Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Rob Gillezeau discusses how public health measures offer better results even in sheer economic terms than allowing an excess of activity which causes community spread. Joan Greve reports on the CDC's warning of another COVID wave if the U.S. gets careless while vaccines are still rolling out, while Moira Wyton also notes that the ultimate success of a vaccine still relies on people continuing to comply with public health requirements. And Les Perreaux and Ivan Semeniuk make the case for people to take a COVID-19 vaccine when it's offered, rather than shopping around based on minimal differences in effect.  

- Meanwhile, Ilari Kaila and Joona-Hermanni Makinen discuss how Finland chose to pass on a patent-free vaccine in favour of allowing the pharmaceutical industry to profit from its vaccination program. 

- Chuck Collins argues for a wealth tax based on how the pandemic has resulted in the further polarization of income and wealth. Randy Robinson writes about the differing effects of COVID-19 based on income - with higher-income individuals seeing few employment effects past last summer while other workers continue to see a significant impact. And Amanda Follett Hosgood points out the unfairness in the pattern of injunctions being granted to prohibit protests but not religious services and other gatherings which raise the risk of COVID transmission. 

- Brian Carney reports on e-mails confirming that the exchange of newspapers between Torstar and Postmedia was carried out with full knowledge that both planned to slash jobs and papers. And David Climenhaga juxtaposes that story with Torstar's new plan to operate an online casino. 

- Brett Dolter analyzes the results of a deliberative modelling process showing how Saskatchewan can transition toward a cleaner electricity grid. Max Fawcett notes that any argument for expanding fossil fuel infrastructure depends on wrongly assuming that technological progress will only happen in the dirty energy industry. David Fickling highlights the impact that China's anticipated climate plan figures to have on the global shift toward decarbonization. And Jasper Jolly reports that Volvo is the latest major automaker to confirm a shift to an all-electric fleet. 

- Finally, Sara Birrell discusses the success progressive organizers and candidates had in Saskatchewan's municipal elections. 

Saturday #yqrvotes Links

Having previously posted on voters' options, I'll offer one more roundup of the latest on Regina's municipal elections (for those who haven't joined the crowds voting early). 

- The lead up to election day has seen the Regina Public School Board take some additional steps to protect students, including by making masking mandatory at all ages and reducing the capacity of high schools by 50%. (Of course, it would help if either of those steps involved meaningful support from the province.)

- Sask Dispatch's coverage features Richelle Dubois and Michelle Stewart discussing defunding the police; John Klein and Carla Harris each writing about what the election means for transit; Joey Reynolds and Florence Stratton writing about ending homelessness; Saba Dar weighing in on the environment; and Jim Gallagher discussing Wascana Park.

- Heidi Atter reports on the appropriate calls for Regina's mayoral candidates to disclose their donors before the election - and the unfortunate choice of the main contenders to show no interest in letting people know what they're voting for.

- And Atter also reports on the results of EnviroCollective's candidate survey on renewable energy.

- Finally, Heather Persson makes the case for residents to exercise their right to shape the future of Saskatchewan's municipalities.

PINNED POST: On advance preparation

I've noted before that Scott Moe's spring election posturing prevented Elections Saskatchewan from putting together a full postal balloting system for this fall's provincial election. And I haven't yet heard of any municipalities going to a full vote-by-mail balloting system for their subsequent votes (though I'd be interested to hear if any are trying).

But that doesn't mean voters can't cast a ballot by mail - only that they'll need to be prepared well in advance in order to do so.

With that in mind, here are links to the mail-in ballot application processes for...

- Elections Saskatchewan (Application deadline has passed)

- City of Estevan (November 9)

- City of Martensville (Application deadline has passed)

- City of Meadow Lake (Application deadline has passed)

- City of Melfort (November 9)

- City of Moose Jaw (Application deadline has passed) 

- City of North Battleford (Application deadline has passed)

- City of Prince Albert (Online deadline has passed, November 9 in person)

- City of Regina (November 9) 

- City of Saskatoon (October 30 online, November 8 in person)

- City of Warman (Application deadline has passed)

- City of Weyburn (Application deadline has passed) 

Note that the timing of an application will be crucial. In most cases cities should be receiving applications by now, meaning that the primary concern is to make sure applications are sent in time to be received by the deadlines above.

