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Municipal Politics

This could be cross-posted into Alberta Politics, but Troy Pavlek (a former council candidate himself and a fairly plugged-in guy) is reporting that he's getting tips that Sarah Hamilton will run for the UCP in the next provincial election rather than seek another term on council: https://troypavlek.ca/posts/dui-and-drug-charged-mp-for-mayor-sarah-hamilton-may-be-out

I would not be especially shocked; she has made her fealty to the UCP fairly obvious.
 
I could see her running for Edmonton South West. I'd be happy to vote against her once again.
Hamilton is an absent councillor and engages in the bare minimum with her constituents. Giselle General is running again and I appreciated her last campaign.

It's gonna be interesting with municipal parties, and who Edmontonians actually elect.
 
TAS said:
Coun. Stevenson has a notable challenger in O'daymin for upcoming election.

Anand Pye, who has been CEO of the Edmonton commercial development group NAIOP, is stepping down after 8 years to take a shot at municipal politics

edmontonjournal.com

NAIOP Edmonton's first CEO to step down in New Year

Anand Pye, who has led the Edmonton commercial real estate development advocacy group for eight years, is eyeing a seat on city council.
edmontonjournal.com edmontonjournal.com
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According to Troy Pavlek, there's another challenger for Stevenson.

Stephen Hammerschmidt of the Edmonton Chinatown Business Improvement Association and an economics instructor at NAIT.
 
Gus Haynes said:
This could be cross-posted into Alberta Politics, but Troy Pavlek (a former council candidate himself and a fairly plugged-in guy) is reporting that he's getting tips that Sarah Hamilton will run for the UCP in the next provincial election rather than seek another term on council: https://troypavlek.ca/posts/dui-and-drug-charged-mp-for-mayor-sarah-hamilton-may-be-out

I would not be especially shocked; she has made her fealty to the UCP fairly obvious.
Click to expand...
Interesting. It seems to me the better approach would be for her to run again as a councilor, then run in the next provincial election which would not be for a while, unless she is becoming nervous about anti incumbent sentiment.
 
policyenthusiast said:
What a huge claim to make with no evidence whatsoever, written in response to nothing.
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I'm not saying I agree with them that anti-Sohi rhetoric is being spread by Russian bots, but people do need to be aware that Russia is absolutely using so-called "bot farms" to sow division even in small towns and big cities alike. As early as 2016, two Russian-controlled Facebook accounts posing as local interest groups managed to organize an anti-Islam protest and a counter-protest in Huston that each had dozens of participants. For the price of $200 in ads, they got a lot of locals fighting each other. And it's not like these accounts had big Russian flag banners; the anti-Islam account was called "Heart of Texas", it described itself as "Home of bbq, guns, and ur heart", and it pushed succession from the US.

Since then, Russia has turned its attention toward local issues in the US to really try and pit people against each other, and there are signs that this could now happening in Canada. This is not unexpected:

"Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) officials have previously identified Alberta as a “very attractive” target for foreign interference due to its geostrategic importance, energy resources, and large diaspora communities, Postmedia has reported.

In a presentation given by CSIS to representatives of Elections Alberta and the province's political parties in December 2022, the agency noted the provincial and municipal levels of government are perceived as being easier targets because they receive less scrutiny and attention, documents released through freedom of information requests show."

Furthermore, it's easier now than ever to run massive campaigns to sow division or disinformation; in recent years Russia has made great use of AI to flood social media with content that can pass for human-generated.

Again, I'm not saying the Sohi hate is because of Russia. But I *am* saying that we need to just expect at this point that a not-insignificant chunk of the angry rhetoric we're seeing in local online communities is fueled by Russian bots. It's been clearly established for almost a decade now that Russia runs troll farms (the now-late chief of the Wagner mercenary group even admitted to running a big one), they've found a good return on investment in delving into local communities, and AI technology makes it even easier and cheaper than ever to reach countless audiences at once. And think about it: They can get people blindly hating the government, hating each other, and all the while they'll go undetected because everyone assumes "Russia wouldn't bother with a small town/city like ours."

Remember this during the coming election season, and think critically about what you read online. The comments you read could be posted by people who are much further away than you realize.
 
Russia is in a sad state. I know that they think they are gaining ground in asymmetrical warfare aimed at the West. But they are slipping quite quickly into third-world status economically, trying to present a brave face while doing so. I feel sympathy for the Russian people who have to endure the whims of one delusional man. Here's a prediction that may explain a lot if proven out -- China is eying the eastern provinces of Russia with a lust for easy expansion when the Russian state turns in on itself.
 
archited said:
Russia is in a sad state. I know that they think they are gaining ground in asymmetrical warfare aimed at the West. But they are slipping quite quickly into third-world status economically, trying to present a brave face while doing so. I feel sympathy for the Russian people who have to endure the whims of one delusional man. Here's a prediction that may explain a lot if proven out -- China is eying the eastern provinces of Russia with a lust for easy expansion when the Russian state turns in on itself.
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Yes, it is in a sad state and the idea they are gaining ground is a questionable one. I realize they do target our social media to create and exacerbate division, but most critics of our current governments are not Russian bots.

There are legitimate concerns which fortunately we can express here and may lead to improvement, unlike in some countries where criticism is suppressed and ignored and things just get worse.
 
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