I know Richard personally and think he would make an excellent Alderman. He has an amazing political mind for his age ( he managed the successful campaign of WAP Candidate Paul Hinman in last fall's provincial by-election) and after having coffee with him a few weeks ago, I was quite blown away by his idea's and values. He truly is a man of principals, which is often lacking in Calgary Politics. I have also seen his dedication to the community first hand through our involvement together with the Calgary Southeast Conservative Party riding association.
There is some controversy brewing about "Vote-Splitting" in this ward, by one of the other candidates. I will be doing a blog post about this soon, which reinforces my theory that this will be an interesting ward to watch!
Richard has been hard at work knocking on doors in his ward and I wish him well! I hope to do a blog interview with Richard soon, so if you have any questions you would like to ask, be sure to email me.
Shane
I think you are being more than a little disingenuous referring to Linda Fox-Mellway as a ghost and do-nothing. Instead of posting a ‘rant’ with no substance why don’t you get into some specifics? I can only assume that you don’t have any. Did she miss a number of council meetings? Has she failed to meet her responsibilities on committees that she is involved in? Are you claiming that she doesn’t belong to enough committees?
ReplyDeletePersonally if Richard Dur supports you making these kinds of statements in regards to his opposition without some substance to back it up then I don’t have much respect for his integrity. Perhaps Richard will be kind enough to comment on his stance.
For the record here are Alderman Fox-Mellway’s 2010 civic committees:
• Chairman, Standing Policy Committee on Utilities & Environment
• Standing Policy Committee on Finance & Corporate Services
• Chairman, Inter-Municipal Committee, The City of Calgary/M.D. of Foothills
• Co-Chairman, Mayor’s Panel for imagineCALGARY
• Calgary Public Library Board
• Calgary Regional Partnership Project Executive Committee
• Calgary Stampede Board
• Intergovernmental Affairs Committee
• New Pine Creek Wastewater Plant, Steering Committee
Hi KSW, thanks for your comment. A couple of quick things... 1)The "ghost" reference relates to her thin appearances in the community. Like it or not, she tends to have a reputation as being invisible in the community.
ReplyDelete2)The views in this post have nothing to do with Richard Dur or anyone else. If you wants his opinion of her, you should contact him to discuss it. The views posted are my own.
I am pleased that LFM has at least one fan that is passionate about her success. Unfortunately, I am not one of them, which is my right.
Feel free to email me if you would like to chat more!
Shane
KSW _ I live in Ward 14 and asked some very simple questions of Linda Fox-Mellway, simple like : how she voted on the issues that arose in Calgary over the last two years. I was referred to her web-site and the city website, but was unable to find anything that gave a real definitive answer and her staff did not wish to provide the information.
ReplyDeleteIf you can't send a link or post the answers on your website, I'm guessing that you don't want people to see them.
I didn't want an explanation of how she pushed to ban pets riding loose in the backs of trucks - that is not a feather in her cap, it's a common sense by-law that should have been in Calgary years ago and we should pat at ourselves or our aldermen on the back for the use of common sense ?
All I was seeking was to know which issues she supported, the baseline about your vote for whoever you support for alderman should be simple:
Does this person support mine and my family's values and interests ? End of story.
I support traditional family values, wise spending, safe neighbourhoods, standing firm for what you believe.
Wise spending is not supporting a $ 25 million dollar pedestrian bridge that was planned so well, no-one thought to check how the pedestrians would access it.
She says she was instrumental in the Somerset LRT, wasn't it obvious to the city as a whole that if you build communities that far south you have to extend the LRT as well ? The plan was on the books long ago to extend it, seems like a no-brainer to me ? Again, hero cookies are for hero's, those that are innovative and go the extra mile. Fox-Mellway is no hero and lacks common sense.
She is out-dated,out of touch with the average Calgarian and should be out to pasture.
I wholeheartedly agree with Glenn. Out with LFM!
ReplyDeleteYes please! We need someone who will actually represent residents concerns in Ward 14 and put forth ideas to help make our communities better. LFM just coasts through, makes no tough decisions, and as mentioned above, just takes part in the no brainer votes. I'm torn between Richard Dur and Shawn Kao. The upcoming forum on Sept 30 at Midsun will help me make up my mind but I'm concerned as above that some votes will be split amongst the two new candidates, leaving the dead wood in office...scary thought but it has happened before!
ReplyDeleteI concur. Linda F-M only recently even joined the electronic age with a webpage.
ReplyDeletePersonally - anyone who charges their dry-cleaning bill to me as a tax-payer, is not going to get my vote. It's my expectation that you get yourself dressed in the morning.
For KSW - here's the link to her expenses as exposed in the Calgary Herald: http://www.calgaryherald.com/story.html?id=1772128 (and btw - it's easy to sit on a board and have your name on the list - attending and doing something are a different story)
I too support Richard Dur - a fresh young individual who is willing to make some changes, be visible and has some ideas.
I have to agree that Linda Fox-Mellway must go. On top of the reasons already posted, the only one-on-one encounter I've had with her left me feeling small and unimportant. I found her rude, snobby, and condescending. A new aldermanic candidate that cares and puts forth an honest effort will win my vote. Slackers with a bad attitude should not hold the postition of Alderman.
ReplyDeleteHas proven she is a follower. What will she do now with no Bronco to lead her?
ReplyDeleteI've had a beef with Linda F-M since the mid-90's when she "sold the ship" and gave away the greenbelt behind our house in Sundance to the Province. This saved the city from cutting and watering the lawn like they do on the sister greenbelt in Midnapore.
ReplyDeleteThis was a poor decision considering hundreds of people walk on this greenbelt every week! Sooner we get rid of her the better!!!
I attended the forum at Midsun. Linda's body language said it all for me. Rolling her eyes and tapping the table with her pencil. She seemed at times throughout the debate to show her obvious annoyance at being challenged on the issue's that were brought up by members of the audience.
ReplyDeleteTime for her to go.
I also have had questions for Ms Fox-Mellway, and she has NEVER been able to provide an answer to any of them, time to go Linda!! KSW, you obviously don't live in her ward, nor have EVER asked the woman a question. I'm still waiting for her to "get back to me" on a question I asked her 10 years ago, guess it just wasn't important enough to her! She would sign her soul to the devil if it appeared to have "made" the city money.
ReplyDeleteRE FOX-MELLWAY
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bloggingcanadians.ca/ConservativeBlogs/Academic_Alderman/
The City of Calgary Aldermen released their budget spending this week without much fanfare. I guess they were all pleased that they "came under budget" this year! I laughed when I saw that Alderman Linda Fox-Mellway's spending came in at $138,000, the highest total among her colleague's.
Putting her totals over the top was a $15,000 ( YIKES) expense for a Management course at the University of Calgary. "That was pricey, but those are the kinds of things we should be doing. There's lots of senior managers and executives in that program, and it's important to stay current and find out what additional questions we should be asking at council."