Other cities including Lloydminster and Yorkton have approved of mail-in balloting processes, but don't appear to have detailed information available online. I'll update with links as they become available.

[This will be a pinned post throughout election season - I'll plan to update it as registration windows open and close.]

On stark choices

The advance polls are now open in Regina's municipal election, while mail-in ballots have been available for some time. So I'll take the opportunity to discuss voters' options - beginning with the City Council races which make for perhaps the most interesting set of possibilities we've seen in decades.

I've already pointed out Paul Dechene's view of the possible downsides. And Sara Birlios' report includes pessimism as to the prospect of achieving much through electoral means, especially at the municipal level.

But to the extent it's possible to make positive change through municipal government, this year's set of options provides a stronger prospect of that than any in recent memory.

To start with, there's at least some room to build on existing votes and relationships on Council, including a strong majority willing to voting for a renewable energy plan, and multiple votes from what I'd hope are safe Council seats to fund an anti-homelessness program.

From there, it's not hard to see how the election could plausibly result in a durable majority of progressive Council members, plus at least a couple of incumbents (one of whom has already been acclaimed) willing to work on issues as they arise.

Of course, the downside is that there's an equally foreseeable path to a Council littered with rank bigotry, planned giveaways to developers, reliance on overpolicing, and a bevy of anti-revenue rhetoric. We could realistically see John Findura remain the most backward councillor in the city on renewable energy based on his wanting to put off voting on a sustainability framework; we could also realistically end up saddled with a majority of councillors far worse than him on that and many other issues.

We've certainly approached municipal elections from a worse starting point than having a somewhat responsive Council, and an opportunity to elect better. And the uninspiring choices for mayor (which I'll address next) may seem a lot more palatable if we can do the work to elect councillors who will put people first.

So for those looking to make a difference (particularly after the disappointment of the provincial election), now is the time to get people out to support Cheryl Stadnichuk, Andrew Stevens, Dan LeBlanc, Shobna Radons, Shanon Zachidniak, Jason Mancinelli (as a cooperative councillor in a ward with no RDLC endorsement), and Landon Mohl.

Monday Morning Links

Assorted content to start your week.

- Robert Reich examines how a concerted attack on organized labour has pushed the vast majority of American workers into living paycheque-to-paycheque (or worse) while income and wealth have become increasingly concentrated at the top end of the spectrum:

Almost 80% of Americans say they live from paycheck to paycheck, many not knowing how big their next one will be.

Blanketing all of this are stagnant wages and vanishing job benefits. The typical American worker now earns around $44,500 a year, not much more than what the typical worker earned in 40 years ago, adjusted for inflation. Although the US economy continues to grow, most of the gains have been going to a relatively few top executives of large companies, financiers, and inventors and owners of digital devices.
...
(T)he share of total income going to the richest 10 percent of Americans over the last century is almost exactly inversely related to the share of the nation’s workers who are unionized. (See chart below). When it comes to dividing up the pie, most American workers today have little or no say. The pie is growing but they’re getting only the crumbs.

Over the same period time, antitrust enforcement has gone into remission. The US government has essentially given a green light to companies seeking to gain monopoly power over digital platforms and networks (Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook); wanting to merge into giant oligopolies (pharmaceuticals, health insurers, airlines, seed producers, food processors, military contractors, Wall Street banks, internet service providers); or intent on creating local monopolies (food distributors, waste disposal companies, hospitals).

This means workers are spending more on such goods and services than they would were these markets more competitive. It’s exactly as if their paychecks were cut. Concentrated economic power has also given corporations more ability to hold down wages, because workers have less choice of whom to work for. And it has let companies impose on workers provisions that further weaken their bargaining power, such as anti-poaching and mandatory arbitration agreements.
...
The combination of high corporate profits and growing corporate political power has created a vicious cycle: higher profits have generated more political influence, which has altered the rules of the game through legislative, congressional, and judicial action – enabling corporations to extract even more profit. The biggest losers, from whom most profits have been extracted, have been average workers. 

