Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Coffee with Dean Murdock Who is Running for Saanich Council

I went and had a coffee with Dean Murdock this morning. He is running for a seat on Saanich council and I think his odds are looking good.

He has a campaign together, he is meeting people and going door to door, he is taking this seriously and trying hard to get elected. I like to see this in people running for office, I do not like to see people just putting their name on the ballot and hoping for the best or not bothering to try.

I have no doubt that Dean will be a hard working councilor. He would also add some much needed youth to the Saanich council. He will be well known across the region and make his issues important issues for everyone in the region.

Dean is also the sort of younger guy that I see in the Liberals, NDP or Conservatives. He wants to be a politician and loves the game of politics. Politics in Canada suffers from the fact that almost all the younger people involved with political parties are people that want to elected some day or want to be political insiders. This does not mean there is anything wrong with Dean as these sort of people are normally the hardest working people in politics. The only danger comes when their ambition is more important than their community.

Asked him about ambition, if this was the first rung on a ladder to be an MLA or something in the future. He said it is not, that his community is what matters most but at the same time who knows what the future might bring. I believe that at this time he values community over ambition but he is young and could be seduced by the Dark Side.....

He has done a reasonable job of articulating where he comes from, though I would love to see a better broken out set of specifics on his website and not have to scroll through his blog entries.

As most of you know, I am not a supporter of the NDP and tend to view New Democrat approach to economic issues as outdated for our society. I do love their passion, even when I am called a facist for supporting Conservatives. Dean is clearly NDP to me and that means I am hesitant to say I would vote for him in Saanich, I am not sure yet.

One issue that we talked a lot about was transportation, specifically rail transit in this region. Dean seems to be in favour and believes that the it is afforbable on a capital end and on the operating end. As most of you know, I love rail but I am skeptical of it for this region. As I told him, there are numerous questions I need to have answered. I also pointed that I live in the city of Victoria and that an LRT would be of very limited benefit to people living in the city but at the same time I suspect we would be expected to pay more taxes to build and operate it.

He, and Saanich South MLA David Cubberly, are organizing an event to talk about transit:

Ready for Rapid Transit?

Public Transit Forum
Event Info
Host:
Dean Murdock and David Cubberley
Type:
Network:
Global
Time and Place
Date:
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Time:
7:30pm - 9:30pm
Location:
Spectrum School
Street:
957 Burnside Road West
City/Town:
Saanich, BC
Contact Info
Phone:
2506584160
Email:

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