Cell: 497-7215
Grade this year: B-
Grade last year: C-
Russell Walker’s been around forever, and knows what’s what. He’s generally right-of-centre on the issues that The Coast finds important—he’s for a third harbour crossing, he voted for the Chebucto Road widening, he unthinkingly supports huge budget increases for cops, whether warranted or not.
But—and this is huge—Walker was the councillor who derailed the proposed transit tax changes, which were in turn the precursor for the larger tax reform proposal. Walker was a pit bull on the issue; he wouldn’t let it go, he rhetorically ripped it to shreds.
Walker based his opposition to the tax plan in terms of what it would do to the people in his district—in short, increase their taxes. I would have liked to have seen a more ideology-based critique, but Walker’s pragmatic representation of district won the day regardless, and no one else was stepping up to the plate.
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City Council Report Card 2009
This article appears in May 14-20, 2009.