- William Davies points out how the trumped-up complaints about campus free speech peddled by the right serve primarily to distract from the takeover of most other spaces by the corporate sector. And Nora Loreto comments on the deliberate choice by right-wing pundits to stoke fear and hatred in the wake of the Toronto Danforth shooting.

- Robert Booth exposes how a UK right-wing "think tank" has been actively selling both research outcomes, and access to the Con government. 

- Alan Freeman points out the fiscal price of mindless populism. And Tom Parkin highlights the need for a plan for citizens to organize against the authoritarian tendencies of the likes of Doug Ford.

- Finally, Edward Keenan calls out Ford's choice to gratuitously undermine municipal democracy for the sole purpose of wreaking vengeance against perceived political opponents.

#yqrvotes - Election Day Resources

While I haven't written much about Regina's municipal election (except for the column linked here), I'll point out a few of the resources worth considering before casting ballots today.

Again, Elections Regina's official information is here.

The Queen City Improvement Bureau's blog offers an opportunity to hear some of the candidates in action, while its latest podcast includes some analysis and predictions. CBC summarizes a few of the stories it's covered, while also pointing out how a lack of party structure leads to apathy at the municipal level. John Klein offers his choices among the candidates.

And while I won't put together a full set of endorsements or predictions, some of the candidates I'll encourage people to give a closer look include:
- Ward 3 - Andrew Stevens
- Ward 4 - Asfaw Debia
- Ward 6 - Shelley LaVallee
- Ward 7 - Leanne McKay
- Ward 9 - Aidan Wotherspoon
- Ward 10 - Brian Sklar
- Subdivision 2 - Aleana Young
- Subdivision 3 - Nathaniel Cole
- Subdivision 4 - Misty Longman
- Separate School Board - Wendy Gervais, Marg Romanow

#yqrvotes Endorsements

As promised, I'll close off my posting about the municipal elections with a quick round of endorsements.

I won't try to cover all of the wards and races, nor will I suggest that any of the candidates share all of my personal views as to how our city should be run. Instead, but I'll focus on those where the difference between candidates seems most likely to have a meaningful impact on Regina's governance for the years to come.

Mayor - Marian Donnelly

It's difficult to stand out in a field of nine candidates, but Donnelly looks to me to be at the head of the pack for both electability and policy. And with the Wall government looking to drive cultural activity out of the province, Donnelly's strong ties to Regina's arts community should help to fight the tide.

Ward 1 Councillor - John Klein

I've had my differences of opinion with Klein through our respective blogs - largely where the political conversation has turned to partisanship rather than issues of values. But he's been working to foster both democratic discussion and sustainable policy choices for years, and both would make for important themes on council.

Ward 2 Councillor - Heather McIntyre

Even among the candidates discussed in this post, McIntyre stands out as a must-support addition to council. She's been consistently active in municipal and provincial politics over the past few years, and has managed to work effectively with longtime power brokers and new volunteers alike without losing her core values.

Ward 3 Councillor - Shawn Fraser

As usual, there are plenty of progressive candidates running in Ward 3 - and there are at least a couple of others who would earn my endorsement in most of the city's wards. But based on Fraser's personal experience working to address Regina's most glaring social needs, he looks to be far better positioned to chart a more progressive course for the entire council rather than being limited to a support role.

Ward 5 Councillor - Femi Ogunrinde

In a ward which otherwise features an uninspiring race between two past Councillors jockeying for position as the insider candidate, Ogunrinde has made a strong case based on both general accountability and specific policy concerns focused on housing, transportation, infrastructure and community development.

Ward 9 Councillor - Dawn Thomas

Any of the challengers would make for a huge improvement over the incumbent Terry Hincks. But Thomas stands out as a driving force behind the city-wide stadium petition - and that commitment to giving citizens a voice should make for a valuable addition to council.

