My Politics

The issue of how Active Transportation and how it is affecting River Heights along Grosvenor Avenue and my post on it was mentioned on Kick FM's Great Canadian Talk Show on Wednesday.

Marty Gold said I was a "avowed lefty." I managed to catch that part of the show in between appointments at work. It made me laugh a bit and I dashed off a correction and "centrist" was added later on.

I guess to clear up any confusion, I should say that I am not a NDP or Progessive Conservative on the provincial front. In terms of the NDP, I find them to be very light on vision but prone to taking ideological stances on issues from hydro's transmission line to forcing Manitoba drivers to buy ethanol gas. In ten years, crime has got worse under their governance.

I don't support the Tories because I feel they still have too many problems with social conservatives who are reactionary. There is a strong hint of anti-urban forces within the party. In recent years the policy platform has been based on fear or crazy things like bringing back the Jets.

I have held both provincial and federal Liberal memberships in the past but they have both lapsed. I donate monthly to the federal Liberals because I still believe they are better than the high spending Tories. I am in complete opposition to Stephen Harper because of his style of politics, his ideology and for his lack of control over fiscal matters.

I'm a fiscal conservative and a social liberal in that I'm anti-deficit, a supporter of low taxes and pro-business. I also support allowing gay marriage and de-criminalizing a host of laws that only encourage organized crime to get involved as we have seen historically with Prohibition.

In terms of this election for city office, I want my new councillor to show some vision, address the issues with more than vague answers and to be transparent in terms of how they govern. I expect the same from my mayor.

I am comfortable with the term centrist. I believe it is where I stand politically and for the most part, I think people in the city pretty much straddle the center as well. We don't necessarily need a populist telling us what we want to hear. What we do need is someone with vision who can lead either to the left or right depending on the city's needs.



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