A good offence needs a better defence

The final score of the Super Bowl reminded me of the sports adage that every good offence should count on the defence to score some points, or at least set the offence up to score.

Super Bowl LVII was a battle of two great teams, but of the two teams only one had the benefit of the better defence helping the offence.  In 60 minutes of football there was one turnover in the game, the Kansas City Chiefs “D” forced a fumble and took it back for a touchdown and tied the game after the teams returned from the Rihanna half time show.

Just as in sports, politics can also be considered has having an offence and defence.  

Government naturally gets to be on the offence all the time.  The opposition parties are the defence, always attacking the government.  The Conservative Party as His Majesties Loyal Opposition gets the title as the lead of the defence.  It could be a good argument that the Liberals would be on the defence, but as the government they should always be looking to score, score points with the voters by rolling out their platform, a budget and by responding to the events of the day.  

On the defence, the Conservatives are looking for the fumble and the interception and to make a score of their own. When they can do that, the government turns to defence and the opposition now has the ball on the move.  

This has happened on a few occasions, most recently is bill C-21.  The bill was well on its way to passing through committee and to third reading in the House.  

The government was on its way to scoring, but something happened on the way to the goal line.   The government decided to score two extra points when one would have done.  While the bill was being discussed in committee in November the government introduced a motion that expanded the definition of restricted firearms and now would include firearms considered standard by hunters, farmers, and indigenous peoples.  The government  was now piling on and the opposition had a chance to force a turnover.  

The Conservatives had been battling the government on C-21 since its introduction and when the amendment was brought in the Conservatives took its defence to the next level. Led by MP Raquel Dancho, the opposition saw the government get out manoeuvred resulting in the government getting flipped to defence.  that flipped the government to the defence was addition of the Bloc and NDP that took challenge to the amendments to the next level.  In a move that can only be seen as a “Hail Mary” pass from the government, it was an attempt to score big.  Unfortunately for them, they threw an interception.  The Conservatives and opposition pounced and forced the government to retract. 

The  Conservatives, Bloc and NDP forced the turnover and the defence scored – the Liberals pulled to contentious amendments.  This is no way close to being over, the government will be able to table new changes try to push the any new changes across the goal line.  For the sake of politics the game will not be over until the next election, when a new offence is elected.   The Liberals will assume the offence until then and the opposition parties will once again have to work and score points on defence!! 

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Thank you for reading this post; to catch all my posts and be notified as new ones come up, please follow me on WordPress.  I can be found on Twitter @robertdekker & @RedHrtBlueSign and on Facebook athttps://www.facebook.com/rob.dekker.54.  If you prefer email, please contact me at rdmedia@bell.net. 

Ring in the New Council

There is a lot that’s new in the Ottawa City Council that was sworn in this week.

There is a new Mayor, there are 10 new councillors, 1 councillor returning after leaving council in 2014, 13 councillors were re-elected, there is a new Ward (Barrhaven East, with Jan Harder retiring it looks like they needed two wards and two councillors to replace her).  (Photo from @_marksutcliffe Instagram)

Due to the boundary review there are a whole slew of name changes to wards.  For this reason alone I hope that the city decides to drop the ward numbers completely and adopt the ward names as their identifier, continuing to use both is very confusing and causes headaches when you stop to try and figure it all out (don’t get me going on School Trustee Zones!).

There hasn’t been this amount of turnaround and change at the city council table since amalgamation in 2001.

By the end of the last term of council it was clear that the club atmosphere around the table had to end.  There was much noise made of how decisions would be made based on which club and what appointments were made.  The new council can break the mould and start anew with consensus building and collaboration as a means to serve the City of Ottawa.

I will be looking for how the returning half of council interacts with the new half of council and how the councillors line up on the issues.  I’m also interested to see if Mayor Sutcliffe’s open-door policy to all councillors will work.  This will depend on how he staffs up his office, will he find the person who can be welcoming and open to the councillors while being true to the Mayor’s vision as his Council Liaison?  Where will the Mayor bend to have that consensus agenda at City Hall?