Subdivision 1 Public School Board Trustee - Jane Ekong

Ekong's message of greater integration between the school system and post-school life offers a valuable template for educational development. And a stellar resume makes it all the more likely that the rest of the school board will work with the concept.

Subdivision 3 Public School Board Trustee - Heather Lau

In a division where the other three candidates are effectively running status-quo campaigns, Lau is rightly pointing out the problem with school closures which create a disconnect between neighbourhoods and schools, as well as promising to advocate for students who require extra help.

Subdivision 6 Public School Board Trustee - Lauren Numrich

Of course, older schools can only be kept open if they're properly maintained. And alongside a strong general platform, Numrich is rightly highlighting the need for ongoing investment in our existing schools.

Separate School Board Trustee - Kendra Strong-Garcia

Like many of the candidates, Strong-Garcia brings a strong education and work background of her own to the city-wide race for the separate school board. But Strong-Garcia supplements that with a noteworthy combination of inclusiveness toward marginalized students, and an emphasis on modernizing both the classroom and the board.

Separate School Board Trustee - Nicole Sarauer

Finally, Sarauer is a former work colleague of mine who has already stepped away from private-firm legal practice to work for Pro Bono Law Saskatchewan, and is looking to add a place on the separate school board to that spirit of working toward the greater good.

Needless to say, I'll encourage all readers who haven't yet decided who to support to research Regina's candidates, then get out and vote. And hopefully, we'll see more than a few candidates from the above list joining a strong group of new city and school board representatives by this time tomorrow.

The litmus test

Regina's municipal election is fast approaching - with advance voting set to begin this week. Unfortunately, the sheer volume of candidates (which, to be clear, I take to be a positive sign as to public interest in the election) will limit my ability to write about all of the options individually. But I'll take some time to discuss both the criteria I'm looking for in determining who to support, and a few candidates who look particularly promising as potential additions to Regina's municipal governing bodies.

At the outset, in the absence of a party system, it's absolutely essential for a successful municipal representative to be able to work with others and try to build consensus around issues. It's possible to make plenty of noise criticizing the status quo, but impossible to actually bring about change without some ability to reach out to others who won't agree on all issues.

But a healthy interest in cooperation shouldn't be seen as a reason to turn the city's governing bodies into closed clubs with no interest in listening to public input. And that's where matters have gone off the rails in recent years: all too often, our representatives have done nothing but circle the wagons and shut down debate on issues which plainly call for serious discussion.

What's more, in addition to ensuring that representatives are out of touch generally, that philosophy also ensures that city policy is easily captured by the big-money special interests who have hand-selected so many of our candidates.

So my two-part test for municipal candidates is this. Does the candidate hold a strong enough core of values to ensure that he or she will be more than just a yes-person parroting whatever schemes get drawn up for a rubber-stamp? And at the same time, does the candidate have the inclination and skill to put those values into practice by working with others?

Needless to say, the above isn't an easy test to meet. But again, I'll offer a few suggestions in a future post.

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Sid Ryan takes on the Harper/Hudak double-team effort to prevent workers from having any voice in our political direction:

(T)here can be little doubt that what really offends Hudak is the fact that union members pool their resources to participate in municipal, provincial and federal elections. When voters pulled the rug out from under Hudak's 2011 electoral campaign, he blamed Harris-weary union members for campaigning against him and running television ads to expose his agenda.

It is no coincidence that Hudak released his 20 page attack on basic workers' rights immediately after an Ontario court struck down -- for the third time -- his legal challenge against the Working Families Coalition ads. A defiant Conservative MPP, Lisa MacLeod (Nepean -- Carleton), told reporters: "we will continue to fight this in the court of public opinion." And fight they did -- issuing their call for all workers to be stripped of their collective rights.

Stripped to its core, Hudak's vision is not about "modernizing" the labour market in the interests of prosperity for all. He seeks to usher in an era of permanent uncertainty for all working people to the overwhelming benefit of corporations. To accomplish this task, Hudak must neutralize his opponents in every possible arena, from the workplace to elections.

