Mayor’s race now has two candidates

Today, Chris Spearman became the second person to officially announce his running to fill the upcoming vacancy in the mayor’s seat.

Current city councillor, Faron Ellis, was the first candidate, when he announced his intentions roughly three weeks ago, just two days after Rajko Dodic announced his resignation.

Spearman ran against Dodic in the 2010 election, one of six mayoral candidates. The election was a tight race between Dodic, Spearman, and Cheryl Meheden throughout the night. Dodic and Spearman each captured about a quarter of the popular vote (Meheden captured only a fifth), but Dodic managed a win over Spearman by only 208 votes (and about 1000 more than Meheden). The final tally was so close that Spearman had even considered asking for a recount.

For reference, Ellis was elected onto city council in 6th place, which does not seem to indicate popularity with the electorate.

Regardless, this will likely be an interesting race, especially once the other candidates come forward.

Media coverage

• Chris Spearman Announces He’s Running For Lethbridge Mayor (CJOC)
• Chris Spearman To Take A Second Run At The Mayor’s Chair (Country 95)

2013 municipal election campaign gets underway

And so it begins.

Current mayor Rajko Dodic kicked off the campaign season by announcing earlier this week that he wasn’t running in the 2013 municipal election. What this means is that we can expect lots of candidates this election, for both mayor and city council.

Six candidates vied for mayor when David Carpenter stepped down in 2001, and five came forward when Bob Tarleck decided in 2010 not to run for a third term.

Likewise, voters had to chose from among 35 aldermanic candidates in 2001 and 30 in 2010 (33 if you count the byelection held after Bob Babki died).

Current city councillor, Faron Ellis, wasted no time announcing his intention to fill Dodic’s vacancy, becoming the first person to announce a candidacy this election.

His campaign slogan is “reasonable, responsible, and reliable leadership”, which is interesting given he has served only a single term on city council (Dodic had served two, Tarleck had served nine, and Carpenter had served three).

We look forward to the next 5 months.

Further reading

• Mayor Dodic Will Not Seek Re-Election (Country 95)
• Rajko Dodic Will Not Seek Re-Election as Lethbridge Mayor (CJOC)
• Dodic’s Done! (Lethbridge Herald)
• CTV Lethbridge on Dodic announcement
• Councillor Faron Ellis Announces Intentions To Run For Mayor (Country 95)
• Councillor Faron Ellis Announces Intentions to Run For Lethbridge Mayor (CJOC)
• Ellis seeks mayor’s chair (Lethbridge Herald)
• CTV Lethbridge on Ellis announcement

Bob Babki, dead at 68

Last weekend, alderman-elect Bob Babki passed away as a result of what appears to be heart complications. Read below for media coverage on the issue:

• Death of newly-elected Bob Babki stuns Lethbridge (Calgary Herald)
• Alderman-Elect Bob Babki Passes Away (CJOC)
• By-election Likely to Find Replacement for Babki (CJOC)
• Sudden death of Lethbridge alderman-elect (CTV Calgary)
• His Fight had only just begun (Lethbridge Herald)
• Passion was Babki’s calling card (Lethbridge Herald)
• New alderman, Bob Babki, has died (Lethbridge News)

Post-election commentary and reflection

Several candidates in this year’s civic election published thoughts on the election results this week.

• Jeff Coffman
• Lee Cutforth
• James Frey
• Rory Tarant

Live election results

Want to know the results of the election without having to wait to read it tomorrow morning in the Lethbridge Herald? Both 94.1 The Lounge and Shaw TV will be providing live coverage.

Online coverage will be available at the following sources:

• City of Lethbridge
• Global Lethbridge
• #lethvote hashtag on Twitter (some people will be live tweeting)

 

I still don’t know who to vote for

Today is election day. Are you still unsure who to vote for? Maybe these resources can help.

• Lethbridge Accountability
• Greensence survey and ranking
• Allied Arts Council survey results
• Citizens For Better Governance ranking
• Foundation for Democratic Advancement mayoral analysis

Candidate responses on home business licensing

You have probably already read candidate views on business licenses in Lethbridge at Lethbridge Accountability.

Jenny Alston, a local home-based business owner and the founder of the Lethbridge Home Business Facebook page, recently sent a letter to candidates.

Read the answers from some of the candidates.

 

Candidate ideas on transit

If you are still having difficulty choosing who to vote for this year and transit is an important issue to you, perhaps this post can help.

I attended the all-candidate meet and greet at the Lethbridge Senior Citizen Organization, and asked candidates for their ideas on how to increase transit ridership. Below are their responses.

Keep in mind that I missed 13 candidates (I ran out of time), and these are ideas, not promises. I list them in the order I talked to them.

• Liz Iwaskiw: UPass for students and a similar programme for seniors
• Bob Cooney: more routes, smaller buses, community routes, communicate with users, ask non-users what it would take to start taking transit
• Kay Adeniyi: Teleride, GPS-equipped buses, smartphone app
• Fiona Doherty: free transit, smaller routes, smaller buses
• Rory Tarant: redraw routes, extended hours, smart cards, more free days
• Ryan Parker: increase frequency
• Hazel Hart: free transit
• Rajko Dodic: convince people it’s more than an alternative
• Rod Hoeg: start earlier, end later, link Coaldale and industrial park, smaller busses on weekends
• Kevin Layton: more media coverage, discounted passes (e.g. annual)
• Kris Jones: alter routes, more community routes, bring back Dial-a-Bus
• Mel Fletcher: incentives at downtown events for transit users, get provincial/federal government to pay fares for those with disabilities
• Joyce van der Lee: analyze routes, express routes
• Jeff Coffman: increase frequency on arterials, smaller busses in some routes, more fuel-efficient busses, direct route between U of L and LC, address main routes and feeder routes will follow
• Lee Cutforth: shift empty busses from slow routes to heavy routes
• Lea Switzer: increase coverage of city, increase frequency, smaller buses
• Geri Hecker: education, encourage lifestyle change
• Dennis Carrier: express routes, education
• Margaret Simmons: increase frequency, education
• Joe Mauro: free transit in long-term, free Access-a-Ride, loonie per trip in short-term, increase frequency and coverage, eliminate bus stops (get on or off along the route wherever you want), smaller routes
• Jeff Carlson: free transit month
• Bev Lanz: students should be able to ride for free
• Bridget Mearns: research the issues and make transit more affordable to students, seniors, and those with disabilities

Update (16 October 2010): I visited with three more candidates at the Farmers’ Market today. Here were there responses:

• Blaine Hyggen: ride transit himself to get feedback from users
• Ken Tratch: better marketing, free for periods, conduct research on services, make Access-a-Ride fares more reasonable
• Tom Wickersham: UPass

Poll: Live tweeting on #lethvote

Mayoral race poll

UPDATED from Lethbridge Accountabilty:

The poll used a free poll script and several technically literate folks abused it to the point where the results were useless.
Lethbridge Accountability  outsourced a new poll that offers much better security. It also adds the option to indicate support for 1-8 Aldermanic candidates as well.

It uses a blind submission format, results will NOT be shared until 4:00 PM on the 13th (two hours before the start of the forum at the Yates)

The new poll is available here.

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Lethbridge Accountability has posted a poll for the mayoral race. Check out their site and cast your vote.