By Elvis Glazier - Last night people congregated at the Delta Town and Country to watch the debate between the candidates running in the upcoming by-election. Of the eight potential ballot choices only six candidates lined the table as Amy Ghuman Sara and Ray Robinson chose not to attend the televised event. The less than packed room included Delta Mayor Lois Jackson and councilors King, Hamilton, and Campbell.
The debate started out slowly with each of the candidates 1 minute opening statements. From left to right they took turns filling 60 seconds up with their introductions. It was pretty easy to determine right from the outset that this was not going to be the all out rough and tumble brawl that many people hope for. This was later reaffirmed by another member of the audience, "The candidates really have nothing to win here but (with a misstep) they can lose something."
Ten questions in total were asked on a wide variety of questions ranging from the obvious Southland's situation to what to do with John Oliver park in the aftermath of the White Caps pulling out. For the most part the candidates stuck to their platform policies with written scripts and the occasional rehearsed tag-line. That of course is with the exception of newcomer Peter Harms who seemed to be flying by the seat of his pants while wearing his signature Hawaiian shirt.
Without any real 'break through' moments I scored the debate question by question on content and delivery. This is how I scored it, feel free to comment.
Question 1 - The Southlands
Sylvia Bishop 0.5
Kathleen Higgins 0.5
Question 2 - Scott Road Revitalization
Kathleen Higgins 0.5
Sandeep Pandher 0.5
(* video replay moment when Sandeep slams the current councillors for neglecting this issue)
Question 3 - John Oliver Park
Sylvia Bishop 1.0 - This was a break out answer. Her year round multi use facility with a focus on cricket and field hockey was outstanding.
(* Video replay - Liked Ian Paton's comment about the Rugby club tearing down the old barn)
Question 4 - Safety in North Delta
Kathleen Higgins 0.5 - A walking community is a safe community.
Sylvia Bishop 0.5 - The Delta Police Force is the envy of the province.
Question 5 - Relationships with Surrounding Municipalities
Ian Paton 1.0 - There is nothing we can learn from Richmond or Surrey
(* Video replay - "I'll throw myself in front of the bulldozers" Talking about the development plans for the Tsawwassen First Nations Land. I was waiting for someone else to say, "I'll throw him in front of the bulldozers too!")
Question 6 - Greener Community
Sandeep Pandher 0.5
Kathleen Higgins 0.5
Question 7 - Affordable Housing in South Delta
Kathleen Higgins 0.5 - Large strata homes
Sandeep Pandher 0.5
(* video replay - Sandeep had a great line. "Maybe we don't want affordable housing."
Question 8 - Terminal 2 at Delta Port
Sylvia Bishop 1.0
Question 9 - Philosophy on developing farmland
Ian Paton 0.5
Sylvia Bishop 0.5
(Kathleen almost made a good comment on the swapping of ALR land for northern pastures)
Question 10 - Changes to Development Plans
Sylvia Bishop 0.5 - Hard line on anything but minor changes.
Sandeep Pandher 0.5 - Need better transparency.
(* video replay - Sandeep's slam against the Mayor when talking about policy we need a better choice tha, "If the Mayor wants it, Let's do it!")
The final scores:
1st Place - Sylvia Bishop (4.0 points)
2nd Place - Kathleen Higgins (2½ points)
3rd Place - Sandeep Pandher (2.0 points)
4th Place - Ian Paton (1½ ponts)
5th Place - Maria DeVries (0 points but gets the edge for content)
6th Place - Peter Harms
Does any of this matter? Probably not. It was interesting to see these candidates in action. It is likely we will be hearing these names for the next year or two. The only ranking that matters in this race takes place on September 18th.
The closing arguments were better than the opening with the butterflies of these relative newcomers to the political venue long gone. Bishop talked about her values, DeVries about Independance, Higgins sold herself as an inovative environmentalist, Pandher the pragmatic planner, Paton the farmer with experience. As each candidate took their last moments to get their respective messages out I couldn't help but think, "Does that shirt come with batteries Peter?"
