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In the last several weeks all over the media (and our mailbox) was full of election stuff. When you find it annoying, think about places where people die or go to jail for wanting to have free elections. Coming for a place where in my youth the result of the elections always used to be 99.98% YES for the only existing party - even if nobody showed up to vote… I truly can appreciate the freedom and the choices. Over there it just didn’t make sense to show up at the booth. The results were pre-defined. Here, because many of us take this freedom and right granted, they just don’t care. If I remember well, in Australia voting is mandatory and you get fined for not showing up. I like it! If you have a right, you have a duty, too. Rights come with duties and responsibilities, but in this country everybody knows only their rights.
Mentioning duties and responsibilities is so “un-cool”…

So, here we go with the election day. We will elect a mayor and councillors. And I guess school trustees, too, that’s just out of my focus, since I don’t have children of that age.

In the mayoral race I didn’t see anything exciting. The incumbent Sam Katz has been elected just around the time when I moved to Winnipeg. He might be a good businessman and an enthusiastic sports fan (which for me is always suspicious in the case of a grown up mature leader), but nothing impressive. I am tired of the politicians who are still at the stage of repeating the “managing-the-city-as-a-business” mantra. Yes, manage the finances and the effectiveness of the clerks like that — but otherwise a city, like any place for living, is much more than what a business as usual approach can comprehend. If you don’t understand that - get back to your previous profession and forget politics.
There are three more candidates: Marianne Cerilli, Kaj Hasselriis and Ron Pollock (no website?). I wouldn’t say none of them has good new ideas. It’s just that none of them has all the good ideas… I guess for many of us the ideal candidate would be someone running with good ideas borrowed from all the present candidates - and having all the nice characteristics of them. In an ideal world, maybe. But this is Winnipeg.

In our ward, River Heights–Fort Garry, sometimes I feel the same about the councillors, too. I mean about the candidates who want to represent us at the City Hall. They are: Jennifer Zyla, Brenda Leipsic and the incumbent Donald Benham.
The other day, my wife asked me: Which one? - and she meant which one of the two women. Not she is an ardent feminist but she likes to “promote” women… What could I say?

Late summer, at the very beginning of the campaign somebody was knocking on our front door. I had no idea what she wanted. Later I’ve learned it was Jennifer Zyla. We had a nice chat, I promised to visit her blog (disappointment: she doesn’t use WordPress), we talked a bit about the “state of the neighbourhood” - and off she was. I said to myself: at least she came out personally and knocked on doors.
Weeks later, in an evening I was just about to leave through the backdoor when the bell rang. An assistant (volunteer?) asked my wife, who opened the door, whether she wanted to meet Donald Benham who was visiting in the neighbouring houses. Being in the middle of the supper - she said no. Wrong timing.
And days later somebody called from Brenda Leipsic’s office at this time, asking if we were ready for a visit and, more importantly, if they could count on our vote…
Now this last question pissed me off.

I started with the importance of ‘exercizing your constitutional rights’. I find it equally important the other component of the democratic election process: the secret ballot. If I want to express overtly my support for a candidate I can show up at his/her office to volunteer, I can stick their sign on my lawn or I can just simply walk up to the candidate at an election meeting and tell about supporting them. If I choose so. If I don’t — it means it’s none of your freaking business who gets my vote!

Well, now let’s go vote!

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Read the update on the results!