Photo by Trevor Hagan, Winnipeg Free Press
I am baffled by Thomas Steen’s win in the Elmwood-East Kildonan ward last night. Though I could predict that the NDP vote would be split between Shaneen Robinson and Rod Giesbrecht, I thought one of them would still have the numbers to be victorious.
Being in attendance and meeting all the candidates at their forum last week, I didn’t feel that Steen was as prepared as his competition. He read all of his speeches off his paper and when asked a yes or no question he responded with “yo”. Listening to Steen talk, I got the impression that he doesn’t know what he wants to do and doesn’t have a lot of strong ideas or points on how he’s going to improve the community.
I think that a lot of people were unsure of who to vote for and saw a familiar name on the ballot and filled in the little bubble beside it. Being an ex-Winnipeg Jet star, I also think hopeful hockey fans elected him with the expectation of Winnipeg becoming an NHL city again.
Photo from hockeydb.com
In no way do I think that being "popular" or "famous" makes anyone qualified to represent a community. When I attended the forum last week, half the words that came out of Steen's mouth sounded like gibberish because of his Swedish accent and lacking English language skills. Now, I am not discriminating against people with accents but communication skills are of top priority in politics. If the guy is barely understandable, how is he supposed to be the voice for the 42,135 residents in the Elmwood-East Kildonan area?
I am disappointed in the choice this community made. I was given the impression at the forum last Wednesday night that they were ready for a big change, and improvement. I feel like this ward is back in high school, voting for Steen because of his popularity, and not his qualifications.
Steen fighting, but not for the residents of Elmwood-East Kildonan.
Election results in the Elmwood-East Kildonan city councillor race:
Shaneen Robinson: 3,705
Rod Giesbrecht: 3,501
Gordon Warren: 264
Nelson Sanderson: 236
Who knows, maybe Steen will end up being an amazing councillor. But if he doesn't, I'll have a hard time feeling sorry for the people in that ward. They were the ones who voted him in, so why is it now that everyone is complaining?
ReplyDeleteHaha yeah good call, it did kind of feel like a Lizzie McGuire plotline where the captain of the football team gets all the votes and then spends the bakesale money on new team uniforms.
ReplyDeleteHaha but if you think about it who ever is behind him is pretty smart for predicting that people would mark an X beside the one name they knew.(I don't know if he's quite smart enough to be the one to think of that.)
ReplyDeleteI too am baffled by this turn of events, but understand it results from NDP indecision regarding their backing of both Robinson and Giesbrecht. Unfortunate.
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