-  Meanwhile, Paul Krugman hurts some high-roller fee-fees:

“Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.” So wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald — and he didn’t just mean that they have more money. What he meant instead, at least in part, was that many of the very rich expect a level of deference that the rest of us never experience and are deeply distressed when they don’t get the special treatment they consider their birthright; their wealth “makes them soft where we are hard.”

And because money talks, this softness — call it the pathos of the plutocrats — has become a major factor in America’s political life. 
...
Not only do many of the superrich feel deeply aggrieved at the notion that anyone in their class might face criticism, they also insist that their perception that Mr. Obama doesn’t like them is at the root of our economic problems. Businesses aren’t investing, they say, because business leaders don’t feel valued. Mr. Romney repeated this line, too, arguing that because the president attacks success “we have less success.”

 This, too, is crazy (and it’s disturbing that Mr. Romney appears to share this delusional view about what ails our economy). There’s no mystery about the reasons the economic recovery has been so weak. Housing is still depressed in the aftermath of a huge bubble, and consumer demand is being held back by the high levels of household debt that are the legacy of that bubble. Business investment has actually held up fairly well given this weakness in demand. Why should businesses invest more when they don’t have enough customers to make full use of the capacity they already have?

But never mind. Because the rich are different from you and me, many of them are incredibly self-centered. They don’t even see how funny it is — how ridiculous they look — when they attribute the weakness of a $15 trillion economy to their own hurt feelings. After all, who’s going to tell them? They’re safely ensconced in a bubble of deference and flattery. 

-  pogge nicely sums up why we shouldn't be too quick to ascribe bad motives to Elections Canada - while at the same time making clear that we do need to keep a close eye on its actions in dealing with the Robocon electoral fraud and other key issues.

- John Geddes offers his take on the parts of Canada's system of government that have served us well in comparison to the U.S.:

John Palmer, the former top federal banking watchdog, told me for this story a couple of years ago that the key to Canada’s 1996 reforms was that the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions was given the authority to issue highly discretionary instructions to banks as dubious lending patterns or other vulnerabilities on their balance sheets took shape. So the subprime mortgage portfolios taken on by U.S. banks before the 2008 market meltdown would have set off OSFI’s alarms, at least in theory, before they grew so recklessly huge.

The willingness and ability of Ottawa to impose this more assertive banking regulation tells us something. So do the persistence of higher Canadian taxes and the resilience of federal transfers for provincial social programs. Only a few years ago, regulation, taxation and social spending were routinely cited as serious Canadian economic liabilities. Lately, you don’t hear that so much.

- Finally, yet another study has confirmed a link between wealth gaps and health outcomes - in this case finding an infant mortality rate twice as high in inner-city Saskatoon as elsewhere in the city. And on a related note, CUPE's Wants Vs. Needs site looks to be nicely framing the choice for Regina voters in this fall's municipal elections.

On mixed messages

In general, last night's municipal election results seem to reflect loads of narrowly-missed opportunities for positive change. And a lack of citizen interest figuring to be the main culprit.

For example, Heather McIntyre fell just short of winning ward 2 in a race whose numbers look like an instant replay of the Hutchinson/Shreesh Juyal contest of 2006 - except that the nearly 2,000 votes which went to a third candidate last time out stayed home. John Conway came within 150 votes of beating out Fred Clipsham - and again, about 2,000 less people voted in the ward this year than in 2006. Indeed, while a few of the 2006 ward vote totals look to have disappeared into the ether, it looks like the only ward where the 2009 winner had substantially more votes than the 2006 victor was Ward 1 - and that primarily due to the fact that there were only 3 candidates instead of 9.

Of course, it's disappointing both that public interest in the elections dropped off so precipitously from its already-minimal levels, and that we won't have more direct positive change to show for all the hard work that went into the elections. But it's also worth noting that the incumbents can hardly feel particularly comfortable either, particularly to the extent any may have actually believed that the "83% council approval" number would be reflected in the vote totals.

