Friday, October 17, 2014

The endorsement of candidates

Most of us like to stay within the law, with the exception of candidates in the upcoming municipal election, regarding endorsements.

Legally, there can be only one way to "endorse" a candidate:

1)  An electoral organization registered with the Elections BC must submit to Elections BC a form endorsing a candidate(s) and that candidate sign accepting the endorsement.  

2)  Elections instructs the local Chief Election Officer to place that electoral organization's name on the ballot next to the names of their candidate(s)

ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS - This is what I've done and am the first and only candidate in North Van to honestly display this in front of the voters right on the ballot.  I hope to SHOW how candidates will cooperate in future, not by just talking but taking personal action


Saturday, October 11, 2014

Amanda (NOT Nichol's) silly rant

An "Amanda" (appartently not Nichol) posted a comment on the VOICES Collective blog. It follows:

"As far as amalgamation goes, the only area pushing it is the District of North Vancouver. West Vancouver and the City of North Vancouver wan’t no part of it. West Vancouver citizens don’t want to give up control of their services like police and fire; nor do they want their taxes increased. The city of North Vancouver do not want any part of it as they don’t want their taxes increased, plus, the city runs like a well oiled machine.

That leaves the District of North Vancouver, they are the only ones who keep pushing it… now ask yourself, why is that? Laymans terms, they will pay considerably less while the city of north vancouver and west vancouver offset their costs.

Amalgamation will not happen on the north shore, ever. Shared services maybe, but amalgamation will never happen. City of North Vancouver and District of West Vancouver citizens will never ever vote in favor of it."

1) District Councillor Doug MacKay Dunn is speaking for a minority faction on District Council.  He and Councillors Little and Muri voted for a referendum this fall on a North Shore amalgamation.  I wrote to District Council explaining to them that including West Van would be a poison pill in the City.  Doug's motion failed. The Councillors voting against mentioned the inclusion of West Van as the reason they could not support this motion. Councillor Little will not be on Council as he is not running for re-election.  I have publicly called to District voters who support amalgamation not to vote for Doug MacKay Dunn as he is hurting the North Van amalgamation.  Actions speak louder than words, Amanda!

2) A North Shore amalgamation is stupid for both the City and District of North Van.  West Van pays $600 more per average resident than does a average resident of the District who pays $30 more than a resident of the City. Trying to muddy the issue by including them in your rant is very dishonest and deceptive of you, Amanda. I never want to see where you pulled your financial analysis that concluded the District would be a financial drain from. 

3) The District has a debt of just over $20 million for two Rec Centers (Grant Connell & William Griffin) which will be used by City residents, the City has just incurred a debt of $12 million for the Lonsdale Energy Corporation expansion of questionable benefit to its customers solely in the City. Basically the same per resident and that's before the City goes further into debt to reno the Harry Jerome Rec Center. $50 million plus?