Municipal Politics

[TAS]

Edmonton candidates demanding government transparency should start with their own​

As such, it is hugely disappointing to learn, less than week until election day, that barely a third of the candidates running for a council position have disclosed their list of donors

Keith Gerein: Edmonton candidates demanding government transparency should start with their own

As such, it is hugely disappointing to learn, less than week until election day, that barely a third of the candidates running for a council position have disclosed…

edmontonjournal.com

My respect for Amarjeet Sohi, Anne Stevenson and Ashley Salvador has grown significantly.

I was hoping more candidates would not follow in Mayor Iveson's footsteps - who released his donor list the day before the vote last time. I think the remaining mayoralty candidates are releasing the day before election day like Iveson (on Ryan Jespersen show Watson said she is) Nickel might be the exception.

 

[roe_]

^
there is nothing being proposed that couldn’t take place between the road and the bank.

as for “other ways to get down there”, not for those who are mobility challenged (which includes families with young children).

I am surprised at your reaction. RVR would be much easier to close to traffic than Whyte, and would likely have very few impacts on business./transit/residents. While RVR may be the fastest route between certain central areas, there are plenty of work-arounds that would only be marginally slower, unlike White Avenue.

You could also close RVR between the Royal Glenora and the golf course, which would maintain parking at both ends and allow mobility challenged users to access the area. And interestingly, "there is nothing being proposed" in terms of traffic that couldn't take place elsewhere for one or two days every weekend ;') If Toronto can do it on long stretches of Lakeshore Blvd, I think we can figure it out too.

 

[Gronk!]

Cheryll ain't giving up

https://twitter.com/x/status/1448032255155179521

 

[TAS]

I see Nickel is going hard at Sohi now saying he personally benefitted with a sweet deal on a residential lot in exchange for a favorable council vote on that developer's zoning request. A 'whistle-blower apparently brought it forward on Facebook. Global News picked up the story tonight on the news. Global checked on other prices lots sold for in the neighbourhood and Sohi actually paid more or the same for his lot as others in the area. Desperate times for Nickel.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Mr. <a href="https://twitter.com/AmarjeetSohiYEG?ref_src=twsrc^tfw">@AmarjeetSohiYEG</a> made a statement moments ago. <br><br>It raises more questions. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/yeg?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc^tfw">#yeg</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/yegcc?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc^tfw">#yegcc</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/yegvote?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc^tfw">#yegvote</a> <a href="https://t.co/uFbKUIpDn8">pic.twitter.com/uFbKUIpDn8</a></p>&mdash; Mike Nickel (@MikeNickelYEG) <a href="

https://twitter.com/x/status/1448023572962705408

">October 12, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[occidentalcapital]

Mike Nickel and Cheryll Watson becoming more and more desperate that their small time thinking "tear it all down" pitch isn't working.

 

[_Citizen_Dane_]

If anyone needs a good laugh at Nickel's expense:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1448374513779892225

 

[CaptainBL]

Developers, former conservative politicians donate to Mike Nickel's mayoral campaign

Developers, former conservative politicians, council and trustee candidates, and a former Edmonton Oilers owner have financially backed Mike Nickel’s mayoral campai…

edmontonjournal.com

I am very surprised to see some of these names on this list. Business leaders and developers who literally make a living off of our downtown prospering are supporting a man that advocated for a downtown travel advisory. WTF am I missing here.

While I am absolutely far from a Nickel supporter, I think some of his points very deep rooted if you tilt your head and squint really hard make some sense such as reducing crime downtown, reducing red tape and wasted consulting time and money. But he is so controversial and so far to the right that his messages come off as combative and get lost for me. I just don't follow how these business leaders and downtown developers support a guy that wants people to stay out of downtown. Then we wonder why we get stuck in a rut of a small big city thinking.

 

[Guy 1]

Developers, former conservative politicians donate to Mike Nickel's mayoral campaign

Developers, former conservative politicians, council and trustee candidates, and a former Edmonton Oilers owner have financially backed Mike Nickel’s mayoral campai…

edmontonjournal.com

I am very surprised to see some of these names on this list. Business leaders and developers who literally make a living off of our downtown prospering are supporting a man that advocated for a downtown travel advisory. WTF am I missing here.