Rather than being able to rely on any favourable public impressions to coast to easy victory, two of the incumbents fell and three more hung on by the skin of their teeth. And not a single one of the council candidates actually reached 83% of the vote in yesterday's results - with 2006 upstart Mike O'Donnell coming closest at 75% in ward 8.

So while there wasn't much of a mandate for change, nor was there any particular groundswell of support for the current direction of the city council. Which should give all sides reason to spend a lot more time and effort building citizen interest than they seem to have done over the last three years.

For more about the elections, see LRT and Dog Blog.

On updated information

For those looking for news about Regina's municipal elections before the final results are in, the ReginaElections Twitter feed is worth a look. There's nothing surprising in the reports yet (one would expect the polls in Ward 3 to be busy and those in ward 9 to be quiet in the absence of a council race) - but stay tuned for "estimated return updates" to come at 1 and 6.

Voting information

Dog Blog has set up a handy FAQ of where, when and how to vote in Regina. Polls are open from 9 AM until 8 PM; be sure to vote if you haven't already.

Deep thought

I'm sure there's a good reason why the pundits who regularly slammed the idea of collaborative efforts in municipal politics back in 2006 haven't bothered to mention that most of Regina's council incumbents are singing from the same hymn book.

Worth a visit

If you're looking for more information about next week's Saskatchewan municipal elections, a couple of mainstream media sites which you may not have seen may be worth a look.

First, the CBC has introduced a interactive map featuring notes from dozens of municipalities. The content isn't as detailed as would be ideal, but the site nonetheless looks to be easily the best single source for at least an overview of news from across the province.

Meanwhile, Dave Hutton's City Hall Notebook is providing regular and in-depth coverage of developments in Saskatoon's races. Consider this one time where it would be a plus if CanWest papers actually were a bit more uniform in their priorities, as the Leader-Post is sorely lacking for anything of the sort (in fact you'll find more about Regina's races in Hutton's recent archives than on the Leader-Post's newsblog).

On self-promotion

Number of Canadian cities on Bon Jovi's "The Circle" tour: 5
Number of Canadian cities whose mayor launched himself in front of every available camera to claim full credit for Bon Jovi's "The Circle" tour: 1

Just a thought, but maybe Pat Fiacco might have time to participate in the occasional open public debate if he wasn't confusing the mayor's position with that of a concert promoter.

A culture of entitlement

The examples of insularity and patronization at City Hall seem to be piling up just in time for Regina's voters to decide as to who they want representing them on Council. Following up on the examples of Wade Murray and Jerry Flegel, we now have Pat Fiacco refusing to participate in any debate other than the $45 breakfast sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce - arguing in the process that he's too busy occupying the mayor's office to justify why he thinks he should be re-elected to the position.

And for an added bonus, Paul Dechene points out an anonymous councillor's suggestion that challengers should be glad to avoid public debates on the premise that they might not know "the details of how municipal government works or even the minutiae of what council's been up to lately". That claim of course runs counter to the reality that it's normally frontrunners with plenty of name recognition who seek to avoid debates so as to prevent anybody else from building a message about them (see Fiacco, Pat above). But more importantly, it also looks to reflect a stunning degree of arrogance and ignorance in the assumption that challengers won't have done their homework as to what's happening in the city before putting their names forward.

So multiple members of the current Council have now effectively suggested that Regina should simply assume they know best, rather than defending any of their actions on the merits. And that should only provide reason to worry that the same attitude of infallibility might be pushing those same councillors to be equally dismissive of the concerns of citizens in general.

On new resources

For those looking for a central resource for information about Saskatchewan's municipal elections, take a look at SaskProgressive - a new site put together by a group including yours truly. There you can check out what's been going on so far in some of Saskatchewan's progressive campaigns - and even more importantly, you can help keep us and our readers updated on what's going on in the races (particularly in smaller municipalities) which may not have received the exposure they deserve.

Municipal Election Breakdown - Regina Ward 10

With the municipal elections looming in the near future, I'll take some time to count down the Regina council races. For a full list of candidate bios and other resources, see the City's Council page.