I have great hope that council will get together under common themes of working for the citizens, delivering core services, improving the social umbrella, and increasing the inventory of affordable housing to get families out of shelters and city run motels into rental properties that take the burden off the city for maintaining properties.  The campaign brought many issues to the forefront.  These include “Rural vs. Suburban vs. Urban”, a climate policy that works for everyone and where to put and how to build housing.  

The three big issues for the Mayor and Council to address immediately are the 2023 budget; Catherine MacKenney was right when she campaigned on retooling a tired and outdate budget process.  Making sure Phase Two LRT isn’t launched in the same manner of Phase One and how to approach a Phase Three are key to making the city move and grow economically.  

Last, but just as important is the relationship between the Mayor, the Ottawa Police Services Board and the new Chief, Eric Stubbs who began his term as the Chief of the OPS on November 17^th.  Whoever Sutcliffe names as the Chair of the Police Services Board will be a key instrument in Stubbs having a successful run as Chief.  Sutcliffe needs to decide if he puts a re-elected councillor in that role or a newby.  My suggestion would be to place Steve Desroches in that position.  He is back at council after a few years away; he has council experience but has had a view of the OPS as a resident.  Having a OPSB Chair looking at the OPS from both sides would be beneficial to Sutcliffe and the City.  

With that, let’s ring in the new council and let the fun begin!

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Thank you for reading this post; to catch all my posts and be notified as new ones come up, please follow me on WordPress.  I can be found on Twitter @robertdekker & @RedHrtBlueSign and on Facebook athttps://www.facebook.com/rob.dekker.54.  If you prefer email, please contact me at rdmedia@bell.net. 

#ONVote43: Where have the volunteers gone?

In my previous post on the Ontario election, lower voter turnout was lamented.  In this post I want to express concern over a trend I see of fewer volunteers coming forward.  I have been working on campaigns since 2004.  I’ve worked on federal, provincial and municipal campaigns and the frightening reality to me is that fewer people are coming out to volunteer and help on a campaign.  I hear that Election Canada and Elections Ontario also have the same issue, not having enough people to work on elections – and these two organizations PAY for the work.

Today, as I did last week, I want to look at three Ontario PC Campaigns, Thunder Bay-Atikoken, Toronto-Danforth and Ottawa Centre.  I’ll start in Thunder Bay and work south.

The Thunder Bay-Atikoken Ontario PC candidate was managed by a friend of mine, Derek Parks.  I called Derek on election night after his PC Candidate, Kevin Holland won and defeated the NDP incumbent.  It was the first win for the PC Party in that riding since 1985.  Speaking to Derek he described a falling out of the regular PC volunteers who had rallied behind another candidate for the nomination.  

Sometimes the nomination battles are fiercer and more divisive than the election. Despite winning the nomination, supporters of the failed nomination candidate did not rally behind the blue flag, it was a huge deficit for the Holland campaign to have to overcome.  They did, and Derek explained how he, the Candidate and 7 others carried the campaign to election day and the victory.  He said their campaign showed the power of social media.  I am so proud of how Derek and Kevin won the election; I am going to enjoy reviewing how they used social media to overcome a party volunteer revolt and have Thunder Bay-Atikoken turn blue after almost 40 years.

Heading down to the GTA, our next stop is Toronto-Danforth where former Ottawa Centre candidate Colleen McCleery was carrying the flag.  Colleen moved to Toronto shortly after the 2018 election and early in 2022 sought a riding to run in.  She had her sights in someplace other that Toronto-Danforth (TD), but settled on TD after talking to a few people, including me.  The riding President even pushed to have Colleen and I as a package deal; Colleen the candidate and me her campaign manager, as I had been 4 years earlier.  Knowing how the campaign went, I feel I should have gone to be there with her.  Two things kept me from that, I had committed to working in the Ottawa Centre campaign and as well my work would have frowned on the idea if I asked permission.

In TD, the NDP were the incumbent and won with a majority of the vote in 2018, the push from the PC association to Colleen and I was that the PC Candidate had the best showing the party has had for years.  The thing to remember here is that in 2018 it was a vote was against Kathleen Wynne and the Ontario Liberals.  