While I am absolutely far from a Nickel supporter, I think some of his points very deep rooted if you tilt your head and squint really hard make some sense such as reducing crime downtown, reducing red tape and wasted consulting time and money. But he is so controversial and so far to the right that his messages come off as combative and get lost for me. I just don't follow how these business leaders and downtown developers support a guy that wants people to stay out of downtown. Then we wonder why we get stuck in a rut of a small big city thinking.

Not to excuse the donations, but a lot of developers and businesspeople will donate to all the mayoral frontrunners. It enables them to have an in with the mayor regardless of who wins or what their platforms are.

It's a morally absurd practice, but I'm sure it pays dividends in their business lives.

 

[TAS]

Not to excuse the donations, but a lot of developers and businesspeople will donate to all the mayoral frontrunners. It enables them to have an in with the mayor regardless of who wins or what their platforms are.

It's a morally absurd practice, but I'm sure it pays dividends in their business lives.

Credit where credit is due. Nickel is not my choice for mayor but at least he shared his list and actually one-upped Amarjeet Sohi by also including the exact dollar amounts. Sohi has some of the same donors, but didn't disclose amounts - so a little less transparency there.

 

[rake]

Sohi released his list over a week ago - I believe he was the first of the mayoral candidates to do so (at least of the major ones). His disclosure does include dollar amounts, though they are lumped into larger groupings, rather than down to the exact dollar. I have a hard time seeing how that is really less transparent given that he did not wait through the advanced polling timeframe before disclosing.

His list is here, released October 6 to his campaign website, with a promise to update it on October 17th:

https://sohi.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Sohi-2021-Oct6-Disclosure-V6.pdf

 

[TAS]

Sohi was not my first choice and in the end there wasn't one candidate that I was completely behind, but I voted for him being afraid of a Nickel win. But according to this latest poll, Sohi has pretty comfortable lead.

 

[TAS]

Sohi released his list over a week ago - I believe he was the first of the mayoral candidates to do so (at least of the major ones). His disclosure does include dollar amounts, though they are lumped into larger groupings, rather than down to the exact dollar. I have a hard time seeing how that is really less transparent given that he did not wait through the advanced polling timeframe before disclosing.

Oops, sorry for saying Sohi wasn't the best, when it comes to donation transparency, he is tops!

I wonder why The Edmonton Journal did a story on Nickel's donors noting the developers and politicians involved when he released it but didn't do a story on who Sohi's donors were when it was released over a week ago - instead just saying he was one of a number of candidates to release his list, but no story on who some of the big developers or politicians were. As frontrunner, you think that would be newsworthy when it was released?

 

[quit]

Oops, sorry for saying Sohi wasn't the best, when it comes to donation transparency, he is tops!

I wonder why The Edmonton Journal did a story on Nickel's donors noting the developers and politicians involved when he released it but didn't do a story on who Sohi's donors were when it was released over a week ago - instead just saying he was one of a number of candidates to release his list, but no story on who some of the big developers or politicians were. As frontrunner, you think that would be newsworthy when it was released?

All media outlets in Canada (except CBC), including the Journal, are owned by companies that lean one way or the other on the political spectrum. It is why the Journal tends to lean center left and the Sun to the right. Unfortunately, it is no surprise they selectively report on political issues. I use News aggregator apps such as Ground News to try to get stories across the entire spectrum. Of course, that doesn't get you very much local coverage.

 

[kcantor]

All media outlets in Canada (except CBC), including the Journal, are owned by companies that lean one way or the other on the political spectrum. It is why the Journal tends to lean center left and the Sun to the right. Unfortunately, it is no surprise they selectively report on political issues. I use News aggregator apps such as Ground News to try to get stories across the entire spectrum. Of course, that doesn't get you very much local coverage.

emphasis added…

if your supposition is correct, wouldn’t the journal and the sun “lean the same way” given their identical ownership?

 

[TAS]

emphasis added…

if your supposition is correct, wouldn’t the journal and the sun “lean the same way” given their identical ownership?

They did previously have separate owners but another example of fewer and fewer owners of media outlets and larger corporations in general.

From a business sense, in purchasing a right leaning newspaper like the Sun chain, it made sense to keep the papers with differing political leanings as they attract different advertising revenue.