The district
District map:
(Click here for a written description of district boundaries.)
Candidates
P. Rano Khokhar
Website
Twitter: None
Facebook
Email
Reg Rankin
Council report card
Website
Twitter
Facebook: None
Email
Bruce E. Smith
Website
Twitter
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Email
Mary Wile
Council report card
Website: None
Twitter: None
Facebook: None
Email
20 questions from The Coast
Meet the human behind the politician: We sent the candidates a questionnaire, asking questions that are more personal than political. Here are their unedited answers:
Coast analysis
Most of the new District 12 is protected wilderness area: the Five Bridges Wilderness Park to the south, and the in-creation Birch Cove Lakes—Blue Mountain Wilderness in the north. The district is a UARB creation, as the board cobbled together the western slice of Clayton Park with the Highway 3 corridor running through Timberlea; if ever there were two disparate communities in one district, this is it.
In terms of councillor effectiveness, it’s instructive to compare how Cole Harbour councillor Lorelei Nicoll worked to successfully reverse the dismemberment of her community that was envisioned in the first iteration of redistricting to the complete lack of action, not a squeak, from Clayton Park councillor Mary Wile, as the same process split asunder Clayton Park. Clayton Park is inarguably a coherent community with a shared identity and a set of broad concerns that are unique to itself, but any chance that the community will find a collective voice at council has been lost thanks to Wile’s inaction.
So, going into the new District 12 election, sitting councillor Reg Rankin appears to have the upper hand, but challenger Bruce Smith is coming on strong, with a surprisingly (and refreshingly, even if we don’t agree with it all) detailed platform. Smith’s a big fan of the convention centre, but he’s opposed to a stadium. He wants to lower commercial taxes, perhaps naively claiming the loss revenue can be met by slashing “waste” at city hall. He opposed the expansion of Bayers Lake, and supports the creation of the BCL-BM wilderness park. He quite rightly laments the loss of a single Clayton Park representative.
Agree with Smith or not, he’s bringing an informed challenge to Rankin.
Return to VoteHRM page.
This article appears in Jul 26 – Aug 1, 2012.
Bruce E Smith your Candidate for District 12
My twitter is: Vote Bruce
Please include my middle initial ‘E’ for Bruce E. Smith. There’s a lot of Bruce Smith’s out there.
Thanks!
It’s foolish that BLT is now connected with Clayton Park for our City Counsellor. Don’t get me wrong, Clayton Park is a great place but its concerns and needs are very different from BLT. It seems foolish that we would be connected like that when we really share very little (as far as differences in the HRM are concerned) in common
Matthew,
Throughout the Boundary Review process, I have been very vocal in expressing the importance of keeping communities and neighbourhoods together. I have stressed the importance of not breaking apart long established neighbourhoods.
As I stated at the beginning, “This process has been built around numbers, not around people, communities or neighbourhoods, and that fundamentally wrong!