The Rumour of my Demise has been Greatly Exaggerated

Picking through the bones …………..

Aw Shucks, thanks you guys!!! I am talking about all the words of encouragement I got earlier when I hinted I might be heading off into the blogging sunset. You guys need to go back and read the end of my last post again, I merely said I would be slowing things down from the break neck speed of two and three posts a day to a more manageable two to three posts a week.
I want to very publicly congratulate (except Kevin Lloyd, I will get to that in a minute) all the people that were elected to council last night including our Mayor Sandra Cooper. I must eat those sour grapes (never post after drinking 5 pints of Granville Island) that I put forth last night because she obviously can’t be that “feckless and ribbon cutting” she has managed (in spite of my best efforts) to get herself re-elected again with a huge margin, obviously by many of my readers. I start my dealings now with Sandra, with a new found respect and a blank slate.

Best run campaign, by a country mile was Bob Madigan’s all the razzmatazz of a US election campaign complete with buttons and a larger than life Bob holding court outside Mad Dogs glad handing and back slapping. Bob mobilized his base then expanded on it – textbook politicking. Reminded me of the Rob Ford campaign 4 years ago. I prepared a post at 5pm yesterday evening changing my election predictions to Bob being elected and putting Steve into the also ran’s. But decided against it. Not a nice thing to do at that time in an election campaign, so I refrained from posting.

Worst run campaigns tie between Steve Berman and Betty Donaher. Steve started off with a base and did not do a thing with it. Betty came in late with a lot of wishful thinking and very little else. People – word to the wise; you cannot run for political office, especially municipally, without putting up election signs. It’s all about name recognition.

The one that made me eat a great big crow pie, legs, head, feathers, beak and all was Cam Ecclestone. I just did not see that one coming. After an early spat with Cam I pretty much ignored him and he me. Apparently he knocked on over 3,000 doors. That was the part that I did not find out until last night, if I had known that I would not have treated Cam with such deference.

Now its time to do a great big what if. What if Hurricane Sandy had withdrawn from the race on Friday 12th September instead of Wednesday 17th and was not on the ballot??? For this to work you need to click back and forth to the earlier post with the election results. Here’s what I say would have happened. Rick Crouch gets in because he picks up a few of those extra votes by default. Kevin Lloyd does not get in the very last spot by 40 votes because I say most of the people that voted for Lloyd also voted for Cunningham I also say that as much as Chadwick tried to convince us otherwise a lot of folks will make full use of their voting franchise and will mark all 7 candidates. I say that Dale West had all the votes he was going to get because he was marked on most of the same ballots as Cunningham. So some of those extra 1,516 votes that are floating around go to Gail or Jim. Now this is no slight against Bob , I am not insinuating voting bloc or anything else. I just don’t think many of those Cunningham votes go to Bob because through name recognition alone, he is already marked on many of those same ballots going to Cunningham. The opposite holds true with Steve Berman with this crowd no name recognition so no votes going there. Now go back to the results quickly and imagine how those 1516 votes get distributed. Paints a very different picture at the bottom of the 7 elected councillors doesn’t it? Its no wonder many people are thinking this was a final middle finger to people like myself and others that were quite vocal in their criticism of the previous council.

I was a bit down last night, I was thinking I had failed in my quest for change (never post after drinking 5 pints of Granville Island). In retrospect I think I had a bit to do with exposing Ian Chadwick and him not getting re-elected. My constant nattering about voting blocs and Hurricane Sandy may have made his decision not to run a little easier. I think I cost Rick Lloyd a couple of votes but Brian Saunderson was a very strong candidate and Rick Lloyd’s baggage finally caught up with him. I hope that I helped Deb and Kathy a little. Tim was getting in anyway never any doubt. My one major disappointment was Rick Crouch. In his case I may have hurt his campaign rather than helped it.

From around August on, I did not think Chris Carrier could get in. the perception from too many directions was that he had too much baggage from his previous term as mayor. It’s too bad because I think Chris has matured a lot since then, but many of you obviously disagreed with me. Hopefully Sandra Cooper now has a chance to shine without the constant nattering of Rick Lloyd in her ear. I fear the worst though.

Final conclusion? This election was fought to a draw. One side can claim it maintained a presence on council with its Mayor still in place, a member of its voting bloc still firmly entrenched in council. Plus some fallow fields to plough. The other can claim it now has a new vibrant Deputy Mayor who will not put up with any nonsense, a very smart councillor who garnered the most votes and a couple of other councillors who will push a change agenda. Interesting times ahead.

What have I learned from all this? There was a whole other election campaign going on outside my little bubble and sphere of influence. I have to stop being judgmental and need to be more objective when I interact with people. Last but not least, I will never post after drinking 5 pints of Granville Island.

It all starts again on 1st December. this time around I will be there right from the start. Commenting, poking fun at, criticizing. Those in council with thinner skins may have a sharp learning curve, because VFAN will be back baby!!!