Sure, everyone tries to spin events to their best effect, but this statement:
Malcolm Fraser, chairman of an area community group that’s been publicly critical of city hall, said his organization was hoping to see "more candidates, or more options, for the citizens of the city to have for (regional) council, the school board and for mayor."
His group, Citizens for Halifax, had its inaugural annual general meeting in July. Mr. Fraser said the group, a grassroots non-partisan organization, never intended to field a slate of candidates for council or a mayoral hopeful.
is simply a lie. Citizens for Halifax had announced with much fanfare that they were going to run candidates against each of the 23 councillors and the mayor. That goal was stated from the start, as has been mentioned repeatedly, including:
In the Nova Scotia Business Journal article:
As reported in The Daily Business Buzz last week, the new Citizens For Halifax society is comprised of various leading business personalities and is looking to build wide-ranging grassroots support to advocate changes at City Hall. It will support candidates for mayor, council and Halifax Regional School Board.
On Tuesday, a group of Halifax regional councillors met informally at City Hall to chat. The topic was their livelihoods. For days, they'd been hearing rumours about a group of powerful HRM citizens who are banding together with the goal of a clean sweep of council in next year's municipal election. That's new councillors and a new mayor.
Last week, Citizens for Halifax held a public meeting on transportation. The group started out last year with a plan to run candidates for council seats and for the mayor's office. It now merely says it "encourages and supports" candidates for civic office.
Challengers for Mayor's chair hard to find. Citizens for Halifax is desperately searching for a candidate to defeat incumbent mayor Peter Kelly.
Malcolm Fraser can deny it all he wants, but Citizens for Halifax was formed with the purpose of running candidates for council and mayor, and has failed to do so.