# RCP Returns

An episode of [Rose City Politics](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1247337855), 29 Aug 2026, 1 h 11 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74733780/rcp_returns_8_25_26.mp3

Hello…… Is this thing on?? Pat, Doug, and Don review who is running in the municipal election ward by ward. The good, the bad, the ugly. Don't worry your mom will always think you're beautiful. The games have begun. May the odds be forever in your favour.

## Transcript

[0:22] Speaker 1: Well, look what the municipal election dragged back to life.
[0:26] Speaker 1: Welcome to Rose City Politics. I'm Pat Papadias, and I
[0:31] Speaker 1: haven't been behind this microphone for about four years. I
[0:34] Speaker 1: stepped away from this show when I was going into
[0:38] Speaker 1: a little bit of administration at my job that I'm
[0:41] Speaker 1: now retired from. And apparently I can once again have
[0:44] Speaker 1: some opinions that I'm glad to share. After a bit
[0:48] Speaker 1: of a hiatus, we're bringing the show back, at least
[0:51] Speaker 1: for the road to this year's municipal election. And tonight
[0:55] Speaker 1: we're going back to the original recipe. So joining me
[0:59] Speaker 1: on our first show back, we'll be bringing back the OGs,
[1:02] Speaker 1: RCP Stallwarts, Doug Sartori and Don Merrifield. For those that
[1:08] Speaker 1: don't know, RCP has been talking Windsor politics for a
[1:11] Speaker 1: long time. For those who don't know, you know, we
[1:14] Speaker 1: started off as a radio show on CGM in 2005
[1:17] Speaker 1: and we moved to podcasting 12 years later in 2017.
[1:23] Speaker 1: Over the years, we've subjected Windsor to an impressive amount
[1:28] Speaker 1: of political commentary, analysis, speculation, and oftentimes, you know, even
[1:33] Speaker 1: just unjustified confidence, I'd say. We've also been around long
[1:39] Speaker 1: enough that a remarkable number of people who once sat
[1:42] Speaker 1: around our table went on to become elected officials themselves.
[1:45] Speaker 1: Some of them are actually running for re-election. One is
[1:48] Speaker 1: attempting a reclamation, I think he called it. And of course,
[1:52] Speaker 1: we'll have no shortage of honest critique of them and
[1:54] Speaker 1: with everybody else running for office. So in fact, RCP
[1:58] Speaker 1: has been less of a political podcast and more of
[2:02] Speaker 1: an unusually long municipal election incubator. Speaking of political podcasts
[2:08] Speaker 1: and local political podcasts, we should mention that we're not
[2:12] Speaker 1: the only game in town anymore. There's another podcast we're
[2:15] Speaker 1: very happy to see out there, Women of Windsor, Politics
[2:17] Speaker 1: and Leadership, or WOW. Their agenda is pretty straightforward. Get
[2:21] Speaker 1: more women into leadership, elected and otherwise. They put out
[2:25] Speaker 1: a new podcast every Tuesday morning. So if you're interested
[2:27] Speaker 1: in politics, leadership, or just hearing from some smart, interesting
[2:32] Speaker 1: Windsor women, give WOW a listen. You know, and the
[2:37] Speaker 1: more good local political conversation, the better. So anyway, back
[2:41] Speaker 1: to us. RCP has changed platforms, hosts, formats, and occasionally
[2:46] Speaker 1: the definition of the word analysis. But the basic idea
[2:49] Speaker 1: has stayed the same. Windsor politics is worth paying attention to.
[2:54] Speaker 1: And there's no shortage of things to talk about right
[2:57] Speaker 1: now because we are in election season. Nominations closed on Friday.
[3:02] Speaker 1: The candidates are now officially lined up. and we figured
[3:05] Speaker 1: the timing is right to bring RCP back, and actually
[3:09] Speaker 1: thanks to all of those who messaged us and reminded
[3:12] Speaker 1: us that maybe we should think about coming back. The
[3:15] Speaker 1: issues are starting to take shape. The campaigns are getting underway,
[3:19] Speaker 1: and as anyone who has listened to RCP before knows,
[3:22] Speaker 1: we're not here to tell you what to think. We're
[3:24] Speaker 1: here to dissect, debate, argue, laugh, and hopefully make a
[3:28] Speaker 1: little more sense of what's happening at City Hall, on
[3:32] Speaker 1: the campaign trail, and around Windsor-Essex. So after 20 years
[3:35] Speaker 1: of political banter, and the show did take a break
[3:38] Speaker 1: last year long enough to make this feel like a
[3:40] Speaker 1: reunion tour, the OGs are back, Rose City Politics is back.
