Campaign Diary Volume 9: Sidewalks, snow, public transit & Adlai Stevenson
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…
Municipal politics
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
$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…
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…
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…
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…
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:…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.…
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…
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…
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…