Waterloo Region Council Election Discussion

[YKF]

I should probably clarify that my comments above were semi-sarcastic, acknowledging that populism and chaos is trendy at the moment.

[Rainrider22]

I should probably clarify that my comments above were semi-sarcastic, acknowledging that populism and chaos is trendy at the moment.

OOOHHHH  lol,  then yes,  I concur !!

[welltoldtales]

I actually have a lot of trust in this region. It went pretty hard NDP throughout Kitchener and Waterloo and frankly narrow misses in Kitchener South-Hespeler and Cambridge. I think we generally have a pretty level headed electorate. We won't go too radical.

A "Steady hand" area.

[ijmorlan]

I actually have a lot of trust in this region. It went pretty hard NDP throughout Kitchener and Waterloo and frankly narrow misses in Kitchener South-Hespeler and Cambridge. I think we generally have a pretty level headed electorate. We won't go too radical.

A "Steady hand" area.

Unless the vote splits. I agree that 75% of the electorate will probably vote for someone reasonable, but with 4 candidates that may not be enough.

This is why we should replace first-past-the-post with ranked balloting.

[danbrotherston]

I actually have a lot of trust in this region. It went pretty hard NDP throughout Kitchener and Waterloo and frankly narrow misses in Kitchener South-Hespeler and Cambridge. I think we generally have a pretty level headed electorate. We won't go too radical.

A "Steady hand" area.

Unless the vote splits. I agree that 75% of the electorate will probably vote for someone reasonable, but with 4 candidates that may not be enough.

This is why we should replace first-past-the-post with ranked balloting.

^ THIS!

[tomh009]

I really hope Ken Seiling will endorse someone in this election, to give us one leading candidate with moderate views.

[jamincan]

Surely Karen Redman has enough name recognition to move to the front.

[danbrotherston]

It would be sad if it is *ONLY* about name recognition.

By that logic, I could legally change my name to Ken Seiling and win.

[robdrimmie]

Jay Aissa is loud and brash and was extremely vocal during the early life of the LRT and the fact that it isn't running yet is going to lend a lot of credibility* to him in this campaign. It might even be enough to pull out people who continue to cheer that they are sick of government waste to vote in a regional election which is probably a first for most of them. He's smart enough to ride the populist wave which is clearly yet to crest in Ontario.

I am hopeful I am wrong, but regional and municipal elections tend to only draw people who are engaged, and Aissa has a few good tools for the worst kind of engagement at his disposal.

* in the same way that Doug Ford is viewed as credible by some, which I mean as the strongest possible pejorative about Ford, Aissa and the people who would vote for either

[KevinL]

Beisan Zubi, currently head of community relations at Communitech, is running for a Regional Council seat in Waterloo. https://twitter.com/beisan/status/1022916131592593408

[panamaniac]

Surely Karen Redman has enough name recognition to move to the front.

That's what I would assume.

[creative]

Based on the age of the demographic that tends to vote, Karen Redmond's name recognition is quite high!

[Brenden]

Given the times we are in, I think it’s almost *guaranteed* that Jay Aissa will be elected Regional Chair, with Oberholtzer being elected in Waterloo.

Unless of course the Regional Chair no longer gets elected. Or the whole damn election gets called off. Who knows anymore.

Incumbency is a pretty strong advantage in municipal politics, and Oberholtzer doesn't have any name recognition from previous politics. I think Sean and Jane will likely be re-elected.

Sadly for regional chair I agree with you. Without Ken Seiling's name recognition this will probably go to Jay Aissa. Karen Redman's name recognition is the only hope I have it won't.

Until Jay's registration I was actually just thinking that it's pretty nice we have three reasonable candidates for chair, any of whom I'd be pretty okay with. Now I think we'll get a three-way split of the sane vote.

Karen Redman received 28,616 votes for her seat on Regional Council in 2014, and that was just from Kitchener voters, she spent $17,400, or $1.65 per vote. Jay received 25,615 votes across the whole region and spent $251k or $9.80 per vote. 

Karen Redman got more votes than Jay did in 2014, with a smaller voter base, and was a lot more efficient with her money. The LRT has been built, there is not going back now, I am guessing that Jay will lose a lot of that anti LRT supporters. 

[danbrotherston]

And Karen Redman is not the only one running.

There's lots of potential vote splitting.

[robdrimmie]

The LRT has been built, there is not going back now, I am guessing that Jay will lose a lot of that anti LRT supporters.

It has been built, but it is very conspicuously not running. The anti LRT vote can very much be engaged this cycle. Aissa's campaign radio ads: "Last regional election I said this was a waste of money. They went ahead anyway, and it's still not running! Waste less, vote me!" The "government is stupid and wasteful" play has legs still, and based on the other candidates they won't be banging this particular drum, which means that he gets *all* the "LRT is bad" votes.