[3:45] Speaker 1: Let's start by saying hello. Doug, how are you?
[3:49] Speaker 2: I'm doing well. I'm really excited. We have the WOW
[3:53] Speaker 2: Politics sponsorship. I can't wait for those WOW checks to
[3:56] Speaker 2: start rolling in.
[3:59] Speaker 1: Doug, I'm looking. I think we're a little grayer. I
[4:02] Speaker 1: just want to point this out.
[4:04] Speaker 2: Just a little bit, just a little bit. It's been,
[4:08] Speaker 2: so my history with the show goes back to 2015.
[4:10] Speaker 2: The memorable 2015 federal election campaign was when I started
[4:17] Speaker 2: showing up on CJAM's airwaves on RCP. And there's a
[4:22] Speaker 2: lot of water under the bridge since then, a lot
[4:25] Speaker 2: of great conversations. And I think we've learned a lot
[4:27] Speaker 2: of lessons about politics and life along the way.
[4:29] Speaker 1: Good point. Politics and life. Speaking of gray hair. Oh, sorry. No.
[4:36] Speaker 3: Hi, Don.
[4:37] Speaker 1: Wow.
[4:39] Speaker 3: First show, already a bald joke. The first thing that
[4:42] Speaker 3: comes out. Awesome.
[4:43] Speaker 1: All right. You look good, though.
[4:46] Speaker 3: Thanks. I appreciate it. Actually, the dark background really brings
[4:49] Speaker 3: out my skull.
[4:50] Speaker 1: How are you doing? Do you miss the show?
[4:54] Speaker 3: To be honest, I didn't even know the show ended.
[4:56] Speaker 3: I just assumed I offended somebody and you guys stopped
[4:58] Speaker 3: calling me. So I've been waiting in a Zoom waiting
[5:01] Speaker 3: room for like four years now and no one's clicking
[5:03] Speaker 3: the button.
[5:04] Speaker 4: Welcome back, Don. Thanks.
[5:07] Speaker 1: Well, why don't we get going? What we'd like to
[5:10] Speaker 1: do today is really just sort of do an outline,
[5:13] Speaker 1: an overview, if you will, of the Windsor race. We've
[5:17] Speaker 1: got a contested mayoral race. We'll go through sort of
[5:21] Speaker 1: an overview of each ward, who's running, who's an incumbent,
[5:24] Speaker 1: who's not coming back, what that landscape looks like, just
[5:28] Speaker 1: as our first show. And then hopefully as we continue
[5:32] Speaker 1: throughout this election, we'll bring in more voices, more guest hosts, candidates,
[5:36] Speaker 1: of course. And of course, I think more of the
[5:38] Speaker 1: issues will start to take shape. And so why don't
[5:42] Speaker 1: we start with an overview starting now? Let's start with
[5:47] Speaker 1: the mayor, shall we?
[5:48] Speaker 4: So.
[5:52] Speaker 1: Drew Dilkins, after, you know, waiting for quite a bit,
[5:58] Speaker 1: our incumbent mayor has did announce on, I think pretty well,
[6:02] Speaker 1: it's got to count as the last minute, that he's
[6:06] Speaker 1: running for re-election. Of course, we knew from a few
[6:09] Speaker 1: weeks ago that Fred Francis, city councillor in Ward 1,
[6:13] Speaker 1: would be vacating that seat in order to compete for
[6:17] Speaker 1: that seat. Um, that's really interesting. There are actually 11
[6:22] Speaker 1: candidates in the race, uh, and we can really talk
[6:26] Speaker 1: about whether, um, you know, this is a two-way race.
[6:31] Speaker 1: I'll just throw it right out there. It's a two-way race. Um, and, uh,
[6:35] Speaker 1: it'll be interesting to see what the issues are that
[6:37] Speaker 1: some of those candidates I think are going to be
[6:40] Speaker 1: raising because obviously they have a reason for running. Uh,
[6:43] Speaker 1: over to you. Let's start with Don. Don, what do
[6:45] Speaker 1: you think about the mayor's race?
