Who is Trent Derrick?

Didn't you read the article?

As I recall, Trent was the eager, young promise in the last go-round... appeared to have an educated, common sense approach to the issues... however he seemed to suffer from being an unknown risk for the electors.

Good idea to start early this time and make himself available... I'm not endorsing him, but he is certainly the kind of new blood that most of you have been howling for... time to belly up. :-)

V.

Yes I did read the article

1. First one out of the gate
2. Ran for mayor in the last election
3. lost the race (presumably since he is not mayor now)
4. Learned a great deal
5. plans on running for a Councillor seat.
6. Thinks electorate should have plenty of time to know who is running for council.


So, this is what defines Mr. Derrick?

Off to a good start ..... hasn't learned yet that the longer you are in the public's eye, the more of a target you make .....

Also has not learned yet that when you get the media's attention make good use of the time and space by telling those in the public who hear it or read it what the key things are that define you.

Last election??????

What were the issues?????

What were the REAL issues which were not even discussed??

Well, he certainly has YOUR attention. :-)

First quality: .. he has the balls to step forward into the public eye and let himself be counted... that alone would give him my vote.

V.

attention???? ....

that is not the objective ....

The fellow who got kicked out of the city got a lot of people's attention. The mayor in Williams Lake got even more people's attention. That attetnion, laden with information about the tactic of dealing with agressive panhandlers, went international.

There is a difference between gettign someone's attention and picking an appropriate message.

So, how does Mr. Derrick stand on the issue of panhandlers in downtown PG for instance. Now THAT would start to define Mr. Derrick in today's issues.

I am assuming you were capable of making that distinction without my pointing it out.

There were close to thirty the last time that had the "balls" as you pointed out to step forward .... did you vote for all of them??? .... I doubt it. That is not a viable way differentiate the candidates, unless you use a first come first serve rule.

I will take it one step further.

Mr. Derrick, being the first one out of the gate, has an advantage over every single other individual coming after him. He is in the interesting position of actually being able to define the issues of the coming election and will be able to tag the important ones to him as being the most important ones for the election and others will be in a position to accept or oppose them. If they accept them, he can take the credit to have indentified them AS WELL AS HIS SOLUTIONS. He then can be seen to be the leader and doer .......

Otherwise he becomes a follower and the same olde, same olde.

Sure hope Owl doesn't run for office. Judging by Owl's activity on this one article, I can't imagine how long a Council meeting would drag on. Lets see, five comments on an item that only has 4 sentences? Wanna bet Owl has to add at least one more?

All Owl had to say was Trent hoot-who? Says it all..

Sorry ... did not realize that discussion and debate are not allowed ......

Wonderful society we are creating ....

Basically you are saying:

"spare me the details ... just tell me what you will do and I'll vote ... yes .. no .... I have do not have the time, the interest, nor the intellect for debate ....

No wonder we get the people we have on council ... all they need is name recognition ....

:-(

I agree with what Owl says. I laughed out loud when I heard it on the radio today, because by the end of his interview not a single issue was raised. Do we really want to elect a guy that ran for mayor and didn't win (against Kinsley no less) and now he is running for council because that way he can get elected? It makes no sense, especially when he didn't use his free air time and excellent opportunity to identify with some issues. I'm not sure I would want him negotiating for me if he isn't up front about why he is running other then he didn't get elected as mayor last time... if he's lucky and has a good enough sell he might get one more chance for my vote, but I'd say he blew it.

Also if this is the same guy that based his whole mayor run last time on rebuilding the fort at Fort George Park... then is it any wonder he's holding his agenda close to his chest for now?

Owl's right - name recognition is everything. That's why Dan Rogers went from news reader to councillor so easily and Arnie is the Govenator of Kalifornia

You want to be a city councillor? I can get you elected.

Here's how. Become a squeegy kid on 3rd and Victoria for one month starting September 15th. Guaranteed to win or your money back. People view that kind of stunt as a strong character trait and willingness to follow through.

I'd say the kid is a shoe in.

Uh, people... the man just threw his hat in the ring and there's three and a half months to the election. We have plenty of time to 'hear the issues'. Why does everyone expect a full platform already?

Actually, MrPG, I expect more than a "platform" from all future candidates. I expect to know how they think they can get those things done that they say they want to get done.

So a person says they will make fixing potholes the number one priority. And? How's that going to get them fixed?

1. There are others on Council who may not have that as a priority.

2. There are other things the City has to do - what will get less priority in order to fix the potholes? Will you support raising taxes to fix potholes?

3. Will you demand a timeline, such as one year or two years to get them fixed? How will you get other Councillors to see it your way? Do you know enough about the issue to know what a realistic timeline is?

4. Have you taken the time to do your research on your 3 key issues? So how much does it cost to fix the potholes? Can they all be fixed with the money available? Is it a money issue or a manpower or an equipment issues?

Standing up there and saying that potholes are the number one priority means squat to me. Anyone can do that.

In trhis case Mr. Derrick is noted in the Citizen as having the following interests:

1. lower the crime rate ..... already done this year - so what is he going to reduce it to and how will he do it are the real questions

2. lower the homeless rate .... again, what is the number now, where will he take it to, how long will it take, and how is he going to do it?

3. diversify the economy - what is the measure of diverisfication? how diversified was it 20 years ago, 10 years ago, now? how will he increase the diversification? What amount of diversification does a city that is not vulnerable to single industry meltdowns have? Into which areas does he think we need to diversify? How can we do that? How will he lead that process?

Anyone who wishesw to be a Councillor needs to be able to think along those lines.

The problem? The media time one gets does not allow for such detailed answers. The public is not interested in such answers. Everything is about 5 second sound bites ......

Obama is one of the recent studies of that line of thinking by the electorate. "CHANGE" .. a single word, without any details.

Well, we know Bush did not run on that as a slogan ... but he brought CHANGE more than Obama ever will be able to and it affected the entire world.

Like most other people on this site owl, you're great at identifying the problems but fall short on any solutions. Maybe you should run for council and show everybody how it's done?

A friend of mine who no longer lives here used to call each of the potential candidates directly on the phone and ask those kinds of questions and based his voting decisions based on the conversations. Maybe that's what people have to do? I doubt most people would bother.

MrPG .... I can't show anyone how it is done. Only those who have been elected or who have helped them get elected can do that.

What I am actually talking about is how people should be making their selection. Your friend seems to be one who does it that way. Imagine if we all did that though. Thus, if that became the standard the electorate expected, the candidates would address that standard. As it is, it is not much of a challenge.

The electorate is simply not in a mood to care. They often vote the lesser of the evils or for someone they know. Thus, the notion that name recognition is what really counts. They do not even understand that if you think only two candidates have what you feel is needed, that is all you vote for. For some reason or other people check off another 6 just because they are there.

The electorate deserve what they get. :-)