City of Red Deer Councillor Paul Harris is not seeking a third term.
He imposed a two-term limit on himself and I thank him for his time.
As a visionary and as a person who tries to work towards his vision, he will be missed on council. I often times disagreed with the steps and outcomes of his efforts, but I always appreciated that he was taking steps.
He has been noted for his concern about low voter turn out, and I agree it is a worrisome issue. Only 1 voter in 4 takes the time to vote and it should be much higher. What do we do?
How about give the electorate something to vote on. When everyone says; “Everything is fine, vote for me”, why vote? Will one candidate offer a quantifiable goal? Work on policing, on transit or on advocating others is so broad stroke that how do we know if you actually lived up to your campaign?
Red Deer lost 975 residents last year, will anyone be held accountable? There is no high school north of the river while there will be 6 south of the river with 5 along 30 Avenue, will that issue be addressed by anyone? Red Deer has the poorest air quality in the province, anyone? Red Deer’s crime severity index is second only to Grande Prairie, incumbents promised action, anyone?
Businesses are leaving the city to set up in the county, this was raised during the last election, result no change.
Macleans posted a list of the top 100 places to retire in 2017 and Red Deer never made the list. There are at least 100 more places in Canada that is better to retire in than Red Deer. Who’s fault is that?
While the province grew in population, and almost every community grew, last year, Red Deer shrank, anyone being held accountable?
We send seniors out of town, we make young parents commute across town and make north side teenagers commute across the city to go to high school, we don’t build schools north of the river and close some, we build all kinds of recreational facilities on the south side leaving just the 40 year old Dawe Centre for the 1/3 of city residents living north of the river. Our air is bad, our crime is terrible but everything is fine, no it is not.
There will be about 50 names on the ballots next month. If everyone is saying the same things with just the tiniest of variations, ignoring the big issues, blaming other levels of governments, does it matter who wins?
October 16 2017 is election day, but maybe my TV show is on……