Yesterday was civic election day, and my choice for mayor - a man who led in the polls for weeks then was back and forth with the incumbent for first and second the past while - came in a distant friggin' THIRD! How the hell did this happen, Robert Noce? How the hell did you finish so far behind Bill Smith and the new mayor, Stephen Mandel?
It was a suprise to say the least. Stephen Mandel has consistantly polled third, yet he somehow managed to finish miles ahead of the two supposed frontrunners. I'm glad Bill Smith is gone, but I'm concerned about Mandel. First of all, he's a former land developer. Will he put the desires of developers ahead of what's right for Edmonton? He's also a fiscal conservative, which worries me (especially concerning the arts), but he does have some reasonable plans concerning housing and transportation, so we'll see what happens there.
The good thing is that when it comes down to it, the mayor is only one vote on city council and there should be enough moderates and liberals on council now to balance out any extremes he may go to. Besides which, it may be good to have a little fiscal conservatism there for a while, as long as it's used wisely and not to line the pockets of business (I've long been of the belief that "pro-business" is usually "anti-people", and pro-business policies never fail to prove this belief as far as I've seen).
We have three years of this council to see what they can do. But I have faith in the people of Edmonton to re-elect Mandel in three years no matter what he does short of inviting Osama Bin Laden to live in City Hall.
This is municiple politics though, so social conservatism usually doesn't enter into things, but the outgoing Mayor Bill Smith refused to proclaim Pride Day until the courts forced him to. It'll be interesting to see if Stephen Mandel is more open when it comes to such things. As mayor he should be representing all Edmontonians, including the GLBT community, so let's hope he does represent all Edmontonians. And before any social conservatives bitch to me that this means he would be representing you, give me a break. The mayor's office issues countless proclamations every year. To include a group that doesn't hurt you in any real way is a lot more representative than shutting them out to protect your delicate sensibilities.
posted
by Tabby at 10/19/2004 01:54:00 p.m.
