There Is A New Boss In Town

Monday, November 17, 2008 03:45 AM

Dan Rogers started off in the lead and just never looked back, that is the best way to sum up the civic election.

Rogers was not falling prey to the same kind of politics that had cost him the Mayor's seat in the last civic election, where former Mayor Colin Kinsley was able to swing out the idea that Rogers was dead set against building the Cameron Street Bridge, vote for me said Kinsley and the bridge will be built.

Well three year has passed and the construction is still ongoing. Rogers had wanted to use the old footings and put a new steel bridge on it. Coupled with that was the famous media conference where a new downtown development was announced before the media as a means of re shaping down town. That project never got beyond the sign stage.

There was an effort to try and suggest that Rogers was going to spend 7 million in trails, those comments coming from a city committee even though it had been suggested by Rogers that we needed to look outside for money for the development of the trails and we needed to do the project over several years. It almost caught fire hurting Rogers but in the end they couldn’t spin it quite enough to make it stick.

Zurowski was the man in waiting when Kinsley took off the chain of office, unfortunately the people of the community thought otherwise.

In the race for seats on council the only surprise was that Mary Anne Arcand did not get elected. There was a move away from sitting members of council for a more business approach and Arcand came out of the box swinging. She however backed off from her feisty attitude early on in the campaign taking a more casual approach and that hurt her chances.

All in all there are several changes with the defeat of Glen Moose Scott and Shirley Gratton by adding some new young faces. The new council will be judged more than ever in the next three years on their record . In the end the voice of the people is the final test.

I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.

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Posted on Monday, November 17, 2008 03:45 AM in Views by Ben Meisner

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Comments

Posted by: Eagleone on November 17 2008 7:29 AM

I remember the last civic election how Dan had personally went out and cleaned up all his signs before morning and beat everyone else to it. Some took as long as a week, or more for some who lost. For some candidates it bordered on littering.

This election I noticed how Dan again was the first to have all is signs down, and it appears that Zurowski still has a few out there....

The sign take down tells me that Dan runs a tight ship, and thats a good sign for the city IMO.

Posted by: downnotout on November 17 2008 8:29 AM

give them a week and than charge them with littering. I'm sure you would only have to do that once.

Posted by: metalman on November 17 2008 9:53 AM

Well, I guess the best man won. All the best to you Mr. Rogers, I hope you make us all proud.
metalman.

Posted by: Vikingnuck on November 17 2008 10:34 AM

So when does it start being a "Beautiful day in Mr.Rogers Neighbourhood"? I asked him about concerns people had about him being indecisive, and doing studies and commitees till the people forget what the hell we were studying in the first place. PG has been "studied" to death I suggested. Mr Rogers response was that it was the "spin" of those who oppose him. I would hope so. If his supporters think he is indecisive, we are truely in for a long three years. Good luck Mr.Rogers. Can you say "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss"? I knew ya could.

Posted by: GoodCitizen on November 17 2008 12:51 PM

All the best to the new Mayor and Council. The people have spoken.

Posted by: Resident on November 17 2008 2:42 PM

Dan was more in tune with the citizens of PG. It is a changing world and where once people would put up with the smell of money or air pollution it is not the case today.
Don's statements that he would look industry in the eye for air emission clean up and a working community is a healthy community might have been acceptable statements 20 years ago but not today. Promoting polluting industry over people's health is unacceptable. People have come to expect civic responsibilty from industry and rightly so.

Posted by: bitter on November 17 2008 7:35 PM

I would like our new Mayor to look into something for us. We went to vote at Ron Brent School we passed a poster on the wall stating we want imput on turnig the School into a all Native School, Imput from who?? What meetings ?? our grown children attened this school with all nationalitys it was and still is a good school. A certin group was to turn the school into a private school. As taxpayers in the area do we not have any rights ?? This could impact the value of our home and affect all children in the area .

Posted by: Chester on November 17 2008 8:11 PM

I have to comment on a few things that may have tipped the scales in Mayor Dan Rogers favour. I received a couple of personal e-mails voicing support for Dan Rogers, mainly because of his concern for Air Quality. I noticed an ad in the local newspaper citing visible, solid support from a good number of Doctors in PG who also supported Dan because of his concern with Air Quality.

And finally, The Prince George Citizen, stepped out boldly to publically support Dan Rogers. Let's face it, many people are influenced by media, or public opinion. They want to vote for the winner. So, I believe that there may have also been those who were not decided, but ended up voting for Dan, because they thought he was going to win.

And add to this the desire for change. Way to go Dan. Great timing and a great campaign. Now, let's roll up our sleeves and get on with change.

Posted by: Lamb on November 17 2008 8:14 PM

Maybe you could ask Lyn Hall, just re-elected to the School Board?

Posted by: billposer on November 17 2008 10:47 PM

bitter,

The poster you noticed most likely had to do with the proposal to create an aboriginal focus school. For details, see the Report of the Aboriginal Education Task Force. This would not be an all native school and would not be private. You either misunderstood the poster or the poster had it wrong.

Posted by: billposer on November 17 2008 10:50 PM

Oops, I used HTML instead of the weird link notation used here. The Report of the Aboriginal Education Task Force is on the SD57 web site: http://www.sd57.bc.ca/index.php?id=2505.

Posted by: Eagleone on November 18 2008 9:58 AM

What would you ask Lyn Hall? Why was there no competition for anyone else to vote for? That could be a question?

I guess people didn't feel it was important when their neighborhood schools were closed to be turned into grow shacks, private immigrant housing, and gun touting future 'acupuncture' specialists that have banned use of the play grounds if not by the barrel of a gun then by the creep factor of what these schools are now being used for.

The position shapes the future of whole communities, and no one cared to run on the issue of communities because the issue of education isn't important enough?

Posted by: Lamb on November 18 2008 1:53 PM

Lyn Hall didn't force the closure of the schools, the Province did that.
Also, on election night he said that the School Board needs to attract more people to run and that the Board needed to do a better job in getting people involved. I don't think it is fair to pick on him when it is the apathy of the public that we are dealing with.

Posted by: Lamb on November 19 2008 3:34 PM

Ben had Lyn Hall on the radio this morning and perhaps that it is a move in the right direction. Lyn Hall seems to want people more involved. Don't think there were too many calls though.