[6:47] Speaker 3: Well, I thought it was interesting that Drew waited so
[6:49] Speaker 3: long to announce. I'm not sure if that was strategy
[6:52] Speaker 3: or if he was waiting to see if anyone show up.
[6:56] Speaker 3: It'll be interesting to see him, Fred, run against each other.
[6:58] Speaker 3: I mean, they were kind of tied at the hip
[6:59] Speaker 3: from day one until I would estimate, I guess we
[7:03] Speaker 3: haven't done the show for a while, probably about, what
[7:06] Speaker 3: do you think, three years ago, he kind of started
[7:08] Speaker 3: to appearance-wise separate himself policy-wise from the mayor, even around
[7:13] Speaker 3: the council table. Uh, usually he was a pretty standard,
[7:17] Speaker 3: just get in line and vote, but he started voting
[7:19] Speaker 3: against certain proposals and actually calling the mayor out a
[7:22] Speaker 3: little bit, uh, publicly. So I think that plan, I mean,
[7:27] Speaker 3: we all kind of felt like Fred would be running eventually. Uh,
[7:30] Speaker 3: I am actually, I was, I was, I was surprised
[7:32] Speaker 3: that Drew and Fred are going to run against each other.
[7:34] Speaker 3: I thought Drew was going to just move on to
[7:36] Speaker 3: something else, but, um, yeah, we'll see what happens as
[7:39] Speaker 3: far as the other people in the race. To be honest,
[7:41] Speaker 3: I didn't even know there were any other people in
[7:42] Speaker 3: the race until today when we checked. There's a whole
[7:46] Speaker 3: bunch of them. Nobody really jumping out at me. Running
[7:51] Speaker 3: for mayor is a very expensive proposition. To raise enough
[7:56] Speaker 3: money to have a serious campaign, you're probably going to
[7:58] Speaker 3: have to be one of the top two, maybe three
[7:59] Speaker 3: candidates unless you have a bunch of your own money
[8:02] Speaker 3: you want to spend.
[8:04] Speaker 4: Going back.
[8:06] Speaker 2: Going back to 2014, that was the last time we
[8:09] Speaker 2: had a real three-way race for mayor. And I'm curious, Pat,
[8:13] Speaker 2: I know you wanted to get in, but I'm curious
[8:15] Speaker 2: about your thoughts on this.
[8:17] Speaker 4: Do you think a three-way race is possible in Windsor?
[8:21] Speaker 1: So, you know, in terms of a three-way race, I think,
[8:26] Speaker 1: and I've said this elsewhere, so I'll say it here
[8:29] Speaker 1: just to ground it. I think a three-way race would
[8:33] Speaker 1: really have benefited Drew Dilkins. And in many ways, I,
[8:39] Speaker 1: you know, I think there's a number of reasons why
[8:40] Speaker 1: he waited so long. And we can get into it
[8:43] Speaker 1: a little bit more. We maybe will do a show
[8:45] Speaker 1: just on that mayor race. We'll probably do that closer to,
[8:48] Speaker 1: you know, when it gets really hot, maybe just before
[8:51] Speaker 1: even advanced polls, sort of closer to October and throughout.
[8:54] Speaker 1: I mean, we'll have stuff to talk about throughout because
[8:57] Speaker 1: that's the hot campaign, right? But I think that, you know,
[9:04] Speaker 1: it feels like You know, if there was an alternative,
[9:07] Speaker 1: he might not be running. But, you know, you know,
[9:10] Speaker 1: even to the last minute, people were worried that he wouldn't.
[9:12] Speaker 1: And what I mean by worried is that there has
[9:16] Speaker 1: to be a race. There has to be a mayor's race. Like,
[9:18] Speaker 1: even if you take Drew Dilkins off this list, there isn't,
[9:21] Speaker 1: you know, there isn't a race. You know, back to
[9:23] Speaker 1: what Doug was saying, these names, you know, with all
[9:25] Speaker 1: due respect to these folks, they're not known names in
[9:28] Speaker 1: the community. We don't know who we are. I'm looking
[9:30] Speaker 1: at the list. And that's what I was just going
[9:31] Speaker 1: to say is like, I think two of them have
[9:34] Speaker 1: a Web site. you know, there's no information about them.
[9:37] Speaker 1: This is not, you know, this is a pretty big job.
