling is a devastating problem,” says the Ottawa health unit. From this you can deduce that the unit is somewhat negative about the siren lure of casinos. This is in response to a recent question about casinos from the city council. With this level of response to
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Toronto’s ‘good-ole boy’ mayor.
You sometimes wonder where Toronto voters parked their brains when they elected Rob Ford as mayor of Toronto. What was understandable throughout that mayoralty campaign was that they wanted to vote against what was happening. The voters were searching for somewhere to park their votes. In this weird Monopoly Game
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Campaign Diary Volume 5: Praise, political priorities and poetry
Yours Truly visiting the Texas House of Representatives in the State Capitol building in Austin, Texas – and thinking about what to say to Ryan Hastman on EdmontionPolitics.com. Below: The author with LBJ, sort of, and looking particularly fierce for the benefit of our Texan hosts. Last week, just as
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Is it Hudak-Ford or Ford-Hudak?
The Ontario Legislature feeds on the politics of Ontario municipalities. You have to get under the skin of a number of key municipal politicians before you can fathom the directions of the Legislature. It is both the strength and the weakness of Ontario politics. Since the days of Premier Oliver
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