Likely as a result of his young age (Mr. Dromarsky is only 32; Daryl Bonar does beat him at 31, but he has chosen not to make his age an issue) his campaign focus is on social networking, and being frugal with his campaign budget (not $20 frugal...). His site is nicely accessible, and he is on twitter, facebook, and a separate blog. He is also shown in a picture called "the connection" talking to a youth on the street (Urban!) but if the guy withdraws any further, he's going to have to grab an "I'm not with stupid" shirt.
First off, he hits the issue that is really the "gimmie" in terms of vote-gaining: the airport. It taps into a large group of disgruntled Edmontonians, spurring them to get up and out on voting day (which is half the battle) but I must admit to feeling a little dragged along, like all these candidates are waving a big landing strip in my face (Ha, subtle stripper reference), but we can't run the risk of this becoming a one issue election; especially since it would result in the group pummelling Mayor Mandel (who we all know is anti-airport), and then squabbling amongst themselves in a giant battle royale that would have decidedly Hamlet-esque overtones.
Some other sound-bites are:
-LRT expansion: apparently this needs to be inexpensive. Who knew?
-Snow removal: he aims to make it a higher priority. He also brings up the fact that our roads would be less lousy if we cleared it faster, and more often. I think I agree with him.
-Pro-arena: This is another pretty big issue, but it's hard to assess the numbers from such a distance. I think it would be better to get someone more cautious, rather than gung-ho, and willing to evaluate.
-Pride: Not the homosexual kind, but the good, honest, we're proud of our city, kind. I'm not sure he got the memo, maybe someone should forward it to him: Being Canadian is grumbling about politics.
-Pro-democratic process: He'll consider his work finished if more people show up to vote. Kind of defeatist, but all right. Pursuant to this is his goal to have at least 75,000 people "like" his facebook page by election day. As of writing, he has 441. Let's assume half of those people (twice last election's turnout) can set an alarm-clock and remember to vote. I'm not sure this man is as in the running as he would like.
Seems during a recent forum at Harry Ainley school, which I am itching to read, he asked the mayor why more was not being done on the Anthony Henday freeway, as he felt a two lane freeway was insufficient. Mr. Mandel turned the question around with a vicious backhand to inform Mr. Dromarsky that the Henday was a provincial concern, not municipal, and Mr. Dromarsky, in his own words, had no rebuttal.
"Hey, honey? what's that thing in the lake? Is it moving?"
"No, I think it's dead in the water."
In the spirit of the staircase, as the french say, he has now come up with a response, which I suspect caused him to sit bolt-upright in bed and scream at 3:00 (that's when rebuttals spawn). The big response he produced was that as a municipal we should have more say in the roads around our city, rather than letting the province decide such a pivotal part of our city life. I feel he's not going far enough, we should have a say in Fort Mac Murry, since so many of their citizens commute to and from Edmonton. But then also the surrounding forestry areas, because those are ours too. Heck, just give us all of Alberta. Let's turn the whole province into a municipality. See what happens when we toe the line? It has to be drawn somewhere.
I'll post about the Harry Ainley forum as soon as I can find a transcript. I want to read it so bad it feels like I'm trying not to fart.
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