Heading into the campaign and assisting Colleen in the months leading up to the start of the election, we both knew were in trouble and that it wasn’t such a great idea to run in Toronto-Danforth.  We saw multiple occasions of the Riding board not stepping up.  An important fundraising event was cancelled because emails didn’t go out and tickets weren’t sold.  The sign co-ordinator never put up a single sign, the social media person posted perhaps five times on twitter and multiple attempts for volunteers to canvass and for board members to donate were met with the sound of crickets.  

Colleen canvassed from February to June, most days on her own and covered 18,000 homes in the riding.  Her team?  The campaign manager that did all he could while committed to working on a campaign for a PC MPP seeking re-election; the CFO and 2-3 other people that would come out when they could.

The riding association board let Colleen down, she was buoyed by a part-time campaign manager and 3 people that put up signs and went door to door with her.  These Riding Association Boards should be ashamed of themselves.  It was never a case of Colleen not doing her part, we knew the volunteers were there, even if it was only a few more – they just never cared to show up or acknowledge the request.

Heading east on the 401 and north on the 416 we get to Ottawa Centre, a riding I have run twice in and managed twice.  In those four elections the 2011 election was a struggle for help, I was unknown, and it was my first campaign as a candidate.  In the ’14 and ’18 elections there was a good number of volunteers so heading into ’22 I thought we would be OK and have the people to have a good campaign for our path to victory.  

Somehow in this election the volunteer base dried up.  All previous volunteers were contacted, some replied but most didn’t.  There was now a smaller pool of volunteers to draw and the Riding Board of Directors was smaller.  To follow our path to victory, we hired 7 youth to canvass evenings.  They would augment the plan we had for Scott and a few other volunteers that went door to door with candidate Scott Healey.  

In Ottawa though it wasn’t just Ottawa Centre, the volunteer base WAS smaller than in 2018.  One of the reasons for the smaller pool of volunteers was the Conservative Leadership race.  Volunteers were drawn to leadership campaigns, especially the one candidate from Ottawa. 

We also noticed the drop of volunteers with the Liberal Candidate, we didn’t see their volunteers out knocking on doors, which in the past has always happened and we never ran into volunteers from the NDP and Green campaigns.  When we door knocked, we didn’t see brochures from the other candidates.  It was bad.  In past years we always could count on 3-5 high school students on the campaign to collect hours of volunteer work, these hours were needed to graduate from High School.  This election, there were none.

The core team for Scott Healey was 7 people, and from there we added 5-6 people who did some lit dropping and of course we had contracted 7 others to work for Scott.

Unlike elections in other years, our campaign and others in Ottawa were asked to send all available volunteers to one of two campaigns that were in tight battles. These two ridings typically have a good volunteer base, it seems that even in tight battle areas, volunteers no longer want to engage and help their candidate, these campaigns had t0 recruit by seconding other campaign volunteers.

As someone that works on campaigns and volunteers on others, it is concerning to me that volunteer engagement is falling.  If you’re concerned about a dropping voter turnout, consider the campaign volunteers who actually help with voter engagement by delivering flyers, driving voters to the polling station, making phone calls and more.  Without volunteers there will be no campaign office.   Consider the impact fewer volunteers has on voter turnout.

Elections are more than just voters taking part, it’s also about campaign teams and the supporters of the candidates that give of their free time. Without volunteers our democracy suffers, the political campaign as we know it now will forever be changed if candidates can’t find volunteers and supporters.  

Where now there are campaigns with no volunteers, it isn’t too far before we can’t find candidates to run.  See you next week with that conversation.

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Thank you for reading this post; to catch all my posts and be notified as new ones come up, please follow me on WordPress.  I can be found on Twitter @robertdekker & @RedHrtBlueSign and on Facebook athttps://www.facebook.com/rob.dekker.54.  If you prefer email, please contact me at rdmedia@bell.net. 

Back to Life (Back to Reality)

With a nod to Soul II Soul for the title of this week’s post.  I encourage you to give this a listen and you will have the ear worm of the slow groove for the remainder of the day. 

It is a slow return to a regular routine.  I have decided to take a four-day weekend to get sorted and into an Ottawa groove.  The closest I have come to work is clearing my office inbox, prioritizing email to get my immediate attention when I am back full time back to work.  The second ‘work’ piece I did was take part in the regular Monday call, from this there were a few emails/phone calls to make.  From there it’s day to reclaim personal time. 

