Thursday 21 August 2014

Who has unofficially declared for Council to date?

Unofficially as one is not an official candidate until nomination papers are accepted by the City's Chief Electoral Officer and they won't be ready for pickup until the 2nd of September.  Unless a potential candidate has made a personal statement stating he or she is intending to run or put up a website stating this, I do not consider them even an unofficial candidate.

Mayor
Morris, Kerry
Pringle, George (Amalgamate North Van) 

Councillor (6 to be elected)
Bell, Bill
Bell, Dorothy
Bookham, Pam
Clark, Matt
Heilman, Joe
Valente, Tony
Sostad, Ron
Although not even officially declared, seriously likely candidates are

Mayor
Mussatto, Darrel

Councillor
Back, Holly
Bell, Don
Buchanan, Linda
Clark, Rod
Foder, Elizabeth
Keating, Craig
Nichol, Amanda

Thursday 7 August 2014

100 Days until the Election!

Although it's 33 days until the nomination packages are due at 4:30 on October 10, it's already over.  Our new Council for 2015 - 2018 will be.

Mayor George Pringle - oops I think I spelled Darrell Mussatto wrong so I'll start again

Mayor Darrell Mussatto

He will be joined by:

Councillor Don Bell (free of the VOICES in his ear for what could be his last term)
Councillor Dorothy Bell (first term proving she is the brains behind the op)
Councillor Bill Bell (for his fifth term interrupted by his exile to Mexico)
Councilor Linda Buchanan (for her third term on School Board)
Councillor Craig Keating (head of the Coalition of BC NDP municipal Councillors)
Councillor Rod Clark (who is again announcing he will be the VOICES candidate for Mayor in 2018)

A lot of sound and fury will be expended to change very little, mostly from the campaign of former energy consultant and now former Mayoral candidate Kerry Morris who managed not to arrested again when he consistently lost his ever absent cool at every town hall and candidates meeting.

The new four year term will mean an extra year prior to the election year where Council can attempt try to take their eyes off the countdown clock of their term of office and the next election. 

The Harper & Tory hating Councillors will expend massive energy in  trying to return Canada to being a socialist paradise whether it be orange or red to no actual effect, a few more Liberal seats but still a Harper government and NDP official opposition.  Trudeau will take a walk in the snow and get lost and the Liberals won't bother to organize a search party.

The Provincial Government's municipal campaign reform will come in and it won't affect anything but Vancouver where all the problems are anyway despite the efforts of the VOICES political party to turn this into an election issue in North Vancouver.  There will be an spending cap with a set amount and an amount per voter.  In our City, let's say it is $20,000 plus a dollar voter for Mayoral candidates and $7,500 and a dollar per voter for Councillor candidates.  No candidate has ever exceeded that level of a spending cap as no one tries to spend their way to a Council seat such as Rob MacDonald's $780,000 donation to the NPA last time just prior to their nomination in 2011 which didn't even result in him being a failed candidate.

Union activist and Rod Clark protege Amanda Nichol will be back for her third strike in 2018 after her platform of increasing CUPE 389 jobs in the Rec Commission fails.  Rod Clark's plan of giving her his Council seat as he ascended to the Mayor's Chair before intemperate anti-Semite comments he made during a public Council meeting surfaced.  (Good thing the media didn't catch the comments Rod Clark made about Mexicans that some may consider racist).  If Amanda changes her name to Bell and actually is elected, she can thank Rod Clark for helping her evict him to the Sharp/Schechter/Fearnley club.