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Yeah, that was kind of my point, actually. Allow me to rephrase it another way, though: a big part of his appeal seems to be that he's not an overly ideological "too-left" or "too-right" sort of guy -- he seems, from what I can tell, to be a relatively centrist guy who's willing to listen to either side and figure out what works, and who knows how to explain himself in a coherent and inclusive way (a skill which also eludes a lot of people on all sides of the political spectrum.)
Aristotleded - tough for me...calgary is my backyard and I know the peoples here and how we think decently well...the winteregg is foriegn ground to me and I would have less of an idea. Best advice I can give...if you want to appeal to the youth, drop left vs right lines of arguements and present a vision...tell them what their city could be. So much of the Lib vs Cons fighting has numbed youth voters, and if there's anything youth is good at, it's ignoring things we don't care about.
You got it Astrix. Left vs Right is an ideology many of the youth here don't care about (unless they've gotten swept into the 'go red team' or 'go blue team'! mentality). We lacked much of a right vs left fight...might be in large part why the voter turnout grew to where it did.
I should mention that much credit should go to Barb Higgins when it comes to voter engagement...had she not been here, McIvor probably would have won with a 15% voter turnout. She was really the one responsible for the city getting as involved as it did.
Most of our youth are not lefties. That is the challenge. However most of our youth want a greener sustainable future for themselves and all others in Canada. The majority have friends of many various backgrounds and the majority believe everyone should be treated fairly. Its not ideological but it is progressive. Note also the attention paid to multiple languages for videos and most languages for all docs. That is the norm in ridings in urban BC.
But when I ponder this it comes down to an old political nugget, "volunteers on the ground win elections" If you have a bevy of youth volunteers then people start to wonder why the buzz? Campaigns with lots of volunteers and a good candidate usually win. How you message to get volunteers is the technology part but the volunteers are the key to success.
How about these promises she made?
Crime Prevention
Environmental policy, including local food and building rapid transit
Incidentally enough, the "youth vote" in Winnipeg, according to polls, favours incumbent Sam Katz. And while Judy is an NDPer, she has support from other corners, including former Manitoba Liberal leader Sharon Carstairs and former mayors Bill Norrie and Glen Murray.
Astrix:
The sun was late....3 street papers had long endorsed him. Yes, it wasn't only youth voters...but they definately represent the core of his support. We'll see results soon...I'm predicting 100k out of the 125k will be freom voters under the age of 35, but tis my speculation :) 53% was my prediction for voter turnout and not actualy...I think the real number was 52ish but I don't know for sure yet.
How do you poll the youth vote when most have ever changing cell numbers and no land lines? Youth who live at home is maybe the demographic a pollster would be reaching with a sprinkling of youth who not only can afford their own apartments but can also afford the luxury of a land line. Seems to me polls that claim to say anything about the youth vote would be inherently unreliable unless they have a new method of surveying.
To me, the messaging in the Winnipeg mayorality campaigns are boring.
Crime Prevention vs
Calgary will be a city where every neighbourhood is a safe neighbourhoodReal Plan for a Greener Winnipeg (environmental policy, local food, rapid transit) vs
Calgary will be a city of sustainable, walkable, livable, complete communities
Calgary Transit will be a preferred choice, not the last choice
Even though Nenshi's policy bullets are sloganny they just seem more appealing.
Well, this is Winnipeg after all.
Incidentally, most polls have Judy tied with the incumbent.
Krop:
True enough...the youth here have never been engaged, when they saw the chance to be apart of a movement they cared about...if it's possible to have too many volunteers, we were very close to it.
Aristotleded - The youth that I know here wouldn't favor the crime prevention...fuk-da-police...earmarking the funds for culture would ring stronger with voters here, but thats due to most of us knowing culture here needs improving. edit to add : the crime prevention...the response I received from 'building a city where crime isn't a concern because people need not turn to it' gets a much better reception then the terms prevention or punishment will ever get. I'd prefer a vision where the need to turn to crime is reduced than I would hearing that we're clamping down on it tighter.
Policy is policy (I like the policy too)...but where is the vision? Where is the end result that these policies come to? Umm..and I would have read her talking points, but they seem too long for my attention span to handle. tweet. ummwhere am I? oh ya...in the talking points, I don't care who scrapped what and what doesn't work...give an end result, a goal you are working towards. Without it, you're just giving paths to nowhere.
Right here
I think you're referring to her point about rapid transit, so for the benefit of anybody not from Winnipeg:
Winnipeg is the only major Canadian city without any sort of rapid transit. There is a plan on the books to change that, starting by building a BRT line from downtown to the U of M in 2 phases. The first phase of construction is underway, but the mayor will not commit to completing the line to the U of M, whereas Judy will. I realise that this may not sound clear to anybody not from the city, but it is definitely a talking point here and one people are aware of.
