Port Moody Votes (a little)

Port Moody's mini civic election will happen on November 19, same as all the cities in the region. Compared to 2002, this election is small and quiet. Our mayor was acclaimed a week ago because nobody ran against him. There were 4 school trustee candidates but two dropped out, leaving the incumbents to return without having to campaign. We'll vote only for councillors. Ten candidates are running for 6 seats on council.

I went to an all-candidates meeting tonight at the Boat House at Rocky Point. There was a pretty good turnout - maybe 50 people in the audience. It was put on by Port Moody Chamber of Commerce, so it had the potential to be pretty stacked to business interests, but the questions were pretty well-balanced and the answers...uhh...boring. Everyone pretty much agreed with everyone else, so I guess we'll all have to decide who we like and trust the most to represent us responsibly and make good decisions. Issues include transportation, residential density, public safety, tax levels and social amenities.

It makes me wonder what an all-candidates meeting is like in Vancouver. Do they even have omnibus meetings there? We had Mayor/Council/Trustee meetings here in Moody in 2002. Somehow I don't think that would be possible in Vancouver. I heard that there are something like 90 candidates total when you combine mayor, council, school board and parks board. Twenty mayoral candidates alone. I wonder if they are boring too? Somehow I don't think so.

Anyway, at the Moody meeting I had a chance to say hello and good job to my friend Karen Rockwell who is running for re-election to city council. The Legislature's loss may well be Port Moody's gain. She did a good job answering questions, and did not look as nervous as she said she felt. In the audience were a bunch of familiar faces. The same 100 or so people must go to everything and do just about everything everywhere. I've heard somewhere that 8% of the population does 80% of all of the social action. In a small town like ours, that's a really small number. I guess I am one of them.

Now I have to do some reading and maybe phone-calling to decide who I will vote for. The next 3 years in our city will be anything but boring, so we'll need the ones who will be able to do the best job.

question: how do you decide how to vote?

mompoet - citizen mom