Elections in the name of the Environment

As I watch the amount of election signage and materials being produced it makes you think a bit about the environment. Of course, a few extra Coroplast signs and a few thousand pounds of paper being added to the landfill is small potatoes compared to the gross amounts that go into the weekly flyer log (TM).

So far, I have seen absolutely nothing out of my alderman or the individual running against him, apart from a few signs for the incumbant (almost all of them illegally placed I might note), and have received one mailing for Bronconnier, one for Alnoor, and one from the City with general election goodness contained. On the whole, three mailings is not a great deal.

But as I was driving up Glenmore Trail today I started thinking about the environmental impact of the election. In particular, I noticed a large one ton truck that was painted brilliant yellow displaying signage for Madeleine King. It was a mobile billboard - something that I have noticed in this city before, but not very often (it seems to be quite short lived). Now, I don't have a problem with the concept of the mobile billboard when 'billboard' is the secondary purpose of the vehicle, but when vast amounts of gas and energy are being expended just to drive around a sign... then I have a problem.

We see a lot of mobile billboards every day - transit buses, some advertising on courier fleet vehicles (I've seen a lot of movies advertised on these in the past year). When the vehicle is already on the road and advertising is a secondary function - that doesn't bother me anywhere as much as a vehicle being placed on the road for the express purpose of carrying a sign. (And I can bet that vehicle is driving around day and night until the election is passed).

Now, when you go to visit Madeline King's website you will notice that she is talking about her own personal attempt to act in an environmentally friendly fashion. Hmmm... action vs. words?

On the whole I have been quite happy with the way that Madeleine King has handled herself on council - she has been quite a reasonable voice and in my experience has always been quite open to talking to her constituents and considering their views. In past election sshe has been unfairly attacked on health questions (i.e. on the last election Chapman tried to attack her on the question of her battle with breast cancer and her ability to represent the ward if her health was in question - something I considered to be a low blow and totally uncalled for).

Perhaps she has turned to mobile signs in an attempt to counter John Marr and Steve Chapman peppering the area with signs and waging a war based on marketing materials. (What else could you call the election signage?).

Chapman is out of PGIB camp - he's another McIverite who is running for a seat on council. From everything that I have seen, read and encountered, he would be another liability whose primary purpose would be to represent his own views rather than those of his constituents.

I get the feeling that he is running a campaign on scare tactics of crime and the need for increased policing. When you start to do a bit of digging on Chapman you notice that he is very much of the Consevative Religious Right movement.

Last election he gave Madeleine quite a run, and came back for round two this time. (Reminds me a bit of McIver, when he was told 'NO" the first time he ran against Sue Higgins, he just kept on coming back and participating in all possible byelections until he finally got a seat. Persistant to a fault).

John Marr, also making a run for Madeleine's seat comes from a community background having currently sitting on the Scarboro Community Association Board as President, and having worked as a RCMP Officer. He seems to be trying to take a quiet middle line in his fight against Madeleine - and browsing his website gives me the feeling that he is afraid to be too outspoken so as not to offend anyone. Unfortunately, in this case, being quiet will not win the race.

With two well-funded candidates both running on the "crime and policing" policy point, there is a much greater chance of them splitting any opposition vote to Madeline.

Lindsay Luhnau is running on a very green platform - very admirable, but I don't think it will be strong enough for her to win a seat against a strong personality like Madeline.

It would be interesting to see a candidate like Luhnau on council as an environmental counterpoint to the current batch on council. Certainly she is running in the right ward for appealing to the environmentally conscious, but I don't think that Calgary is ready to vote green, at least not yet.