Skeena Institute

Congratulations, Jack Mussallem

miguel — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 02:45:21 +0000

Congrats. I hope your next term in office is a successful one. And by successful, I mean I hope that it provides for great video remixes.

On the skeena.org experiment …

miguel — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 17:43:29 +0000

The ‘election special’ site ran for approximately a month. Here are some stats from that month:

We had more than 1500 unique visitors, who visited skeena.org a total of 5409 times. That translated to 25,000 page views! Not bad for an amateur site set up by a small group of volunteers, eh?

Most visitors came from Prince Rupert, though we were also visited from other Canadian cities. One overly-enthusiastic non-Rupert visitor clicked our polls so much that we had to reset them and limit them.

Here are a couple of graphs for us nerds:

What are your thoughts? Was the site successful in highlighting candidates? Were you one of the regular visitors?

Prince Rupert 2011 Election Results

miguel — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 04:00:57 +0000

Unofficial results as of 20 November 2011:

Mayor
1769 Mussallem, Jack
981 Bedard, Kathy
357 Morhart, Corinna

Councillors
1925 THORKELSON, Joy
1898 KINNEY, Nelson
1665 RICE, Jennifer
1536 GARON, Gina
1459 ASHLEY, Anna
1080 CARLICK-PEARSON, Judy
939 VALLEE, Rob
784 HOLMES, Christo
764 KIRK, James
691 LEWIS, Conrad B.
609 MCLEAN, Gabe
601 STEWART, Farley

School Board
1777 Last, Tina
1630 Gruber, Barbara
1597 Kuntz, Bart
1595 Bowles, Marty
1302 Sanchez, Louisa
1046 Huddlestone, Terri-Lynne
931 Wiens, Russell
854 Alexcee, Leonard
785 Johnson, Brian
730 Boudier, Tanya

How did our Polls do?

miguel — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 03:59:44 +0000

We’re going to compare how accurate (or inaccurate) our informal and unscientific polls were compared to the official election results.

Our poll predicted that Kathy Bedard would win the mayoral race, and she came a distant second to Mr. Mussallem. Perhaps Ms. Bedard’s supporters are more computer literate than Mr. Mussallem’s?

Our poll predicted that Jennifer Rice, Rob Vallee, Anna Ashley, Joy Thorkelson, Christo Holmes, and Judy Carlick-Pearson would be elected councillors.

The poll got 4 out of 6 right. Neither Holmes nor Vallee were elected. Instead, Nelson Kinney and Gina Garon were the other successful candidates.

Our poll suggested that Marty Bowles, Barb Gruber, Louisa Sanchez, Brian Johnson, Tanya Boudier and Bart Kuntz would be elected.

Neither Johnson nor Boudier were elected. Instead, Last and Huddlestone were successful.

Archived Polls

miguel — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 17:24:37 +0000

These polls ended on November 11th, and are here for reference only. The current polls are still available.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Meet the Candidates

miguel — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 21:50:29 +0000

The North Coast Immigrant and Multicultural Services Society would like to invite you to a special meeting called Meet the candidates.

The purpose of this special meeting is to allow you to meet the candidates who are running for the mayor position. All 3 candidates confirmed their presence.

The agenda of the evening is simple: each candidate will have 10 minutes to do a presentation followed by a short period of questions.

The special meeting will take place at the multipurpose room of the Prince Rupert Public Library (101 6th Ave W.), on Thursday November 10, 2011 at 7 p.m.

If you need more information about our Meet the candidates event, please feel free to contact me at 250-624-9498, or via email at sebastien@hseds.ca.

Do we need School Boards at all?

Podunkian — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 20:37:03 +0000

The Vancouver Province recently offered up an item for thought, offering up the theory that the concept of local school boards is an outdated model, not relevant to today’s educational needs.

http://www.theprovince.com/business/should+away+with+school+boards/5656459/story.html

What do you think about this proposal, is it a valid concern or do you still believe that the current system is relevant to the goals of education?

Watson Island

miguel — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 15:44:11 +0000

At the moment the City of Prince Rupert is still engaged in legal action over the fate of Watson Island.

As a member of council on the new City Council or as Mayor, what are your thoughts on the length of time this process has taken so far, the nature of that dispute and do you see an end to this long running legal dispute.

What future do you see for the Watson island site?

What kind of economic development would you like to see on that industrial site and do you see a role for the City in development of that site?

Prince Rupert Tax Burden

miguel — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 20:50:00 +0000

Prince Rupert has one of the highest taxation rates in the province of British Columbia, with our population decline over the last decade, that burden of taxation has fallen on a smaller portion of the tax paying population.

As a candidate do you believe that the current tax rate burden for citizens is acceptable?

Would you change the residential and/or commercial rate and by how much?

If you believe that the tax burden is too high for the population base, what would you recommend the city do to reduce that burden on its citizens?

Regional District Issues

miguel — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 20:46:16 +0000

Regional District is a sometimes controversial, though often forgotten part of government on the North Coast, but one which is of importance to Prince Rupert owing to the fact that taxpayers in the city provide the bulk of the financing for it.

To some in the community, Prince Rupert is not receiving full value for its financial contribution to that form of government.

With that in mind, what are the opinions of our candidates for council and the Mayoralty on the role of Regional District and do they believe that Prince Rupert should have more input into those decisions.

How would they work to achieve that input?

Do the candidates believe that Regional District still provides a benefit for the city? Or should the City of Prince Rupert consider withdrawing from Regional District, leaving the rural communities to fund its operation on their own?

For background consideration, below are some links to some recent Northern View stories regarding Regional District.

http://www.thenorthernview.com/news/128280018.html

http://www.thenorthernview.com/news/132481333.html