Today’s The Day: Fort McMurray Rocks The Vote!

(I fully rip apart all sense of impartiality today and endorse certain candidates, read on for the exciting, biased details!)

If you’ve been living under a rock (or, to be fair, out at a work-camp) then you may not have seen all the signs and know that today is Election Day here in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo. And that’s ok, because there’s still time for you to get out and rock the vote. (voting info here)

Today is the day when residents of our region can make their voices heard and elect a mayor and council that they think will be the best representatives for our region. I’ve got my fingers crossed that this will be the best council elected in recent memory.

Watch Mayoral Candidates Debate the Last Two Questions

Here are the last two questions of the evening. Isn’t technology wonderful?

How do you ensure the citizens the best value for their tax dollars?

What is the question you expected this evening, but wasn’t asked?

First Impressions from the RMWB Mayoral Debate

The Three Debaters: Nebesny, Vyboh and Blake

Here are a few things I take away from tonight’s mayoral debate.

1. While the theatre had a lot of bums in seats, a large majority of those folks were heavily invested in either the candidates on stage, or were involved in council campaigns themselves. Thanks to @colleentatum for putting that bug in my ear.
2. Joe Nebesny, while not the most qualified candidate to run North America’s largest municipality (by square kilometers), was a character and received a lot of laughs + goodwill tonight from the audience. He is passionate about the community and sees a lot of good here (he also sees a lot that needs to be prioritized and tackled speedily).
3. John Vyboh is not a big fan of the oil sands industry – or at least he thinks they need to be more involved in the community. If I were able to question him about that, I would ask him to take a look at who raised the majority of last year’s United Way funds (hint: it rhymes with “employees of the oil sands industry”). He also mentioned how proud he was of the Syncrude Sport & Wellness Centre and the Suncor Community Leisure Centre. At odds?
4. Melissa Blake not only kept her calm, dignified presence, but she also stole the show ending with a standing ovation from a large portion of the crowd.
5. If push comes to shove, I am not entirely convinced that Nebesny would in fact not vote for himself come election day – based on how often he seemed to vocally support Blake’s comments… it was quite funny, and telling.
6. I will shortly be posting two videos of the very last two questions asked of all three candidates – enjoy!

Audience milling during halftime break

Melissa Blake being interviewed after the debate