Are city elections a farce where you live?

[ShawnD1]

Edmonton, Canada is gearing up for another civic election that will be held on October 15. As with any election, the fun part is deciding who you will vote for. So how do I go about doing that? There are a few signs on the road side and a few billboards telling me who to vote for, but that's about it. There have been absolutely no political debates on local TV. No political advertisements on radio (I listen to a modern rock radio station). Like most other people, I don't buy daily newspapers, so that's out. Overall, I have no idea what the hell is going on. We have 3 major political parties (Conservative, Liberal, NDP) and I don't know which party has which guy running. This is the official webpage for the election, and it's about as useful as a ripped condom. Which guy represents which party? Doesn't say. What does a candidate intend to do as mayor? Doesn't say. Here is the list of the candidates, all 28 pages of them, and it doesn't say anything about any of them. The current mayor, Stephen Mandel, is listed on page 2/28, and all it says about him is his office location, phone number, email, and website. Wait, so I'm supposed to check out hundreds of web pages just to get some clue as to who has what plan for the city? And given that the mayor is on page 2, I think that means the names are not sorted by popularity or chance of winning. Basically it's a shot in the dark where my vote may very likely be for some guy who has absolutely no chance of winning; equivalent to vote for Ron Paul.

What a crap election this is. Edmonton has a population of about 730,000 people, and it's the capital of Alberta, which is Canada's richest province. You'd think this election actually means something, but it's about as well organized as a high school student council meeting.

Is any other city like this? Please tell me it's just this city.

 

[paulney]

Although I don't live in SF, I live close, and I can attest that elections there are an absolute farce.
Each time a bunch of retards is elected which is running a nice city further into the ground.

SJ is no better, though. Mayor was investigated for grand fraud, kickbacks and bribery in connection with garbage contracts. After a year of huffing and puffing it ended in exactly zilch. Nada. Nothing. The case was thrown out of court on some technicality.

 

[WildHorse]

here it's always we friendly environmentalist locals vs. the evil out of town land developers, who recently got their slate of stooges in there.

 

[Scouzer]

You are confused man...mayoral candidates do not have political party affiliation like American elections do. They are not related to them in the way you think at all.

But really, you've eliminated how you're supposed to learn about the mayors. Read the paper. If you really want to be a social participant, attend the mayoral candidate's rallys...

Municipal elections do not have big budgets to advertise on radio, TV, etc.

Anyway, Sonic 102.9

 

[Locut0s]

Is there some place where they aren't? No one takes city level elections seriously except those with an axe to grind or WAY too much time on their hands.

 

[SacrosanctFiend]

No, but the entirety of our county commissioners were found to be appointed within violation of the law...so we won't have county commissioners for a little while. Makes my job easier, as I don't have to have the figures for our entire health insurance proposal finished by Thursday anymore.

 

[lupi]

Local elections, meh. Even though most residents here would probably agree that the actions of the mayor/city council are 85% for tourist 15% resident, without looking into reference material I can't remember when she wasn't mayor.

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: lupi
Local elections, meh. Even though most residents here would probably agree that the actions of the mayor/city council are 85% for tourist 15% resident, without looking into reference material I can't remember when she wasn't mayor.

Why do you say that. Local elections can and do affect your life even more so then the national elections.
Local makes up daily laws, taxs on your house/car/, education is more local then Nat., etc...

I hate it when people think voting every 4 years for president is the most important vote when local elctions affect peoples lives way more often then national.

 

[lupi]

As I said, I have no proof of anyone other than her being the mayor since before I was born. Given the lack of credible evidence of anything being done in council that would favor the citizens vice the continual focus on business-federal establishments and the tourism industry, how the large number of people are continually reelected I don't know. This isn't saying anything about not voting, rather a statement of the apparent ignorance of a large portion of the people whom do vote. Not to mention the real estate agent around here that got elected to the federal house for no other reason than being the party's local fund raising event coordinator. Dumb as a rock would be an insult to rocks.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Here it's always the same idiots that get elected....and they all have high-paying lawyer-type jobs. They do it for the prestige of holding the office rather than for the people. I don't know why they even pretend to care...most are scumbags.

 

[sciencewhiz]

Have you considered changing your radio listening preferences so that you listen to political news? Have you considered buying a newspaper so you can read about the election? Have you googled "edmonton election"? I found a forum discussing the election and several political blogs that would be good starting points for reading.

If you don't want to do the research and complain that information isn't being handed to you on a silver platter, go ahead, but please don't vote.

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: Scouzer
You are confused man...mayoral candidates do not have political party affiliation like American elections do. They are not related to them in the way you think at all.

But really, you've eliminated how you're supposed to learn about the mayors. Read the paper. If you really want to be a social participant, attend the mayoral candidate's rallys...

Municipal elections do not have big budgets to advertise on radio, TV, etc.

I guess this explains why voter turnout for Edmonton is extremely low. Link. Somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 is about right. For 1956, only 10% of people voted

Thanks for the replies. I'm surprised even SF and SJ have these kinds of elections since those are faily major cities.

 

[Svnla]

Be glad that your city doesn't have corruptors or shall I say, big time crooks.

Look at Dallas TX. The FBI just announded an indictment of 16 people (former and current city officials) for bridery, kickback, extortion, and on and on.

http://www.dallasnews.com/shar...ctments.129b687ca.html

Now I am not saying DFW is the only one with corruption problems. I am sure corruptors are everywhere. Look at the former Governor of Louisiana (fast Eddie Edwin Edward is now in prison for corruption)