Ward 10 figures to hold the most public attention of all of the Regina contests, thanks largely to the fact that Chris Szarka's entry has won it more attention in local sports media than most of the races have seen anywhere. But what should voters be looking out for when they go to the polls? Here's my take on each of the candidates based on their publicly-available material, as well as my endorsement for the ward.

Michael Cassano - video profile

Cassano was the last contestant to enter the race, and figures to face an uphill battle against the incumbency advantage of Jerry Flegel and the star power of Szarka. But a strong resume would seem to offer him a chance to stay in the race if combined with an equally inspiring platform or policy vision.

Unfortunately, Cassano disappoints somewhat on that point. While he mentions a few priorities like housing, traffic and noise control, his video presentation focuses almost entirely on his past committee involvement under a "volunteerism" theme, and his and candidate announcement and bio make "pride" a central message. Of course those are important values in a public servant, but they don't say much about what Cassano would be expected to do on Council.

Jerry Flegel - video profile

I noted here how remarkable it was that Wade Murray's campaign message includes an attempt to preserve the entire council rather than to focus on his own personal merits. But Flegel doesn't only do the same in his candidate bio; he also goes a step further in his video profile, leaving as his lasting impression a poll about the public's views of the current Council rather than any summary of his positions or priorities.

But then, there might be reason for a choice to send a "stay the course" message without highlighting what that course actually is. Flegel's video profile pays lip service to concerns like green space and snow removal in a seeming effort to round out his platform. But it's telling both that this mention comes only after his primary focus on MEGAPROJECTS!!!, traffic and taxes - and even more importantly that his list of accomplishments is based on roads rather than parks.

In fairness, Flegel's recognition of a need to appeal to different types of constituencies combined with his time on Council so far might make him relatively open to working with a better set of councillors from elsewhere in the city. But if the best hope for a potential councillor is that he'll be influenced by others rather than following through on his past record, that's usually a sure sign that it's time for a change.

Chris Szarka - video profile

Szarka may well be the favourite to win the ward, as his name recognition and popularity from his time with the 'Riders may well outweigh Flegel's incumbency advantage. Unfortunately, though, Szarka's public platform is maddeningly vague, pairing a regular refrain about lowering property taxes with talk about unspecified services, along with a commitment to the "fundamentals for viable, thriving communities" which doesn't explain what those fundamentals might be.

I'd be particularly interested to hear exactly what Szarka means by that latter phrase, and it could be that it would resolve some of the concerns I'd have with Szarka's direction. But at this stage of the game, it's tough to escape the fact that Szarka hasn't yet defined himself as much more than a familiar face.

Endorsement

From the above, it shouldn't be tough to tell that none of the Ward 10 candidates looks to be a slam dunk in my books. But for a combination of new blood on council and some focus on housing and culture issues, the choice here is Michael Cassano.

Breaking the silence

The Leader-Post reports on how quiet the Regina municipal elections have been to date. And it's all too true that there's been somewhat less talk about the election than one would hope for so far.

But for those looking for some of the discussion which hasn't yet been processed for media consumption, the City has posted video statements from a large number of candidates - and some are going beyond that in bringing their ideas to voters.

On exclusivity

Far too much political commentary seems to be based on the idea of drawing distinctions between the interests of the unwashed masses and their ruling betters. But it isn't often that a candidate goes so far as to campaign on the idea of keeping out any new blood lest it interfere with the club currently in charge.

Which brings us to Wade Murray:

Ward 6 -- In this northeast and central Regina ward, incumbent Coun. Wade Murray is seeking a third term based on his hard work for the community through participation at the ground level and track record at council. He plans to work to implement the many studies undertaken by the city. He noted his goal is to "keep council a cohesive group"...

Needless to say, it seems unlikely that there are more than about 11 people in the city who are more concerned with preserving the chumminess within the departing council than with making sure that the next council listens to their concerns. And if the best argument Murray can muster to try to defend his seat is that he thinks City Hall should be protected from anybody who might have new ideas to offer, then he'd seem to be ripe for replacement.