[9:40] Speaker 1: This is a pretty big role that people are applying
[9:43] Speaker 1: for and want the voters to look at. So, you know,
[9:47] Speaker 1: it had to be at least these two. And I
[9:49] Speaker 1: think it would have been absolutely irresponsible for Drew Dilkins
[9:53] Speaker 1: not to run and wait until the last minute not
[9:55] Speaker 1: to run. If he was not intending to run, if
[9:58] Speaker 1: he landed the other thing, that he may have been
[10:01] Speaker 1: looking at to move on, because eventually people do need
[10:03] Speaker 1: to move on from politics, what's that going to be?
[10:06] Speaker 1: He really needs to do it a lot sooner to
[10:08] Speaker 1: allow folks the time to prepare who legitimately have a
[10:13] Speaker 1: chance at this. So It's now this two-way race. I
[10:18] Speaker 1: agree with Don. I think it's really interesting. I think
[10:20] Speaker 1: if you look back in time, some folks felt that
[10:23] Speaker 1: when Drew Dilkins was elected, he was sort of the
[10:27] Speaker 1: chosen favorite of the previous mayor, who happens to be
[10:31] Speaker 1: the brother of Fred Francis. And I'm sure Fred Francis
[10:35] Speaker 1: is maybe going to be a little sick and tired of,
[10:38] Speaker 1: you know, everybody being reminded of that. But that's our
[10:41] Speaker 1: Windsor right now, right? Like we had Eddie Francis, long
[10:45] Speaker 1: sort of administration, really interesting sort of era of Windsor politics.
[10:50] Speaker 1: And Drew Dilkins was sort of the continuation of Eddie
[10:55] Speaker 1: Francis to the point where people felt that it was,
[10:58] Speaker 1: you know, he was a stopgap in preparation for Fred Francis,
[11:02] Speaker 1: who was, but I don't think that's actually true anymore.
[11:04] Speaker 1: I think this race is a legit competition between these
[11:09] Speaker 1: two men.
[11:10] Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think it's really interesting. A couple things
[11:13] Speaker 2: I want to note about the mayor's race. I think
[11:16] Speaker 2: both Drew Dilkins and Fred Francis represent one major element
[11:22] Speaker 2: of the mainstream of Windsor politics. You know, to your point, Pat,
[11:27] Speaker 2: there's something of a political dynasty in place. There is
[11:31] Speaker 2: continuity with the previous mayor, Eddie Francis. And I think
[11:35] Speaker 2: to some extent, both Mr. Dilkens and Mr. Fred Francis
[11:42] Speaker 2: are part of that same political tradition. And that's one
[11:45] Speaker 2: of the reasons I wanted to ask you your thoughts
[11:47] Speaker 2: on three-way races in general, because on the surface, you
[11:51] Speaker 2: look at this race and think that there is so
[11:54] Speaker 2: much room for a different voice. There is so much
[11:57] Speaker 2: room for someone to take differing positions just because not
[12:02] Speaker 2: only do Dilkens and Francis cover a lot of the
[12:06] Speaker 2: same ground ideologically and have fallen in the same place
[12:10] Speaker 2: on major decisions of the city over the years. They
[12:14] Speaker 2: even both represented the same ward and they share a
[12:17] Speaker 2: political heartland. One of the things that I'm really interested
[12:20] Speaker 2: to watch is how each of them plays in Ward
[12:24] Speaker 2: 1 and how each of them plays to Ward 1
[12:27] Speaker 2: because it's so important to each of them. I look
[12:31] Speaker 2: at this field. I note that Benjamin Daniluk ran before.
[12:35] Speaker 2: I don't think any of these other candidates ran before.
[12:39] Speaker 2: Kat Pasquatch is a candidate I want to mention. You know,
[12:45] Speaker 2: I agree with you, Pat. I don't think that mayor
[12:48] Speaker 2: is an entry level political job. And I think that
[12:51] Speaker 2: if you don't have a significant profile in the community
[12:54] Speaker 2: or significant electoral experience, it's really hard to picture somebody winning.
[13:00] Speaker 4: But Ms.
[13:02] Speaker 2: Pasquatch is someone who I think has staked out different
[13:06] Speaker 2: ground and is trying really hard to make some noise
[13:11] Speaker 2: from a progressive point of view. And some folks that
[13:16] Speaker 2: you know and I know, who you'd consider the sort
[13:19] Speaker 2: of the hardcore progressives in the community, are attracted to that.
