Your vote counts … And so does your wisdom. It seems to me that before every election individuals are writing letters to the editor to try to sway our vote, mostly by trashing someone they don’t like. I am not going to try to sway your vote but I am going to share some thoughts and observations which are helping me to determine who my choices will be in our municipal election. From what I have been able to ascertain from the self-described platforms provided in the Gazette, this year our choices for mayor are pretty clear: do we want a collaborative, forward thinking, growth orientated, proactive leader, or a hard-line (non negotiator), cost controlling, status quo, autocratic, reactive (Trump style) leader or a cooperative, fence-sitting (which way is the wind blowing?), growth restricted, fiscally frugal, relatively unknown leader. Our candidates are remarkably similar to those who ran south of the border; Clinton, Trump and Bernie Sanders. We each have a vote so who is your choice? With respect to councillors; we have to choose six from 25 candidates which is quite a bit more challenging but we do have some history and the self-described platforms to work from. For me; I don’t believe that having a totally new council is in my best interest; I think we need some experience to lead and help our new councillors find their way. So, from the returning candidates, I am looking for the councillor(s) who I deemed to be the most thorough, raised the best questions and seemingly represented my interest best during the last term. I read most Gazette articles on council during the past three years so I have a good idea of who did what. I respect the effort and difficult decisions all our previous councillors and mayor have made to move this city forward but for me I believe Sheena Hughes asked the most questions which challenged our elected representatives to do better. I also believe two of the three incumbent councillors will provide a good balance for the new council. The other four choices will be more difficult but the self-described platforms say a lot: which candidates have answered the questions most thoroughly, whose answers seem most genuine, who seems most committed to try to make St. Albert a better place, who appreciates the needs of a growing city and will be fiscally prudent, who will be a good team player (collaborative) and respect others opinions, and who seems to have a good common sense approach to dealing with issues? I have developed a score card and to this point Jacquie Hanson and Ken MacKay have the highest score and will be two of my choices. My final two choices have not yet been determined but my next highest scores are for Jan Butler, Jacy Eberlein, Natalie Joly, Charlene Jelinski and Hannes Rudolph. I hope you all have some method of determining who your choices will be and not be influenced by someone like me. It is important we each vote for those candidates which best reflect our wishes on how we would like to see this city grow. Each of us is capable of making our own informed and pragmatic decisions. Good luck and remember, your vote counts! Ken McMorris, St. Albert