Now personal time doesn’t mean feet up and a snooze fest, on the contrary, it’s getting laundry done, unpacking and organizing the tech I took to Barrie.  I should add that at home we’re in a situation that the condo is 80% packed up as we prep for renovations that will start in the new year.  While I say I must clean up tech it also means that some will be packed away for a few months.  I’ll have to decide what is important and likely to be used prior to being moved out of the condo.  I’d like to think I’ll need any of the tech at any time, alas hard choices will need to be made.

Back to life meant a visit to the bookstore and stocking up on some good reads to get me through the rest of the year.  Below is what is waiting to be cracked open.  The last book I finished was in the third week of the campaign.  As the campaign rolled along it became more difficult to get the time to read.  I gave up any hope of reading a second book during the writ period.  The book I started when in Barrie was Nesrine Malik’s “We need new stories” and now I am looking forward to really getting my nose into this book.

the return of the book pile

I have some catching up to do in several other circles, including friends and co-workers that were also spread out across the country working on campaigns.  Since Erin O’Toole started a campaign review, I am looking forward to speaking to local campaigns and seeing if we had shared local experiences.  There is a provincial election coming in 9 months, I’ll be knee deep in Ottawa area campaigns and the local race in Ottawa Centre with the Ontario PC candidate Scott Healey.  

I will be finishing my term as Past-President of Daybreak Housing, there are other things happening that will be public soon enough.  Finally, I look to share thoughts on books, music, and life in general as Red Heart Blue Sign marks 10 years in the blogosphere next month. 

All this will be balanced with enjoying life at home with Liz and family, and hopefully another visit to Vancouver to see sweet Freya.

All this to say life doesn’t really slowdown, reality never goes away it just shifts gears and locations.  

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Thank you for reading this post; to catch all my posts and be notified as new ones come up, please follow me on WordPress.  I can be found on Twitter @robertdekker & @RedHrtBlueSign and on Facebook athttps://www.facebook.com/rob.dekker.54.  If you prefer email, please contact me at rdmedia@bell.net

Living the Dream (part II)

This weekend marks the end of a chapter. I am in Toronto to pass on my keys, ID and Blackberry that I had used since May 2015 when I joined the staff in Patrick Brown’s office in Queens Park. Not only do I hand over these items at Queens Park, but I am also closing up the 225 sq. feet that was home since last July last year. It was an important part of my #LivingtheDream (See the post “Transitioning to the Dream” June 6 2015) and the growth I have had in the past year. As odd as it seems that I mention growth, but it is true that growth happens at any age – old dogs do learn new tricks.

In the past year I learned that something I thought I loved doing was really something I really did love doing. To be able to turn an interest into a career is something everyone should be able to experience at least once. I am lucky to be able to say I have done that twice. The first occasion happened back in 1984 when I signed on to work in Stratford at CJCS 1240 first as a swing announcer before leaving in ’90 as the Afternoon Drive Announcer. Those 4.5 years produced friendships I maintain today.

It seems the jobs where the hours are as endless and the money does not always equal the energy are the ones we cherish the most.

The past year has allowed me to be closer to my parents and family and to enjoy many family occasions. I think back to Friday BBQ’s when I stayed in Burlington for a month, Christmas music service at the Church I attended as a youth, birthdays and chance to reconnect with high school friends.

Now on to Dream #2, the reason(s) I am back on Ottawa – Parliament Hill and looking at opportunities that first led me to Queens Park a year ago. But being back home also means that some challenges re-emerge, staying connected with my parents through distance and making the trips back to the GTA more often to see my family. I also think of challenges of being back home: NOT working 12-13 hours a day getting home alone because there is someone special there with you, being able to sleep in and choose not to do chores until the next day because it is only you.

There are things being left behind (besides family I talk about above): great restaurants, Liz coming to Toronto for a ‘tourist’ weekend and the very talented people at Queens Park that taught me what I know today. To be able to work with these smart young people gave this old dog some new tricks to take back to Ottawa – all these things will stay with me. Those that are able to work in government in legislative buildings all make the same comments – they are magical places to work and the honour and history of these buildings is felt every single day in every hallway you walk down.

But it is yet another transition, who is to say I won’t be back at Queens Park and write about Dream #3.

