Metro Electoral Area A - Candidates' Web Sites

All the candidates, but Colin Desjarlais, now have their web sites up and running.

Scott Andrews' web site  has an earnest feel to it with a lot of content.  It's fairly plain in look but one can feel the youthful zeal that Scott brings to his campaign webpage.  While he won't be accused of having a professional web design team, a reader will get a pretty good idea of his issues,  accomplishments, and capabilities for the position.

Maria Harris' web site is slick and professional, but folksy enough to convey the message - professional and knowledgeable.  You can see the telltale signs of professional design within the architecture and writing of the site.  It's well done. Kudos to the web designer ;) this is clearly the site with the highest labour investment and design skill.

Mischa Makortoff's web site share with Andrews' an earnest feel.  No professional web design here! What the site lacks in professional design it more than makes up for in clear content. This site focusses on the candidate's ideas and how they plan to achieve them. 

Alexandria Mitchell's site is pure style. It's built on a wordpress platform that has been repurposed from a self promotion blog with a fair bit of history.  The reader will have no trouble finding out about all of the great things that Alex has been doing.  There's a sincerity here that's lacking in some of the other sites.  What you see on Alex's webpage actually reflects her actions and beliefs. 

If I were handing out awards I'd give the prize for design to Harris - she obvious has the means and connections to get the best designers on board.  I'd give the prize for style and sincerity to Mitchell - what you see is what you get here.  Andrews and Makortoff tie for the most earnest sites - boring in design terms,but clear on content.  

Preferential ballot

Our current system of electing the Metro Electoral Area A Director is a first past the post system - that is the candidate with the largest number of votes, irrespective of whether they have a majority of the votes, gets the job.  This tends to generate a system in which a well organized minority voice can easily win the election.

Why not use a preferential balloting system when more than two candidates are running?  It would certainly lend authority and legitimacy to the candidate who then wins.  In our current situation the last candidate to win did so with a clear minority of votes.  Had we had a preferential ballot the outcome would have been unambiguously the choice of the majority of voters.

The most common preferential voting system works by voters ranking their choices.  When votes are tabulated the last place candidates votes are redistributed to the other candidates in successive waves until one candidate is assigned a simple plurality.  The end result is the election of a candidate who is the majority choice of all and ensure that a minority perspective candidate is not elected.

On the doorstep with Mischa Makortoff - Metro Electoral Area A Candidate

I've had a chance to speak with each of the five candidates running for the position of Metro Vancouver Director - Electoral Area A.  When I ran myself last time I argued that we needed "local leaders who are willing to work with diversity, who aren't afraid of being wrong, who are tolerant and open to collaboration."  I also believed that we need to take decisive and immediate actions to address the lack of democratic representation in our community.  Over the course of the last three years very little has been done to address the democratic deficit and, from what I have seen, there has been little attempt to include a diversity of voices from our local areas into the processes of governance.  Instead we have seen a worsening of our democratic representation.

Over the course of the past three years Metro Vancouver precipitated a land use battle with UBC that transferred local planning decisively into the hand of UBC's Developer led Board of Governors.  While this may work for property owners in the UEL it has serious consequences for the rest of us.  A minority of residents in the UNA area benefit from their longstanding ties to the UBC administration and, like property owners in the UEL, are not that concerned with UBC's control of local governance within the University boundaries.  But UBC isn't the right agency to make land use plans.  One simply needs to think about the current south campus plan to massively expand high rise construction along the front of Pacific Spirit Park and the imposition of the hospice on the residents of Promontory after a minority of students allayed with the Wreck Beach Preservation Society rejected it in near Marine Towers and St. John College to see how UBC handles land use plans - profit first, residents second.  Given this context we need a representative who is experienced in working collaboratively, who is not tied to local vested interests, and who is willing and able to work across and through intense political divides.

Through meeting and talking with the candidates I have come to the decision that Mischa Makortoff is the most reasonable and effective selection for our representative.  Mischa and I don't agree on every point - but that is an important point.  What we do agree on is that democracy is built upon real inclusion and civil consideration of disagreement. 

Here’s what I saw in Mischa that I find appealing – first he gets the way things are working out here and some of the key issues.  He’s the first to admit that he doesn’t know everything there is about the way things work but he is a quick study.  He has time to spare and energy to burn.  He’s flexible and he’s willing to work with people to get a job done.  I also found him very honest about what he is advocating for and what he needs to reflect upon before responding to, and what he sees as requiring discussion.  For example, on the governance issue he doesn’t have as clear a position as do I – but he is very willing to work with that and for an effective solution.  I was impressed by Mischa and believe that others will share that impression.

This time around my vote for effective, local leadership goes to Mischa Makortoff.   

I'll be working with Mischa to ensure that our representative speaks with and for all of us.  I'll be on the doorsteps in our community working to introduce Mischa and calling upon you to vote for our new Director for Electoral Area A, Mischa Makortoff.