I'll have to listen to that vision when I have sound ;) I think I'm missing a bit without it. hehe
And yes, the BRT proposal was one of the peices I was referring to, but the same critisism works on other points. When you're creating a vision, what hasn't worked in the past (placing blame) or why another political style doesn't work (lib vs cons for example), you lose the impact of that vision. I want to know where you want to take us and why, not why other policy/people are wrong/stupid. Make sense? I'm not sure how clear I'm being with this...one of the refreshing sides of Nenshi's campaign that drew in people is there was really no attempt to frame past events or people or policies as 'wrong', we are who we are lets move forward.
And I must admit, Judy's policy is almost painful to read. It says summary at the top, why are each of these points 3 to 5 lines? I really shouldn't have to scan a summary line in an attempt to summarize it for myself. I'm almost afraid to go into the details section, does 3-5 lines of text in a summary became 3-5 pages in details? hehe ;)
"End the wasteful delays and policy flip-flops over rapid transit by getting the first leg of a high-speed, climate-controlled, wifi-enabled bus rapid transit system completed and operational within a first mayoral term, with construction underway on the second line"
vs what laine put on here:
Calgary Transit will be a preferred choice, not the last choice
Of course there's more to it...but it's a summary! One line, one point, very clear. If you want to expand on it beyond a short sweet line, do that in the description, not the summary.
Or this one:
"
Great implementation line, but quite poor for a summary/vision. 1 point, what are you trying to accomplish...actually, what are WE trying to accomplish...how you are going to implement it can come later after you've caught the voters attention with that end goal. Each one of those summary lines should be no longer than 1 line. I'm finding the 'how' less important than the end result when you're framing a vision.
And I just wanna stress that for ya Aristotleded...you aren't going to change a conservative voters point of view by pointing out how wrong that point of view is. Peoples political views aren't going to dramatically shift based on your campaigning and if you're relying on conservative voters admitting how wrong they're view is, you're not going to win many elections. Of course policy and implementation is going to have that left vs right context to it, but the end result...that goal or vision...can transcend this ideological rift.
From a generational standpoint...most of the disengaged youth have grown up knowing politics only as left vs right, lib vs con. I've watched what I've considered the most brialliant minds defend the indefensible repeatadely because party lines--ideological lines--seem to take priority over common sense and end results. I am so completely numb to partisan arguements and I beleive it's a commonality that many of the 'youth' vote share with me (I'm sorta on the older cusp of the youth vote). I want an end result, not some ideological arguement...and I'll ignore an ideological reasoning without considering it's merits.
And social media (fyi, I am so sick of that term)...there is really no way of controlling it or specifically targetting it. Ultimately it comes down to friends talking to friends...the 'social media' just makes this friends talking to friends much more readily avaialble and consistant. You give people something to talk about as Nenshi did, they will talk about it using whatever means to talk to each other they have. When several of your friends are all talking about Nenshi, you pay attention and the next thing you know, 100'000 people have all viewed Nenshi's video.
Back to some Calgary election stuffs...
The end result of this election is quite interesting now...once again in the general engagement level of the public. Everyone is still talking. Nenshi won over 125'000 people, a lil over 1 in 10 of us if you include all the non-voting population. Now I've heard that there is a decent portion of our population cursing over some muslim 'brown' guy as mayor, but what can you do bout the rednecks around here? ;) The majority that I'm seeing are approaching Nenshi with a 'why did all these calgarians vote for him?' type attitude...which is generally nice to see. A bunch of us are calling it the first time in our memories that we're proud to be calgarian.
Thank you for stating what should be the obvious. Did anyone else happen to hear the interview with the newly-elected mayor on As it Happens last night. They basically kept asking him directly "can you believe you were elected, even though you are a Muslim in Calgary??!!" He seemed taken aback and almost embarrassed for the hosts (who were repeating the meme blared from CBC all day). I admired him when he calmly answered " I am a Calgarian and I was raised here. I am Calgary." He refused to discuss his personal faith, etc. Seems like he ran a really great campaign and like laine lowe I am impressed by how he framed his ideas (which seem really good!).
Great to see you Ghislaine - and I agree 100%. Yes, I saw an interview with him (though I thought it was on the National...), and I was very impressed by the same things as you.
That Nenshi was a muslim barely came up during the campaign and local media pretty much omitted it as it wasn't relevant...a few of my co-workers didn't realize he was muslim until after the election and CBC finally took notice...it wasn't until CBC jumped on the story that 'OMG calgary elected a muslim?!?!?' became a headline.