I can be found Twitter @robertdekker, @rdmediaottawa and on Facebook at http://tiny.cc/n5l97.

Ah, the sounds and sights of spri…swish ding ding

The budding of new leaves in the trees, the sprouting of crocuses and tulips after a winter of waiting to be encouraged to grow with warm spring sun is something I look forward to. I love the actions of nature signalling the coming of the new season and all that it means for us on two legs.

For many it means the breakout of runners, bikes, chariots, rollerblades and skateboards – all those fun activities.

It also means the breakout of runners, bikes, chariots, rollerblades and skateboards – all those activities that might scare the faint of heart pedestrians. It’s the coming of the bell rings, shouts of “on your left” and the swish of cyclists speeding by ‘owning’ the multi use paths across the city.

The NCC recently announced $57 Million for improvements in the Rideau Canal infrastructure. Outside of new paddle access points along the canal no specific improvements have been announced, I bet many pedestrians would be very happy if a portion on that would be spent on widening the paths along the canal and giving the paths a width that could make them accessible for ‘multiple use’.

In the same manner the increased year-long use of cyclists in the city has caused concern for drivers who are on the lookout for the unexpected cyclist , walkers along the pathway facilities are also on the lookout for a speeding cyclists along with increased use by e-bikes/scooters. It was not too long ago that wider urban sidewalks were part of new planning in our city and are now part of what we expect.  We should expect the same for our multiuser paths.

The City of Toronto has created wide ‘real’ multi use paths along it waterfront that provide space for cyclists, pedestrians and all would be marathoners. Such paths would be a great benefit to Ottawans and visitors that come to our great city, especially for Canada 150 next year.

Wider paths will provide a sense of relief for cyclists who do not have to use the roads if they chose to, but the wider paths will also give a sense of calm to pedestrians that jump at sound of the bells or a cyclist whizzing by – probably in the same manner that a cyclist fears the driver who is not paying attention and sharing the road with them.

We will have to wait for the intentions of the NCC and how the $57 million will be allocated – to the canal, to summer ‘animation’ of the canal or the improvement of the aging walking/running/cycling infrastructure along the Rideau Canal.

I can be found Twitter @robertdekker, @rdmediaottawa and on Facebook at http://tiny.cc/n5l97.

Transitioning to ‘the Dream’

I have been transitioning the past three weeks. I recently moved from Ottawa to Toronto to take a position in Queens Park with the Ontario PC Party. It has been a whirlwind three weeks that included a trip back to Ottawa for a weekend. Within three weeks there has been a Constituency week followed by two weeks of bills being passed in anticipation of the House adjourning for the summer. On Thursday of this week the House adjourned and will come back in to session on September 14^th.

I am now living the dream, or at least 75% of it – working in Ontario’s legislature. The dream is worth the move to Toronto, the home of the Blue Jays and Argos. I don’t mention the Leafs, but anticipate the onslaught of #TMLTalk (Toronto Maple Leafs Talk for those living outside the dome) will drive me crazy!

For the past three weeks it’s been a learning curve of procedures, legislative processes, committee hearings, bills and media scrums. I’ve been sitting in the House during question period and was in the House when our Lt-Gov., the Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell gave Royal Assent to the bills passed in the last two weeks before we adjourned for the summer. It’s a privilege for me to be there, one I will not take for granted.

What an amazing three weeks! It’s really been three weeks? That was fast! Fast BUT fun! I can’t thank the Ontario PC MPP’s, Staff and Patrick Brown for the warm and supporting welcome I have received.

I also need to mention a couple other Ottawans in Queens Park for helping out in the transitioning. I have run into Martin Canning, who I met years ago and have worked with as part of the Centretown Citizens Community Association, in the halls of the Legislature and we’ve had some good talks.   Yasir Naqvi, with whom I had a good relationship in and out of campaigns in Ottawa Centre, is always quick to ask how things going, and not always about the politics. Heck, I even got a “hey it’s Rob Dekker” from Mayor Jim Watson in Queens Park for “Ottawa Day” in my second week on the job!