[13:23] Speaker 4: Although I.
[13:25] Speaker 2: Think that Mr. Massey, being the campaign manager for Fred Francis...
[13:30] Speaker 2: not only is that a, a curious and continuing, um,
[13:34] Speaker 2: political relationship between those two men. Um, but also I
[13:38] Speaker 2: think it's done a lot to, um, to get certain
[13:42] Speaker 2: people who may not have looked twice at Fred Francis
[13:45] Speaker 2: to give him another look and consider whether there is
[13:47] Speaker 2: more of a dimension to that candidate, um, than, than
[13:50] Speaker 2: they thought because, um, Brian Massey is his campaign manager
[13:54] Speaker 2: and supporting him.
[13:56] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[13:57] Speaker 3: I think, uh, Patrick Sutherland, unless AI is lying to me,
[14:00] Speaker 3: ran in the Ward 2 by-election. So I think he's
[14:04] Speaker 3: the only other one. Yeah, it's really weird that... I
[14:07] Speaker 3: don't know if it's weird, in my opinion. I thought
[14:10] Speaker 3: Brian might actually run for mayor, first of all. So
[14:12] Speaker 3: it would have been interesting to see all three of
[14:14] Speaker 3: those guys run. To see him and Fred team up,
[14:18] Speaker 3: I can only assume that is a purposeful attempt by
[14:23] Speaker 3: Fred to kind of, like you said, Drew and Fred
[14:26] Speaker 3: kind of live in the same realm in the political
[14:28] Speaker 3: world just to kind of distance himself from probably the
[14:32] Speaker 3: more conservative side of things by having Brian on board
[14:34] Speaker 3: would bring in some of those NDP voters that probably
[14:38] Speaker 3: wouldn't have voted for him before. I have a question
[14:40] Speaker 3: for you guys. I mean, Drew was just on CNN,
[14:43] Speaker 3: you know, with all the terror bullshit that's going on
[14:45] Speaker 3: right now. Do you think he's just going to get
[14:49] Speaker 3: so much more media attention the longer this goes on
[14:52] Speaker 3: that Fred can get kind of drowned out in the
[14:55] Speaker 3: and just the overwhelming talk of, you know, like, because
[14:58] Speaker 3: this is the mayor, the talk of the tariffs and
[15:00] Speaker 3: all that.
[15:02] Speaker 1: I think, I think that that's, I don't know if
[15:04] Speaker 1: he's going to be drowned out locally. Frankly, I think he's, he's,
[15:08] Speaker 1: Fred has shown a pretty strong sort of messaging and
[15:13] Speaker 1: campaign right now, at least what you're seeing on social.
[15:16] Speaker 1: And I think the media will try to give a
[15:18] Speaker 1: fair shake. Of course the mayor still mayor, right? So,
[15:23] Speaker 1: And when you're talking about the national stage or the
[15:26] Speaker 1: international stage, which is, you know, here we are in Windsor, Ontario,
[15:30] Speaker 1: there's opportunity to be on the international stage and with
[15:34] Speaker 1: what's happening. I feel that regardless when, and this is
[15:38] Speaker 1: what's happening now again with the U.S., that when we
[15:42] Speaker 1: feel a little vulnerable or we feel a little shaky
[15:46] Speaker 1: on the stability of things, you know, trade being one
[15:50] Speaker 1: of them and the tariffs being a big part of that,
[15:53] Speaker 1: that folks tend to, unless there's really, really good reason,
[15:58] Speaker 1: to sort of hold on to what is stable, which is,
[16:01] Speaker 1: you know, the incumbent. So I do think it favors Drew,
[16:05] Speaker 1: regardless of whether he would be out there and demonstrating that. And,
[16:09] Speaker 1: you know, he's really good in front of a camera.
