An election campaign can be a very busy time in a candidates life and times a very quiet time in a candidates life.
For hours on end, a candidate can knock on doors to speak with the voters in their ward, passing out information on who they are, what they stand for and what they feel the issues are in the area. Many of you tell me what you think as well and that dialogue is important. For some though who haven’t yet made a decision on who they will be supporting on October 25th, some reply with I’ll have a look and see.
What I find the most satisfying are the emails I receive from Ward 6 voters letting me know I am on the right track. In the last 48 hours, I have received dozens of emails from you in the ward saying they watched the Milton Today TV debates from Sunday, either live or on demand (see my home page for the links) and they support what I’m talking about for the future of Milton.
Here are just some excerpts:
From Gilles:
“I’ve had the opportunity to speak with you at my home and listen to you speak during the Thanksgiving debate and you have my vote on October 25, 2010”
From Morgan:
“Just saw the debate online. You did very well, and your rationale regarding the health care situation was excellent! On all questions, I’m glad to see that you focused on your values and what you would bring to the table. Good job, keep it up!”
The health care situation he speaks of is obviously the hospital expansion and what the Town of Milton can do to speed up the process. My opponent asked me directly why Im “against the provincial government” on this. The answer is quite clear. We cant move forward as a town on the expansion of Milton Hospital until we know if the province of Ontario approves it. THEN we can work towards plans, diagrams, money needed for local portion and everything else that comes with it.
NOTHING can happen until the provincial government gets “off its duff” (my words from the debate) and approves Milton, the fastest growing community in Canada, so we can get started. No matter what the expansion looks like, we need to know. We needed to know years ago, but they dragged their heels and they havent made Milton the priority it should be when it comes to the delivery of health care services in our area.
Thanks to everyone who has emailed me during this campaign and your words of support and encouragment are uplifting to say the least. Nothing motivates me more to continue to knock on doors and speak with as many of you as I can before October 25th. You can email me as always, mike@mikecluett.caor click on the Contact Mike section of the site. I look forward to speaking with as many of you as I can before the 25th.
Until then, I’ll see you at the doors.
Comments
One response to “On The Right Track”
Mike, great job durign the debate. You certainly took the high road, and avoided negative campaigning, which I think many people will respect. That being said, as an outsider, I do think a couple of rebuttals to Mr. Soomro’s comments are appropriate. His comments concerned me, as superficially they may be appealling to some listeners in the absence of “peeling back the onion”. I feel the urge to share these with you as differentiators between his platform and your platform/experience.
1) Mr. Soomro mentioned that he does not work a 9-to-5 job as a financial advisor, touting this as a benefit.
My Thoughts:
I understand from his comments that he is a personal financial planner. I could only presume that a large portion of his work is done with clients on hours outside of the standard Monday-to-Friday, 9-to-5 timeframe. For example, if I were the client of a financial planner, I as the customer would want the financial planner to meet with me on weekday evenings or weekends.
Is it not during those “off” hours that much of the Milton Town Council proceedings take place, as well as many weekend and evening engagements that involve town dignitaries? If that is true, how would Mr. Soomro reconcile his financial advisement practice’s client hours with the duties of the position of Councillor? I suspect he isn’t as aware of what a Councillor’s position entails and how council works as you are, Mike. Again, your commitment over the last 4 years as a non-council member is a major differentiator here.
2) Mr. Soomro complained about various town budget line item increases, which he would presumably exploit to reduce expenditures.
My Thoughts:
Firstly, a personal financial advisor role and that of a managerial or corporate accounting position have many differences.
I understood Mr. Soomro to be complaining about line item % increases year-over-year. However, he declined to detail much about his concern. In fact, he only compared the growth with inflation rates, if I understood correctly. However, how would he account for the necessary increases in certain variable costs that rise with the population? E.g. if population increases by 10% in a year, would it not be valid to presume that certain town budget costs would also rise by a similar amount (e.g. snow removal, elections management, etc.), and be funded by the related increase in taxes?
If Mr. Soomro’s comparisons were simply on a % of overall budget expenditure (e.g. snow removal = X % of budget), that is a completely irrelevant approach to reviewing the line items. For example, some major cost cutting initiatives could have caused a budget reduction, thus inflating the % value of other line items.
Although not likely a perfect approach, if, I were I in the postion, my approach would be to compare line item % change in relation to top line revenue income % change, and find those areas where line item % growth is higher – but only using this as an approach to find potential low hanging fruit. Another key approach would be to identify good benchmarks in similarly sized communities. For example, how do their budgets look in comparison? What lessons could be learned in most prudent management? Benchmarking to best practices is valuable, and working with Mr. Krantz (or the next Mayor) could be very helpful via the FCM (Federation of Canadian Municipalities). I heard none of this from Mr. Soomro – just some %’s with little research or backup.
Mike, you appear well measured in your responses, and I would welcome your thoughts on the above. In particular, your approach to budget review.