Now that the House has adjourned and most everyone is gone back to his or her home ridings for the summer I look forward to research, working on Bills that have been introduced this week. I anticipate a few work trips, including the International Plowing Matches taking place in Eastern Ontario this September and the Association of Municipalities of Ontario in Niagara Falls in August.

I could not have made this move without the support of Liz, my kids, and my family in Toronto and Burlington. For now Toronto is base camp, but Ottawa will always be home.

As for the other 25% of living ‘the Dream’? That will come in 2018 and when I am elected to serve as an MPP in Queens Park.

I invite you to share your ideas by commenting to this post or any post on my blog. You can also email me directly at robdekkeroc@gmail.com.

I can be found Twitter @robertdekker, on Facebook at http://tiny.cc/n5l97.

Out of the ashes of the Glebe Fire: A case for new affordable housing

This week’s fire in the Glebe was tragic, seven businesses lost their home and 50 people have lost employment. There will be a rebuild, the owners of the building say it will rise again, as it was – a one-story building.

But should it stay the same? Isn’t there a case for more? Not a multi floor condo building but how about there now being a case for affordable rental units, somewhere to provide a home for singles, mothers with children and families?

When first built in the 70’s, our housing landscape was much different than it is now. Ottawa was a sleepy National Capital where the streets did roll up at 6pm. Today and 40 years later Ottawa is vibrant and now there is much activity late into the evening. As the city grew it attracted many people as a place to live. As populations grow, so do the pressures of housing, homelessness and poverty. Today there are 10,000 people on a waiting list for affordable housing.

The Glebe in the last few decades has also seen a transformation, especially with TD Place and Lansdowne Park now in place.

40 years later there is a higher demand for affordable housing that needs to be met. Local initiatives like “Broadening the Base” are good partnerships for the owners of the burned out building. The City of Ottawa also has programs that assist the private sector in creating affordable spaces. It becomes even more enticing for the City to be involved in since recent announcement that 10’s of Millions of dollars are coming to Ottawa from Queens Park to create spaces and help eliminate homelessness. Build into the equation that there are several top notch not for profit organizations that would be excellent partners for George Halel and Sam Bellama to fill these units.

Owners vow to rebuild burned Glebe structure 'just the way it was' http://t.co/JkVGR8GFQ4 #glebefire #community #ottnews @ottawacitizen

— Paula McCooey (@PaulaMcCooey) April 12, 2015

While George and Sam have balked at the suggestion of apartments, they also call the Glebe a good community. It’s a good community that needs new low rent units that can help others that need a good community. I think that the idea of adding more to the a good community is something that Messer’s Bellama and Halel need to seriously consider. Working with Capital Ward Councillor David Chernushenko may result with a quick approval of plans through the planning process and construction so that the businesses can be back home, but also so others might have a new one.

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I invite you to share your ideas by commenting to this post or any post on my blog. You can also email me directly at robdekkeroc@gmail.com.

I can be found Twitter @robertdekker, on Facebook at http://tiny.cc/n5l97.

Hello 2015, you`re looking alot like last year

They say that some politicians have a short ‘honeymoon period’, well in the “year of our lord” 2015 I think we can agree, the honeymoon is over. The only honeymoon that might have been shorter belongs to Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries. Perhaps we could ask for a do over and we declare January 28^th New Year’s Eve part 2 and as of 9pm that night we start 2015 all over again?

Consider these news items that have taken place within the 1^st 12 days of the year. Fresh off 49 shootings in 2014, the first of 2015 in Ottawa takes place on day 9 of 2015. By the 12^th of January 3 Ottawans had been arrested on terrorism charges and of course the tragic events in Paris took place within the first week of the year. We can look to past events in Ottawa, St-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Sydney that took place in the last quarter of 2014 as the events that pulled the past year into the new. We are struggling in each of these instances to make sense of why they happened and what needs to be done to prevent a further opportunity for a repeat.

In Ottawa, the Mayor, Police Chief and the Ontario Minister for Correctional Services met to find a way to have a, ‘exit strategy’ for young people leaving detention to prevent them from going back to the ‘gang family’. Looking for an ‘exit strategy’ could be no further than Bill C-10 and Mandatory minimums. Though the mandatory minimums are controversial, the Bill offers a chance for those convicted a chance to gain an ‘exit strategy’ rather than being let our much earlier with no strategy for live on the outside. Rob Sampson, Chair of the Correction Services of Canada Review Panel and a former Minister of Correctional Services in Ontario, states in several interviews that rather than an early release from prison where someone will likely go back to an old life and re-offend, a mandatory minimum provides the time for training and a chance for a new and different life, a life away from the gang family that seems to be large and growing in Ottawa.