[16:13] Speaker 1: He's quite statesperson-like. I think that Fred could actually have
[16:20] Speaker 1: that as well, but he just hasn't been in the
[16:22] Speaker 1: position to demonstrate that. But going back to what you
[16:25] Speaker 1: said about Brian Massey and, you know, there are a
[16:28] Speaker 1: whole bunch of folks who actually don't know the progressives,
[16:32] Speaker 1: let's face it. Nobody would have thought that Fred is
[16:35] Speaker 1: the progressive choice. The only reason folks are talking about it,
[16:39] Speaker 1: I think, are one, either they want to change the
[16:44] Speaker 1: You know, they're done. 12 years was enough time to
[16:47] Speaker 1: move on. 12 years is a long time for anyone
[16:50] Speaker 1: to be in a mayor's chair and it's time to move.
[16:53] Speaker 1: And therefore, OK, here's the alternative. Or, you know, and
[16:59] Speaker 1: I think you're right. It was absolutely intentional. And I
[17:01] Speaker 1: think a lot of people were thinking Brian Massey. And
[17:03] Speaker 1: there was one other name that was being floated around
[17:05] Speaker 1: as a possibility. I think of Brian Massey, Fred Francis
[17:09] Speaker 1: and Drew Dilkin's race would have been a very interesting one.
[17:13] Speaker 1: because now we've got even a starker, you can see
[17:16] Speaker 1: that Fred Francis, Andrew Dilkins really are very, very similar
[17:20] Speaker 1: in terms of where they stand. So, but that's not
[17:23] Speaker 1: what we have. I thought it was really interesting, you know, who,
[17:27] Speaker 1: you know, what progressive sort of badge of honor, you know,
[17:33] Speaker 1: Brian Massey chose to share when he talked about, you know,
[17:37] Speaker 1: joining Fred's campaign and what he brings to it. you know,
[17:40] Speaker 1: he went all the way back, you know, Tommy Douglas,
[17:43] Speaker 1: like he went OG NDP, you know, almost in such
[17:48] Speaker 1: a way that I felt that he was, you know,
[17:52] Speaker 1: disassociating himself with the NDP of today, which I found very,
[17:57] Speaker 1: very interesting. I think that whole thing is interesting. I
[18:00] Speaker 1: don't know that people are going to gravitate. I mean,
[18:04] Speaker 1: my personal opinion is, you know, how progressive is Brian
[18:08] Speaker 1: Massey to begin with? What does progressive mean in this community?
[18:12] Speaker 1: We can talk about the unions. We can talk about
[18:14] Speaker 1: a whole bunch of things. But I think true progressive
[18:17] Speaker 1: voters are going to have a really hard time making
[18:19] Speaker 1: a choice in this election. And to Doug's point, and
[18:22] Speaker 1: I don't know all the candidates, but, you know, Kat
[18:24] Speaker 1: was the first one to, I think she filed on
[18:29] Speaker 1: day one. She obviously has a message. And I think
[18:33] Speaker 1: that You know, realistically, I think one of these two
[18:37] Speaker 1: people are going to win. But if you are a
[18:40] Speaker 1: progressive voter that's torn, you know, at least, you know,
[18:47] Speaker 1: putting your vote behind some principle and taking a look
[18:50] Speaker 1: at those other candidates is an option.
[18:57] Speaker 4: Sarah, what do you think? You want to move on
[18:59] Speaker 4: to Ward 1?
[18:59] Speaker 1: Sure, let's move on to Ward 1. Candidate lineup for
[19:03] Speaker 1: Ward 1. Yeah, we'll go in order. All right, we've
[19:08] Speaker 1: got seven candidates running in Ward 1. A couple names,
[19:15] Speaker 1: I would say three names really stand out. Doug, what
[19:19] Speaker 1: are your thoughts on Ward 1? Vacant seat?
[19:23] Speaker 4: Yes, it is an open seat.
[19:25] Speaker 2: So just to run down the candidates, we've got Henry DeCordova,
[19:30] Speaker 2: Jeffrey Gutman, Shezzy Jaffrey, Brenda Juarez, Frank Providenti, Darcy Reno,
[19:37] Speaker 2: and Linda Cheen are the candidates. So the dynamics of
[19:41] Speaker 2: this race, I think, are that Darcy Reno has run
[19:45] Speaker 2: a couple of times now, has run, I think, brave
[19:51] Speaker 2: and distinct campaigns in Ward 1 over the years, has
[19:55] Speaker 2: really distinguished herself, I think has very clearly communicated at
[20:00] Speaker 2: the door and in the media what she stands for. And,
[20:03] Speaker 2: of course, has all that beautiful data from previous runs came,
[20:07] Speaker 2: you know, reasonably close. The last two campaigns to the incumbent,
[20:12] Speaker 2: Fred Francis, made very respectable showings.
