Archive for the ‘Community’ Category

A great big thank you to all who voted for me. It would have been great if someone more known than myself could have knocked Mr.Crouse out of office. I feel really bad for St. Albert at this point. I am disappointed that dishonesty has prevailed once again. I have learned how important it is for people to get involved and understand what and who they are actually voting for. I am very disappointed with most of the picks for our new council. The couple of genuine members will have a tough go of it.

I still have faith that this election will be a landmark for democracy and voter turnout will be huge. It’s a whole different perspective from inside the political forum and it is far worse than I expected. I have to honestly think that  things cannot possibly be as dishonest as they are currently and not have people see past the screen. Today as I open the newspapers and see how much money has been spent for full page lies. Current council is claiming stellar status  for a job poorly done. Experience at a poor performance is applauded. We have people claiming to care for people they would not a lend an ear to for years past. We have those who write nasty letters under alias names claiming others should be transparent. Stereotypes do begin with truth and members of our current council are about as stereotype as you can get. I still have to believe that the citizens of St. Albert will not be fooled by fools. St. Albert deserves and needs a new council.

Happy Thanksgiving to all. This past week has been extremely busy. I have enjoyed meeting with many different groups and many different ages. Many have provided to me further ideas about ways to improve  bicycle travel, addressing the doctor shortage, housing options and a whole list of other thoughts. I am thankful for the support. I am thankful that people are getting excited to get involved. I am thankful that I am meeting many new and unique people. I am thankful for the opportunity to be running for Mayor. I am thankful to those who have already voted for me.

Just over two weeks until election day. It’s dog eat dog time and a time where we will see some true academy performances. Every one trying to shine above the others and the new with a passion to succeed. I watch as platforms morph into a mix of whose idea was this anyway. Current council should not be at this point saying they are going to get to the bottom of something they had three years to do. A kept promise of listening to the people is the only success at the end of the day. Watch the eyes as they speak to you and let’s hope the end result is the beginning of a new success.

It is my hope to work with the citizens of St. Albert in many areas. There are some great and creative ideas coming to me from the public already. People of St.Albert care very much about their city and should be entitled input on the way in which the city grows or changes. The people need to be kept in touch and informed. There are currently so many issues in St. Albert of which the public has next to no information about. Many people want to contribute but many feel left out by council or the process. It is time to start engaging the public.

Mayor: One who has the responsibility of representing not only those who elect them, but all citizens. A resource for citizens to go to for solving problems. One who presides over public welfare.

It would seem to me that our current Mayor does not represent many of the citizens of St. Albert. It would also seem to me that the current Mayor is more often a contender than a resource. It would also seem to me that the current Mayor is not presiding over the public welfare of the people of St. Albert but is on his own agenda making . The public is often having to try and defend itself against the Mayor paired up with outside interests. The Mayor is not a suitable representative of what the core of St. Albert is.

Some would argue the importance of experience. I would argue the importance of remaining true to the term. Experience has no meaning if it is only used in pursuing ones own agenda.  Experience at doing a job is of no value, if the job is not getting done. It is my intention to honor the term, Mayor.

I love writing a blog and I love St. Albert. I love people and enjoy listening to others thoughts, concerns and knowledge. What I do not enjoy is all of the spam notes I get where people are commenting as a means of advertising. I know that is very important to hear from the people and be able to acknowledge their concerns. Please feel free to e-mail me directly rather than commenting on blog as it is difficult to distinguish the real from not. As well the healing credit website that added my name to their sight, did so without my or knowledge or permission(Very tricky and very not nice). I do not support this business in any way.

I am of the thought that council meetings could be scheduled at a time that would be more public user friendly. Many people have not even finished their work day or are in the midst of fighting traffic on St. Albert trail at the time that regular council meetings are now scheduled. Public input is imperative for making good representative decisions. Also, when community members can get out to a meeting it is also a great community meeting point. I would like to see a minimum of one evening meeting a month. Communication is key.

As I get further into campaigning if you can call it that, I prefer the term visiting, I realize how much people have to say. I’ve alway’s loved  visiting with people and it is often the people that you would least expect that you learn the most from. Those I have spoken with to date have been very kind. Some will look at you with that not another politician look at first introduction(the look I’ve probably given others many times), but most seem to immediately realize I am not just another politician. I’m definitely not near as polished at public speaking as some, as I am used to more personal interaction, but I also realize just as long as I am honest, I can remain comfortable that the public events will get easier each time. I’ve enjoyed all kinds of people in my years working with the public and I plan to continue doing so. Today I met with many age groups. Today I heard that many are worried about St. Albert becoming just like Edmonton. So many want St. Albert to remain at least as beautiful as it currently is. Many wanted to vent about Servus Place and not being happy with the facility or the cost to them personally. I believe the public does want to be heard on so many fronts currently and I also believe this election will be the start of people being interested in their city again. I strongly believe most people are at the point where they just want someone to listen.

Everyone is often so busy nowadays that they in fact don’t have a minute to pay attention to what is going on in their own cities. We all know there are people running the city and certainly we hope for the best but really many are not aware. It is amazing to me how many people I speak to that still do not have any idea of the DARP plan, or many of the other plans for the city. There are also many that are not even aware of many of our bylaws. People will protest but often not until something is going on in their own back yard and often by this point the protest is too late. How much time does it take to notice- I would say a lot. A great number of our current issues all seem to reflect land use issues and they all have one thing in common, they are long and drawn out debates about ways to break the rules or work around the rules for land use. Why is the city at a point where it wants to break the rules, but is constantly creating new rules for it’s citizens. I think that many people are of the impression that land use rules put into place long ago will remain to protect their properties and their city, but this is currently not the case. It is my passion to get people to notice again. Being that we are all very busy and it would take a few people a lot of time to take notice to protect the direction of their city, I would like to see a lot of people each taking a little time to get things back on track. We can never be too busy to notice whether it be with our family, our neighbors, our community or even our city- they all require care.