Brennan or Ruttan?

[riverrat]

I wanted to go, last night, becuase I wanted to get a sense of whether I preferred John or Dianne (remember, this thread is about them).

Were they both comfortable in front of the crowd?
How did they relate to each other?
How are their public speaking qualities?

[Blue]

I see comments about how Nanaimo needs a mayor like Frank Ney. I agree it would be nice to have a spokesperson type leader, but in reality we have to choose the best candidate for all of Nanaimo's issues, not just how they interact and speak.

Many people fail to mention that the urban sprawl many Nanaimoites complain about in the North End, was approved during Frank's reign as mayor. Much of the construction and completion was done after Frank was out of office, but it was approved by him and council during his time as leader. Frank pushed for Nanaimo to expand north and build the retail/commercial centers there.

In another post I see someone defending Diane Brennan, and saying people should not make "inflammatory and inaccurate comments about Diane". Funny how it seems ok to take pot shots at Gary Korpan, along with many accussations that are unproven, but not ok to go after Diane. Why is that?

Glad to see Gary did admit to being arrogant at times. Many times I see Gary interacting with the public he is great. Other times people approach him with a very aggresive attitude and start attacking him personally. How do you expect him to react? I think Nanaimo has turned Gary into the personality that he is.

Diane, John and Gary all had some good remarks last night. I don't think any of the three stood out as the best candidate. Larry didn't seem to be in tune with what the questions were and kept talking about his agenda rather than the issues at hand.

[kickidee]

From my understanding the mayor does research, votes only if the vote is split and goes to functions. As he does not really have all the power of a voting councilor I disagree the person I vote in needs to be in tune with what I think the dollars should be spent on in Nanaimo, in fact I dont think there will be any money.
My point is mute because no one had any sparkle last night from what I heard, so looks like we will be broke and have no real pizzaz either. sigh.
As for Garry being arrogant, well Ive seen him react to positive comments and aggressive comments arrogantly. This is not his fault. He is simply arrogant. I think, seen as this thread is about Brennan and Ruttan I will go with Ruttan. He seems to be one who will at last help the underdog rather than look down his nose at them. After all underdogedness could well be most of us in the future if the world money situation dosn't improve.

[riverrat]

Thanks Blue, and kickidee~
Just a quick note of agreement concerning Ney's deification/canonization - all this posthumous adulation makes me uncomfortable. Nanaimo's sprawl happened largely under his watch.
However, it's also true that he is one of the only civic figures in Nanaimo who is remembered by everyone (not me, though - he died 6 yrs before I moved here, alas). He must have been quite the personality.

Oops - Ruttan or Brennan? I'm actually no closer to deciding! I wish I had seen the meeting the other night.

[titan5]

We seem to be getting a lot of focus on why Diane is just like Gary (a rather unlikely notion for anyone who attended this evening’s all-candidates debate or has ever had any exposure to either of them), and very little input on what John would actually do differently.

The 4.4% “voting against” statistic is highly flawed and misleading. This number includes the workaday procedures of Diane voting with Gary to adjourn meetings, accept minutes, adopt agendas and allow delegations – and so in large part it does not illustrate any particular similarity of point of view.

This weak attempt at statistical analysis doesn’t take into account the numerous measures Gary opposed and Diane supported, such as the creation of a downtown performing arts centre. She also voted to move from a volunteer firefighting force to a professional one – the wisdom of that decision was proven with the containment of the fire on Stewart Ave two years ago. In addition, Gary made an impassioned plea not to legalize secondary suites in all neighbourhoods, and Diane wholeheartedly supported the initiative. Gary either didn't want them or thought it best to have them in someone else's neighbourhood.

Diane votes differently from Gary, not because it is safe or politically expedient to do so, but because she makes decisions based on the best interests of citizens after listening to all sectors involved.

There is a long list of matters on which Diane disagreed with Gary while on council, but adjourning meetings was not one of them. Maybe a focus on what John can bring to the table, rather than inflammatory and inaccurate comments about Diane, would be a better strategy for Titan5 to adopt.

Yes to be fair the stats included "ALL" motions before council. It was the easiest way to search the last 4 years of council minutes. However this does not change the fact that they are true.

They also include all motions were Diane and Gary opposed one another; Diane opposing Gary or Gary opposing Diane.

I have no doubt that if one wanted to do an indepth study of all the minutes you would find a very similar pattern. One were, for the most part, they vote the same way. The minutes can be found on the City web site have a look and decide for yourself how different Diane is from Gary:
http://www.nanaimo.ca/

Diane has been on Council 6 years now. What has she done while in her seat that stands out? Until recently, has she spoken out about the PNC hotel or has she fallen in behind the rest of them?

Do we want another "career" councillor?

[Smokey©]

There is nothing wrong with a 'career' politician. Most politicians are such things. Seldom do we see the Bill Bennett type who sneaks in for his 10 years of politics and sneaks back out.

Take a look at the candidates for council alone this year and see how many have previous political experience including running in other elections (all mayoralty candidates have run before for various positions).

Bill Bestwick
Ron Bolin
Brunie Brunie
Janet Cowling
Gordon Fuller
Bill Holdom
Jim Kipp
Timothy Stuart Lander
Blake McGuffie
Larry McNabb
Angela Negrin
Fred Pattje
TerryLynn Saunders
Simon Schachner
Loyd Sherry
Merv Unger

ALL GUILTY of being 'career' politicians.

[kickidee]

I dont think career politician is the word here perhaps. We are looking at the incumbants who seem glued in position, who have served on council forever as perhaps needing to be voted over to give the "career polititions " who never got the job before a chance to direct the future. This happening of course only if the present council or mayor are not satisfactory to the voters of course!! I'm not sure that running before means one is a carreer polition!

[Smokey©]

Ok, lets look at who has been an elected politician before.

Bill Bestwick
Janet Cowling
Bill Holdom
Jim Kipp
Blake McGuffie
Larry McNabb
TerryLynn Saunders
Loyd Sherry
Merv Unger
Gary Korpan
Diane Brennan

Most of the other names (above in message 116) are small one issue candidates that run persistently to stir up the election and some to let their one issue rise to the top of discussions such as FoPN former and current members, bumper sticker stucker-uppers, or those who run to humour people.

[kickidee]

How interesting that the carreer polititions are mostly as we said the ones on council now. Im not sure that Negrin and others are not serious candidates, or can be waved away in such a frivolous manner.

[queen of the waterfront]

Doesnt everyone start with one issue that gets them into politics?


i think this election needs some stirring up.

Make people think and do their homework.

Lots of things coming out of the woodwork.

Familiarity does not always breed content

Diane seems to be in the forefront says the word on the street.
i wish John had run for council first as i havent had much opportunity to see him in action