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In a twist on the phrase “when one door closes another one opens”  I say “When one election finishes another one is around the corner”.  The Ontario Municipal elections are done, the Ontario election is way back in the rear-view mirror and in New Brunswick we finally have the party with the most seats in government.   So for those of us that are political, what’s next?  Where DO we focus our…

Ottawa Election Primer: The New Council

The new Ottawa City Council will be sworn in December 1st.   The 23 councillors that will sit around the table made promises, set priorities and declared a platform. After the counting was done I looked at the winning candidates websites and noted each of their top action items for their wards (and the city).

I was unable to get priorities from two councillors as their campaign websites were…

Your new Ottawa Council (as I see it)

After weeks of intensive campaigning, debates and countless news coverage here’s what I think our City Council will look like by the counting is done. My predicted winners are in bold, I read profiles, news articles and questionnaires and I watched recorded debates.  It was in no way scientific, all considerations were as if I were voting in the ward.

Ward 1 – Orleans

I watched and read about…

Ottawa Election Primer: Breaking the Gender Barrier

There has been a lot of discussion on breaking the gender barrier at Ottawa City Hall with the results of the October 22ndelection.  Currently the council table has four female councillors.  With Marianne Wilkinson retiring the number of female councillors could drop to 3 if no others are elected.  This seems to be very unlikely as there are a number of wards where very strong female candidate…

A Municipal Writ Drop

“Re-election for a winning candidate starts the day after the election”

“Incumbency is an advantage”

“You can’t stop the business of City Hall”

These statements all came out of one tweet.

Rob Dekker‏ @robertdekker

It is time for municipal elections to have a 28 day writ period. Having the Mayor and Councillors conduct business while campaigning for re-election is a conflict. We have fixed…

Democracy is not easy

Political nomination races and party leadership races are the most divisive events in the life of a political party activist and member. Many who take part in them, as a candidate or a supporter of a candidate live to tell their stories after, but a few drop off the political map and are never heard from again.  For me, that’s the strangest part, the ones that just drop. I get why they might…

Ottawa Election Primer, the final 5

In a final instalment in the series, the candidates in the last of the 23 wards will be profiled.  The final five wards are River, Gloucester-Southgate, Kitchissippi, Kanata South and Rideau-Rockcliffe.

    River

Of the wards where a sitting councillor is seeking re-election, River Ward is where I think the likelihood of an incumbent not returning to City Hall will happen. Riley Brockington won…

Ottawa Election Primer Part VI

This is my fourth of five in a series about the Ottawa Municipal elections taking place October 22, 2018.

Bay

Bay ward became open when Councillor Mark Taylor honoured his pledge to only sit on council for two terms. The list of candidates includes a School Board Trustee (Theresa Kavanagh), someone who has worked in the financial industry (Erica Dath), a business management consultant (Don…

2018 Ottawa Elections, here’s four more wards for you…

This is a third in a series about the Ottawa Municipal elections taking place October 22, 2018.  I have covered 10 of the seats around council and in this post I will consider four more. In the last post I mentioned I would write about Kanata North, Bay, Knoxdale-Merivale and Rideau-Vanier wards. I am going to make a small change and save Bay Ward for next week and talk about Capital ward, as…

Ottawa Election Primer Part 2

July 31st posted a look at 6 of the 24 election races that will be decided on October 22nd.   I looked at races in Orleans, College, Beacon Hill-Cyrville, Rideau Goulbourn and Gloucester-South Nepean Wards and the race for Mayor.  In part 2 of the Ottawa Election Primer series I look at Innes, Barrhaven, West Carleton-March and Stittsville wards.

Innes

I am including Innes Ward today as I was…

Death of the Paper Ballot?

Internet voting.

Remember how well it went when the Ontario PC’s used it to select Doug Ford as their leader?  Remember how Canada Post admitted that thousands of PINS and Ballots were not delivered so party members couldn’t vote? Consider that in the 2018 municipal elections across Ontario, as more municipalities will be conducting their elections by Internet and phone only – NO PAPER BALLOTS.

I…

Ottawa’s 2018 Election – 6/24

Nominations have closed across Ontario for Municipal Elections on October 22nd.

In Ottawa there were a few more names added to the list of candidates vying to fill one of the 24 seats around the Council Table before the deadline came and passed. I’ll take a look at a few of the 24 races now and as the weeks approach voting day I’ll have the opportunity to take a look at all 24 races and perhaps…

Premier Doug Ford’s friendliest newspaper headlines may have come and gone and he was only just sworn in. June 29th was the peak that Premier Ford can expect to reach from most of the print media when it comes to ‘nice’ and even ‘complimentary’ headlines. It will be even worse on Twitter where people’s opinions are thrown around without a care in the world.

The Ontario General Election is not the…

Ever played the game would you rather?

Have you had to pick between two choices knowing the either choice could leave you with battle scars?  If you were to ask me “would you rather be a Candidate or a Campaign Manager” I can at least be thankful that I have done both and can make and informed decision.

So you go ahead ask me, ‘what would it be Rob, Candidate or Campaign Manager?’

As either the…

Strategic voting – the Disruptor?

The next few posts mark a return of posting in #RedHeartBlueSign following a number of weeks as Campaign Manager for Colleen McCleery, the Ontario PC Candidate in Ottawa Centre.  The views presented here are my own and they come from my observations from the campaign trail.

I have a view of an intersection, which is used by pedestrians, cyclists, skateboarders, motorcyclists, cars and truck and…

It’s unsettling to me that I have not posted for a while, but I have a good reason – a REALLY good reason.  I have given up the title of Candidate of Record for the Ontario PC’s in Ottawa Centre with the selection of Colleen McCleery to carry the PC banner in the Ontario election.

I’ll be occupied for another 4 weeks on the campaign for Colleen McCleery.  This is not where I thought I would be,…