Vote…

On Wednesday I attended the Ward 1 meeting held by Councillor Marilyn Crawford,  on my facebook it was pointed out that Councillor Crawford had lost in the last election, oops, I forgot about him.  When I saw Crawford I mean Marilyn now. 

When I arrived I was surprised by the amount of people in attendance 30+, it was held at Vimy Ridge school on Telford Street, perhaps the communication from the school is better then others, there were community representatives from Neighbourhood watch in attendance as well.   Here is a google map link to the area, since I was not a resident of the ward some references to street names and the surrounding references did not mean anything to me.  (more…)

I read the following article online about a recent election spending issue, in Pickering, here is a link to the metroland story.   Here is the quote that really bothers me.

“The issue would first go to the City’s compliance audit committee that would consider the issue and make recommendations to the Province. But this will only happen if someone files a complaint.”

 What they don’t tell you is if the audit committee decided there was no basis for the audit then the person that filed the complaint has to pay the costs!   Who is going to complain? (more…)

I find it a bit odd that someone who was acclaimed in the last election and had challengers this last time around did not have any expenses except for the nomination fee of $100.00.  0’s are entered everywhere and one blank, nothing entered at all for brochures?  I may have had one sent to my house.

If this statement applies to you , perhaps you can correct it before the deadline. 

There are still more to be filed, Ward 2, Ward 3, Ward 4 and Ward 1.  With the exception of the Mayor, Pat Brown and Marilyn Crawford all the sitting Councillors have to file their financial statements by the 25th of March. 

This applies to both school boards as well. 

The next Municipal Election should be around December 2 or so.  Why on this date you ask ?   

I just saw the Ajax Community Recreation and Parks guide.  Walk in registration starts on December 2nd.  More people sign up for programs then voted I bet !   Make people vote before they sign up their kid for swimming lessons! (more…)

I took the Election Results and wanted to count up and compare the races. More voted in the local races then in the total of the Regional Races and all the people that voted locally did not cast a ballot for the Mayor.   The ballots are not spoiled because they are counted for the local races. Here are the total counts. 

 Stolen from newsadvertiser Reka’s blog, thanks,  (more…)

Uneventful,   here are the results from Reka’s blog.   She had lost of pics also,  I was not able to make it to Town Hall. 

The election is over the people have spoken,  well 17,000 or so.   Voter turnout is up 3% to 26% from 23% but it is not something to be proud of and Ajax (Citizens– I am referring to) should still be ashamed of itself for this apathy that is rampant. 

4 more years to work on it for Voices of Ajax.   New things coming.  

Taking a bit of a breather for a bit.  

Congrats to all ,  time to move on.   I can accept democracy but not apathy.

The winners that submitted surveys ,  they will stay on the page for your Term,  that would be Marilyn Crawford  and Shaun Collier.   Thanks for participating by the way, it was appreciated that you felt it worthwhile.   

Marilyn has committed to regular town hall meetings in her ward. 

Mr. Baker, please keep us informed of the sound system issue.

 There won’t be a new council meeting until December. 

Congrats to all the new councillors in Durham.

I thought I was done then I saw something that jumped out at me. 

In provincial elections there are political groups that are advocating for issues, they are not the party directly but there are strong ties and voters have to do their homework connecting the dots.

It is harder in a Municipal election.   Since I am in the blogosphere I get email all the time and earlier in the year I was asked to be part of a group that was going to rate candidates,  I linked to them but chose to do my own thing and not commit to any set group.   I wanted to remain impartial and independent, and I have.  

I saw Colleen’s list of contributors and I saw one that was familiar.   (more…)

I was not going to write another post until after the election but I was emailed about something that occurred while I was on assignment. 

There was an ad in the Ajax News Advertiser promoting to Re-Elect Shaun Collier , I did not see the ad so I don’t know the full wording but it is confusing for voters, especially those in ward 2. (more…)

I will be on assignment from Friday so if you want to send me your latest election scandal , it will have to wait until Sunday. 

I am going undercover so if you see me having a great time in Niagara Falls with my girlfriends keep quiet and don’t blow my cover.  

I wrote a letter to the editor in 2006 and vowed to get 10 people to vote that never voted before.  I may have through this blog but I don’t really know.   I did get a some people to vote that never have but I did not make it to my goal of 10 that I know of.    I have neighbours on my own street that are new to Ajax and they were going to vote after some years of not participating. 

We will have more debates in 4 years time.  Voices of Ajax will put on 2 debates, this is in addition to the CDCD that will do their debates- I assume they will .  If they do the same model this is how it will work. (more…)

At the Mayor’s debate I was given a piece of paper that had some figures worked out on it,  the cost of Governance of Ajax and the surrounding lower Durham Municipalities.

2009 Per Capita Cost of Governance

Ajax $3.30
Clarington $3.82
Pickering  $5.68
Whitby  $3.74
Oshawa $6.92

So what does everyone think ?