Municipal Election Breakdown - Regina Mayoralty

For election day let's add one more post to the series. The result of the mayoralty race probably isn't in much doubt, but it's still worth taking a slightly closer look at what each of the candidates have to offer and what we can expect later today.

Jim Elliott - video profile

Until Elliott entered the race, it looked far too plausible that Fiacco might get acclaimed. Rather than letting that happen, Elliott has done an effective job at least calling Fiacco out on a few of his more problematic points.

But while it's great that Elliott has stepped up to ensure Fiacco doesn't get an entirely free pass, there's little indication that Elliott's previous electoral experience will position him to draw many voters out to the polls. Indeed, the 2006 Ward 6 council campaign in which Elliott came in a distant second behind Wade Murray saw by far the lowest turnout of any of the city's wards - meaning that there's little reason to expect Elliott to bring out many voters who weren't planning on voting anyway (and conversely plenty of potential support for Brenda Mercer to try to appeal to in that ward).

What will be interesting to see is the comparison between Elliott's result and that of Jim Holmes in 2006. On paper Holmes would seem to have been a stronger candidate, meaning that any significantly better result for Elliott would seem to either point to the stadium issue as galvanizing somewhat more opposition to Fiacco than anything that was presented three years ago, or reflect the media backlash against the CCFR's party concept.

Pat Fiacco - video profile

I've probably said all that needs to be said about Fiacco here. In fairness to Fiacco he at least pays lip service to a broad range of issues - but it's hard not to see that as more a matter of strategy than any personal commitment to any particular policy cause.

Linda White

In theory, White's last-minute entry may have had the potential to radically reshape the race. At the beginning of the race, there was plenty of opportunity for another candidate besides Elliott to become the main opposition to Fiacco by combining a strong stance on the issues with a compelling personal story. And White's poignant personal history combined with her unabashed self-description as a "social service recipient" seemed like a combination with the potential to at least make voters who don't often see the effects of poverty rethink some of their assumptions about it.

Instead, White's campaign seems to have had little public effect - and indeed she hasn't even taken advantage of the city's means of spreading her message about housing through a video statement and online profile. That leaves White as a one-issue candidate who's had less profile talking about her issue than Elliott - and seems likely to ensure that she'll finish a distant third.

Endorsement

The result may be a foregone conclusion, but it'll be for the best if the race is at least reasonably close to encourage a stronger challenger to Fiacco in 2012. With that in mind, the endorsement goes to Jim Elliott.

On maturity

Following up on last week's post, I'll take some time to expand on what Pat Fiacco's out-sized, self-promotional reaction to events like next year's Bon Jovi concert says about Regina as a city - and what we should be looking to do to take Regina's growth to the next level.

To start with, I'll note that it's indeed for the best that Regina is growing - and whoever gets to make decisions at City Hall next should be eager to continue that trend. But the current pattern of growth without much thought about where Regina fits into the wider scheme of things has effectively put the city in a state of urban adolescence: the population knows things are changing, but hasn't yet given much thought to the question of what change we actually want, settling instead for reassurance that somebody is willing to soothe our self-image.

And Pat Fiacco has positioned himself perfectly to take advantage of that situation. Indeed, one could hardly design a better political analogy to a boy-band/girl-band celebrity developed for the adolescent crowd: camera-friendly, well-funded, well-choreographed and utterly devoid of content.

Here's the problem, though: there's still a good ways left for Regina to go in its development as a city, and the next step is one which Fiacco seems incapable of taking based on his track record. It's well and good to celebrate the first few examples of Regina receiving a perceived boost among urban centres by attracting top-level music acts. But somewhere around the fourth or fifth concert announcement, we should be starting to grow into the understanding that it's not such a big deal as to justify putting the entire city on hold to celebrate.

Again, all of the other stops on Bon Jovi's Canadian tour are well past that point. Out of Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto and Montreal, none placed the concert as a top local headline, and none had its mayor rushing for the cameras to promote the concert. And the contrast in how the concert was received highlights the fact that Regina has a ways to go before it truly becomes comfortable as a major centre - as well as the reality that Fiacco's political persona doesn't fit with that development.

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much prospect of change at the top in this year's election. But some sorely needed new blood on City Council can make for a first step in ensuring that Regina starts growing up rather than just growing out. And hopefully by the next election cycle, we'll have matured to the point that any stunt like Fiacco's will be rightly taken as evidence that a candidate is behind the times.

(Edit: fixed typo.)

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.

And speaking of just having to show up...

Pat Fiacco's pitch to get Reginans to vote for Pat Fiacco is to promise...

...more Pat Fiacco. (In this case, Pat Fiacco On Wheels.)

Mind you, given that Fiacco is the heavy favourite this year, I for one hope he'll follow through on the promise. After all, the best hope for change in the near future absent some major scandal involves a city-wide case of Fiacco fatigue.

(Edit: fixed wording.)