I loved the commentary on Twitter last night. I was at the meeting but my phone kept buzzing with updates. I needed this to keep me awake. I see that you changed the scores around a bit, but it's roughly the same.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious why you put Kathleen ahead of Sandeep in the end. I know you had them at a ties the last time. I'm going to watch the meeting on the PVR and look for your video replays.
Although I disagree with many of your views I do enjoy reading most of them. You put a lot of work into it and I respect you for it. Keep it up. We all make mistakes.
Don't necessarily agree with your scores, and that's okay. I was also there and was very happy to see it did not turn into a dog fight.
ReplyDeleteI hope the candidates can now turn to their own campaigns, settle down, stop the mud slinging and get on with it. The people will decide.
Peter Harms was a hoot! I loved it when he said he couldn't answer the North Delta question as he was not familiar with the area!
NIce job Elvis. Better than the stuff the other day and the subsequent fallout.
ReplyDeleteI don't agree with your scorecard but good effort just the same.
Mike Schneider
I agree with Mike and above.
ReplyDeleteI don't agree with the scorecard, but much better than a couple of days ago.
How do you score an event like this? I chose to go question by question and based it on who had the best thought out answers. Not necessarily the answers I wanted to hear. I didn't like Paton's answer about not working with other municipalities, but you could tell he was passionate about it and stuck his neck out and I scored him a full point on it.
ReplyDeleteIf I scored it for cunning jabs I would have put Pandher ahead. If I scored for sticking to a consistent message then Higgins. The real surprise for me came from DevRies. I really expected a lot more from her. Still it's good practice.
In the end I felt Bishop had the most robust understanding of these ten questions and that's how I scored it. I didn't score on openings and closings but I really like the, "These aren't issues for me, these are my values" line. Really struck a nerve. Plus I enjoy cricket and field hockey. It seems like such a small thing but having an oval in Delta makes so much sense.
I digress.
If you PVR'ed the meeting watch for the video replay sections I noted. Really good moments in a somewhat lack luster evening.
Thanks for the comments. Hopefully people will come back to the site after the by-election. The traffic numbers have been out of this world.
Elvis, I have a new respect for you. 2 days ago I would have rung your neck had I seen you re: a certain article you published.
ReplyDeleteThis one is great. This is your opinion, it is well written and entertaining. I don't agree with it, but I respect it.
Well done.
Full marks for effort, Elvis. A one man rating system leaves a bit to be desired, so next time, maybe we could all Tweet in our responses.
ReplyDeleteAlso, full marks for publishing this next day. We do like our results quickly here in Delta.
On ideas for issues, I think you put everyone where they belong.
The main thing here is that we finally have an independent media outlet here in Delta. You can be sure the Leader and the Optimist are shaking in their boots, trying to figure out how to catch up with the Delta Free Press.
Sylvia should have got a minus score for her comment that "Delta Police Force is the envy of the province"
ReplyDeleteAsk anyone who has ever been assaulted and have witnesses give descriptions and licence plate numbers to be told that "well there's nothing we can do" or when they are present seeing an attack on a car, the person that had caused an accident, smashed the victims windshield, then attacked both the victim (and in one case a Vancouver policeman) who had come to help. Many witnesses were there, but still "There's nothing much we can do" "Deal with the car through ICBC" The Vancouver policeman was asked if he wanted to press charges. He replied that wasn't something he could do. The Police have to do that. Ask people who have been given a jaywalking ticket, crossing a road at 11:30 pm when the only car on the road was over a block away sitting a red light (a police car) Ask someone, from North Delta, who was cocky with a Delta Policeman and ask them how long it took them to walk home after being taken to the Nature Reserve and dropped off. Their "nothing too small" to attend to is closer to their responding attitudes.
Geeez, 11:32AM is grinding an awfully big axe. Suffice to say that you're the type that believes that rules apply to everyone else but you? I've lived in Delta for 30 years, and have NEVER had a bad thing to say about our police department. I'd suggest that you chill down and next time try a little respect...it goes a long way! By the way - I'm voting for Paton!
ReplyDelete