[20:15] Speaker 4: And I think.
[20:16] Speaker 2: All of that together means that Darcy Reno is the
[20:20] Speaker 2: candidate to beat here and probably, given the size of
[20:24] Speaker 2: the field, is probably unbeatable.
[20:26] Speaker 4: The other name.
[20:28] Speaker 2: That has been previously elected in this board, not at
[20:32] Speaker 2: this level, Linda Cheen, has been a school trustee. I
[20:37] Speaker 2: ran campaigns against Linda Cheen a couple of times, and
[20:41] Speaker 2: I can tell you that discounting this candidate is a mistake.
[20:47] Speaker 2: Linda Sheen has flaws, has challenges, but is a very hardworking,
[20:52] Speaker 2: a hustler, works every part of, you know, in the
[20:57] Speaker 2: days when I saw her in operation, it was in
[21:00] Speaker 2: wards one, two, and nine when she ran for trustee
[21:03] Speaker 2: at that level. And she She ran hard in every
[21:08] Speaker 2: part of where she, where she was, um, ended up
[21:11] Speaker 2: winning and representing, uh, including ward two, adapted her tactics
[21:16] Speaker 2: to the different neighborhoods. And I could, you could note that, um,
[21:20] Speaker 2: from using different lit, um, different types of literature, uh,
[21:24] Speaker 2: really interesting, I think an innovative candidate in that way, uh,
[21:29] Speaker 2: of course was, um, turned out to be a fairly
[21:33] Speaker 2: disruptive voice on the school board. And I'm not sure
[21:37] Speaker 2: that Linda Cheen will have quite the benefit of the
[21:43] Speaker 2: doubt as a candidate in award one, as she did
[21:46] Speaker 2: as a trustee candidate who was a relative unknown.
[21:49] Speaker 4: She has a track record.
[21:50] Speaker 2: If people care to look into it, they're going to
[21:52] Speaker 2: make their, you know, form their opinions on that. And
[21:54] Speaker 2: I think it's likely to be a Um, and, and so,
[22:01] Speaker 2: you know, I, I think that, um, Renault is the favorite.
[22:04] Speaker 2: I think that the broad field, um, favors Renault. It
[22:07] Speaker 2: helps Renault when there are so many other candidates who
[22:11] Speaker 2: frankly don't have the name recognition. And I'm really curious
[22:14] Speaker 2: who the third candidate, um, that you're thinking.
[22:16] Speaker 4: Of is Pat, is it Providenti?
[22:19] Speaker 1: Yes, it was.
[22:20] Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah. Quite a, quite a resume there.
[22:23] Speaker 2: And also, um, a resident of the Roseland neighborhood, which
[22:27] Speaker 2: is one of the highest turnout neighborhoods in the ward.
[22:31] Speaker 2: And so it's a strong place to be from. It's
[22:33] Speaker 2: a strong place to have neighbors and friends. And that
[22:36] Speaker 2: is there is some potential there, I think, too.
[22:38] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[22:39] Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's a really good analysis, Doug. I
[22:41] Speaker 1: agree with all of what you said. I do want
[22:44] Speaker 1: to point out that what you know, what is really
[22:47] Speaker 1: clear about Darcy Reno is not only has she run twice,
[22:50] Speaker 1: she's really worked between the campaigns. She's done a lot of,
[22:55] Speaker 1: she followed counsel closely. She followed all the issues. She's
[22:59] Speaker 1: really strong on policy. I think Linda, I think you're right,
[23:05] Speaker 1: is a controversial person and she will, I would expect
[23:09] Speaker 1: and hope actually that she doesn't have the benefit of
[23:12] Speaker 1: being an unknown in this election because she has a
[23:15] Speaker 1: record and I think people should be informed and know
[23:20] Speaker 1: who their candidates are. It's one of it's both the
[23:23] Speaker 1: advantage and the disadvantage. You know, there are both in
[23:27] Speaker 1: terms of being a known quantity. And you certainly you know,
[23:30] Speaker 1: she has some very strong positioning on the political spectrum,
[23:35] Speaker 1: I would call it, whether she calls it that or not,
[23:38] Speaker 1: that I think, you know, folks folks should look at.