A lot of 2014 seems to have steamrolled its way into 2015. We need to take the hope, good faith and good intentions that are still with us from 2014 into the New Year and make our communities safe, provide our youth with a promising future and teach restraint and respect for others.

If you need a re-do for New Year’s Eve, pick a day, time and do it – but after it’s done start fresh and let’s make the rest of 2015 the best we each can contribute for a better outcome than the start may have forecast.

I invite you to share your ideas by commenting to this post or any post on my blog. You can also email me directly at robdekkeroc@gmail.com.

I can be found Twitter @robertdekker, on Facebook at http://tiny.cc/n5l97.

Three items that got my attention this past week in the 2014 Ottawa Election

Finally, a Political Slate! Jim Watson says he does not believe in a slate of candidates. It’s a good thing others do – it’s made for some interesting election reporting.

The #PropertyOwnersSlate is comprised of 15 candidates led by Mark Scharfe, a Candidate in Osgoode Ward. The slate is made of all challengers, no incumbents – advocating for the return of weekly garbage pickup. Other issues in the group’s 4 point platform include the cancellation of the Green Bin program, giving Ottawa Hydro dividends back to its customers and the cancellation of the city biosolids program. However the return of weekly garbage pickup is the issue that is getting the traction that the group of 15 are looking for. Candidates in other wards, though not part of the slate including Matt Muirhead in Kanata North and Lili Weemen in Somerset have also come out in support of the idea.

It is difficult to determine how this will play out in the end, but at least it’s given the voters and the reporters something to talk about.

Let’s show School Board Trustee Candidates some of the electoral spotlight

Each property owner pays taxes that support the activity of the City; they also pay taxes that go to one of four school boards that educate the children of Ottawa. So quick tell me…who is running to be the school board trustee in in your zone for your school board? Do you know what zone you are voting in? Do you know what board you pay taxes to? I hope you can at least answer the third question.

But what about numbers one and two, can you answer them?

The Board Trustee Candidates in most wards have not had the opportunity to debate in front of those they are trying to get support from. Community Associations are focused on Council Candidates, as they should – the councillors will have to work closely with these communities. So who can organize these public forums and debates? How about the people closest to the schools, the Parent Councils in each of the schools?

If you have children in any of the four school boards, even if you don’t and are concerned about our education systems contact the Parent Council of your school, encourage them to work with other councils in your zone and organize a public meeting. Have the questions you need answered asked. Let the candidates tell you why they are seeking your vote – they need to do that and deserve the chance to have that opportunity.

#OttVote Advance Polls

I can now say I voted!

I voted last week at the Advance Poll that was in my building in Somerset Ward. The City estimates that over four days (the first three days to vote were October 1-3 in a special poll and Advance Poll October 9th) more than 28,000 people voted. In 2010, in just two advanced poll days 42,178 people took advantage of the early voting.

The poll clerks working in my building said that turnout was slow when Liz and I voted around 6pm. It did not surprise me that the election staff were not busy, the only signage announcing that the building was a poll location was inside, there were no signs or ‘sandwich boards’ outside inviting the public to vote indeed. To be fair, voters would have known about the location on the voters’ cards and via the city website – but I know a visible reminder does more than an unopened piece of mail with a voters’ card.

The next scheduled Advance Poll is Saturday October 18 2014. If you know you can’t vote on the 27^th – vote on the 18^th from 10am to 5pm. I await the final number of ballots cast in the five days of advance polls. The five are up from last year, but far below the 11 days of polls that the City of Mississauga (a city of 713,000 residents compared to Ottawa’s 900,000) has before election day.

But please, make sure you vote!

I invite you to share your ideas by commenting to this post or any post on my blog. You can also email me directly at robdekkeroc@gmail.com. I can be found Twitter @robertdekker, on Facebook at http://tiny.cc/n5l97.