The people of Renfrew spoke and they did so in a relatively decisive manner and perhaps with more eligible voters voting.

Jason Legris came out on top of the mayor’;s race, which turns out to not to have not been much of a race at all, with Legris nearly lapping all the other candidates’ vote totals combined.

While not knowing the voter turnout, looking at the numbers suggests to me that more people voted this time out, but I don’t get the sense of a tsunami or anything.  In fact, I’d be surprised if it even got to 50% of the eligibles.

That’s a huge civic problem.

Continue reading “RENFREW ELECTS A NEW COUNCIL” →

I’ll speak in generalities, as I’m no expert.  I’ve done no research to prepare for this, but I’ve done quite a bit in the past, and I’ve both written and produced video on the subject.

I’m talking about homelessness, something we all witness as a blight that has fallen upon cities and towns all over the province, some worse than others.  Everyone seems to have a reaction to it, and that reaction is understandably negative in nature, especially if you happen to live in a place where you encounter homeless encampments on your way to work or school every day.

We got into this mess on our accord, mostly through indifference.  Ours is a crime of omission of sorts, if not paying attention to something can be stretched to mean something in the area of omission.  By and large, we choose to look the other way.

The smoking gun of this crime is in the hands of the provincial government, and not just this one, but all the ones previous dating back to the 1980’s.  And their crime?

Saving us money.

Continue reading “HOMELESSNESS DEMANDS ACTION” →

Now, you can’t very well announce you’re hosting a Reader Poll and then not produce the results.  Like that would be no good.  Adding to the potential outrage would be the lack of respect for the fully 37 people who actually took the poll.  Can’t have people taking the time to answer a few questions and then not give them any feedback.

Before getting into the numbers, there are things that must be said.

For example, any poll featuring the responses of thirty-seven people can’t be taken as being in any way scientifically valid.  I couldn’t even imagine calculating the margin of error for such an undertaking, but whatever it is, it’s big.

Let’s face it, my little Reader Poll is about on par with a quick show of hands in a lunchroom poll down in the staff room.  And anyone who has been in the staffroom knows that those little lunchtime polls are pretty off-the-mark as well, about as trustworthy as a bag of cats.

Some candidates and their supporters will be pleased, and others less so.  I’d advise that nobody make significant decisions based upon these numbers, and no matter who you are and where you placed, you still have the weekend to sprint to that finish line. I’ve seen two other polls, far more legitimate than my amateur effort, and they show up differently in their results, so that’s something to keep in mind.

One important factor is my readership, which on a good day might spike at twelve.  That’s not a lot of exposure to be feeding a poll of any kind.  So it seems to me that the results would be somewhat reflective of my audience, if I may refer to a dozen souls as an audience.

Another thing.  Apparently mayoral candidates Scott, Marquardt, and Sidney don’t read my blog at all, one on principle and the other two because they don’t know me from a head of lettuce.  I can only assume that if they did read my stuff, they might just pop in and vote for themselves in my little poll while they were around.  None of the three did.

So, although completely embarrassing, here are the results of my Reader Poll.

I received an email recently from a buddy of mine discussing the poor voter turnout in Renfrew elections, something his research has indicated as being a worsening problem as time goes by.  I asked if I may use his questions as the basis for an article on that topic, he agreed, and here we all are.

My thanks to Shane Lambert.

Continue reading “VOTER TURNOUT” →

I believe I first heard it while watching a council meeting on the YouTube feed.  

At the time, council was just getting into discussion on a proposed housing development by the owner of DragonFly Golf Links.  That area is in Admaston-Bromley Township, and wouldn’t have anything to do with Renfrew other than the developers have requested an opportunity to enter in to an agreement with the Town of Renfrew to supply the little community with water.

Before discussion, Councillor Jason Legris declared a conflict of interest for himself.  I didn’t think much about it at the time because council members declare themselves fairly regularly, since many of them own rental properties around town. 

Continue reading “MORE VOTES THAN OTHERS” →

Rightly or wrongly, the Ma-Te-Way mess is going to be a defining issue for many candidates seeking positions on Renfrew Town Council.  That applies to candidates running for mayor as well as one seeking a council seat.

These are people who served on the 2018-2022 council, the one where the Ma-Te-Way expansion was just finding its legs, with a little over $18 million in budgeted costs.  As we know, that number ballooned to over $30 million, and it’s suggested in some quarters that, when all is said and done, what with borrowing costs, fees, and additional infrastructure costs, that number could approach $50 million in the end.

It can’t be a comfortable feeling to know that you’re being blamed for that.

Continue reading “WAIT! WHAT??” →

Former Canadian prime minister John Diefenbaker once commented that polls were for dogs.

He was right except for all the parts where he was wrong.

Polling, or surveys, are imprecise because there are just too many human variables at play to provide any one with an exact picture of how a political campaign is going for the candidates involved.

That said, despite those imperfections, information is still information, and it’s how one deciphers it, or interprets it that gives sometimes chaotic information some meaning.

It sort of reminds me a little bit of the emergence of radar back in World War II.  In the early days it was extremely spotty and imprecise, and often produced false returns easily misunderstood as meaning something else.  But it was still better than having no radar at all.

I’m going to see what happens if I launch a pre-election poll canvassing the level of candidate support in the Renfrew municipal election scheduled for October 26th.

I’m anticipating some messiness, that is if people even bother to take the poll at all.  And again, there will be so many variables to consider since people are people and you never really know if all of them are going to approach the same task with he same level of integrity.

So I’m going to label it a Reader Poll, that way making sure that everyone knows that I’m not necessarily going to extrapolate the results as having any direct bearing on election day.  And as well, I’m not exactly going to make a big deal out of anything it produces because it’s obviously going to be one of the least scientific polls one can manufacture and execute.

For one thing, the numbers will be problematic, as in I don’t have any.  How many people do I need to participate to make this a worthwhile effort?  How many responses will make it worthwhile for me to analyze and report the data?  I don’t have a huge following on my site, or blog, to begin with, but nevertheless, I’m resolved to at least make the effort and see what it comes back like.

But I do know that if I don’t do it, I’ll never know how it might have worked out.

I’ll have a link to the poll situated at the top of each morning post going forward.

I’m hoping everyone plays nice and takes the survey precisely once.

THE RACE FOR MAYOR

THE RACE FOR COUNCIL

PART 3:  THE NEWCOMERS

Of the ten candidates in the contest to secure six council seats later this month, three of them are political newcomers, at least as it involves running for public office.

Hayley Heaslip, Scott Miller, and Bruce Rozycki are their names, and all three carry with them substance and presence.

In fact, any one of, or all three of these candidates has/have a real shot at success, and if so, that’s going to put pressure on a couple of incumbents perhaps.

Continue reading “THE NEWCOMERS” →