The general surprise at this result just underlines the misunderstanding and outright prejudice from the rest of Canada thats consitantly directed at Calgary...assholes reacting like palestine just elected netanyahu. Especially CBC right now, I feel like they're reporting on Calgary like we're a foriegn nation and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone with that view point...which makes me speculative if this enthusiasm will translate to Federal politics. Seriously, if you're surprised that 130'000 calgarians would vote for a muslim, you have absolutely no fucking clue who Calgarians are. Stupid irrelavent CBC.
Begs repeating.
"Stupid irrelevant CBC."
But in America it would have been a big story so our CNN North runs it in its new imperial style.
Continuing to talk to people around here today...the reaction towards the media is really negative. First on CTV...cutting off election coverage before 10% of the polls were reporting to show 'Dancing with the Stars' was just a dumb move by CTV. They're supposed to be a local tv station...cutting the municipal election covereage to show and American pop culture show? All sides of the political spectrum are sounding off on CTV right now and I'm sure they're being bombarded with letters (how canadian is it to 'bombard' with text? ;) ).
The reaction to CBC isn't much better...that Nenshi's religious background would go pretty much unmentioned in the election yet become the major talking point of CBC headlines is outright absurd. Running joke is the CBC articles are signed by CBC's Senior Foriegn Correspondent
Winnipeg is in a slightly different situation. Here, there is an incumbent mayor who has alienated many people with his decisions, so naturally the challenger is going to sepak to that. In Calgary, there was no incumbent, so of course it would make sense that those running for mayor would want to "move forward" without referencing what happened previously.
As well i believe in Calgary he was partly running on his good record on council, while Judy is a new comer to the municipal arena and had no say in any decisions made by previous councils.
Mistaken belief on your part kropotkin. While he had run for an aldermanic seat in the past, he was not successful in that bid. Thanks for playing though.
Thx for the correction. If I had known I would not have used "I believe."
That is also a positive sign. People maybe young people in particular are tired of the demonizing of others and just want to hear the policies to be implemented presented in a understandable manner. I love the multiple languages that are front and centre on his website. The antithesis of the "let them learn english" racism found in other places and a winning part of an urban strategy for all to pay attention too.
Kro: Ric McIvor's campaign was pushing that he was the only candidate of the front runners that has had previous aldermanic experience...both Nenshi and Higgins were newcomers...though Higgin's is thoroughly involved with charity work and has ran charity organizations (the guess on her right now is she'll take up a senior position with United Way) while Nenshi has been on the board of directors for arts and music endevours.
Aristotleded: Told ya I didn't know local winnipeg issues ;) Even then, I'd still prefer a challenger giving a vision of their own and avoid using attacking the incumbents record. Keep in mind my experience is strictly on a 'street campaigning' level...but a telling a person how poorly the incumbent is doing usually accomplishes nothing. You'll get one of three responses...1 group will already be quite aware of how the incumbent sucks and agrees with ya. 1 group will have already made all the excuses for the incumbent they possibly can and trying to tell them how wrong the incumbent is ends up being taken like you're calling that person wrong themselves (they take critisisms of the incumbent as critsisms against themselves)...telling a person they're values are wrong is a good way to lose a vote ;) The third group is baiscally everyone else...the incumbent has been in power for a couple years and whatever the incumbent has been doing wrong hasn't influenced them yet, why exactly would you think they'd suddenly pay attention to it now while you're campaigning and not over the years while it's been effecting them? Moreover, I don't think an 'anybody but' mentality drives people to the polls...incumbent A sucks therefore I'll vote! has got to be a pretty rare attitude and if they have this attitude odds are they've had that attitude for years now and you're preaching to the converted already. Take the anybody but conservative voters for example...figure they became ABC'ers because a campaigner pointed out to them how badly conservatives suck 2 weeks before the election or because they've held this view for quite sometime? My arguement is the people in this group will respond far better (inspired to vote) by a vision of the future and not critisisms on the past.When I did some talking with the voters, this is basically the approach I used, saying why I thought Judy would do a good job and contrasting it with the current situation where appropriate.
Probably another area where calgary is unique...but I really had little need to contrast other peoples positions with Nenshi. As it's been the case with the last few elections, the main job of a campaigner in Calgary is just getting the people with similiar views to your own to actually go vote. Same was true for Nenshi, there was no need to convince people to agree with his views, that support is alive and strong (and has been for a few years now)...it was a matter of convincing those that held his views that we were the majority and voting is worth it for a change. Social media was primarily responsible for that as 'the purple armys' numbers became quite apparent
ETA: as a side thought...the purple army worked exceedingly well. Certain colours are well associated with other parties already (red,blue,orange,green) and often stir up emotions just from the colour relation. Using the purple colour was highly identifiable and unique...got rid of any negative perceptions tied to other parties with the same colour