[23:41] Speaker 1: So but she's a hard worker. And I think you're right.
[23:44] Speaker 1: No one should take anything for granted. Everyone's going to
[23:46] Speaker 1: have to work hard there. Don, anything on Ward 1
[23:51] Speaker 1: before we move on?
[23:53] Speaker 3: Yeah, a couple things. Linda, so this is my memory
[23:57] Speaker 3: of Linda. So let's go back to the dog days
[24:00] Speaker 3: of COVID. Terrible time. We were all sitting in our houses,
[24:04] Speaker 3: just drinking too much. So I remember this is how
[24:06] Speaker 3: bored I was. I was watching a school board meeting
[24:09] Speaker 3: where they were doing it by Zoom. I had kind
[24:11] Speaker 3: of logged in to watch this. And all I could
[24:13] Speaker 3: remember was she was on her computer in her bedroom,
[24:16] Speaker 3: And her husband's walking around in tighty-whities in the background,
[24:19] Speaker 3: walking back and forth in his underwear, which was just
[24:22] Speaker 3: hilarious to me. And years later, I can still picture
[24:24] Speaker 3: that in my head. So I'm going to have a
[24:25] Speaker 3: hard time supporting her just because of that.
[24:30] Speaker 2: I'm sure those clips are still on YouTube, Don.
[24:34] Speaker 4: You can go back and watch it anytime you want.
[24:37] Speaker 3: Well, there you go, Darcy. You can get some stuff
[24:41] Speaker 3: to attack your client with. You know, Frank's actually interesting
[24:43] Speaker 3: because he was, what, an ex-deputy chief? Windsor voice. He
[24:48] Speaker 3: could be the wild card in this. I think he may.
[24:51] Speaker 3: I mean, to me, Darcy by far is the best candidate.
[24:55] Speaker 3: I thought she was a better candidate when she ran
[24:57] Speaker 3: against Fred. And I said it back then. I think
[24:59] Speaker 3: she'd be the best. Even going through the candidates this time,
[25:02] Speaker 3: I think she'd be the best addition to city council
[25:05] Speaker 3: that we could have. And I really do hope she
[25:07] Speaker 3: wins this time. And I think she will be honest.
[25:10] Speaker 3: But like I say, Frank's kind of interesting guy because
[25:12] Speaker 3: just because of who he was. He can bring out
[25:14] Speaker 3: a lot of, you know, I think he can bring
[25:16] Speaker 3: out a lot of people just from interacting with the
[25:19] Speaker 3: community as a police officer. As far as the others, yeah,
[25:22] Speaker 3: I'm not too familiar with the other ones. But I
[25:23] Speaker 3: think Darcy's going to be great. I think she's going
[25:25] Speaker 3: to win. And I'm not just being nice to her
[25:27] Speaker 3: because I want to go for a ride in her
[25:28] Speaker 3: fancy old car. But she does owe me a ride
[25:32] Speaker 3: in her fancy old car, if you're listening.
[25:35] Speaker 1: Fair, fair enough. Let's move on to Ward 2. Ward 2. Uh,
[25:39] Speaker 1: Frasier Fathers, uh, no stranger to the show. Someone who
[25:42] Speaker 1: has sat around, uh, and taught politics for a long time.
[25:45] Speaker 1: Another one who did a lot of work, um, uh, and,
[25:49] Speaker 1: and had a lot of knowledge before being elected. Um,
[25:53] Speaker 1: he won by by-election, so he hasn't been there as
[25:56] Speaker 1: long as the others. Generally speaking, that's favorable to someone.
[26:00] Speaker 1: Like you'd have to be, you know, mess up pretty
[26:03] Speaker 1: badly for voters not to give you a real chance, uh,
[26:06] Speaker 1: in the, in the following election. Although I oh, my man,
[26:10] Speaker 1: I just had like a PTSD from from on a
[26:14] Speaker 1: federal candidate that did that. Always take care of your
[26:16] Speaker 1: people during election day, your voters and your residents. Anyway,
[26:21] Speaker 1: Frazier fathers, three others are running against him. Any any
[26:26] Speaker 1: concerns or any thoughts that, you know, he's he's not
[26:30] Speaker 1: a confident, secure spot right there?
[26:33] Speaker 4: So in any ward, data is very important.
[26:36] Speaker 2: And you'll hear me say this again and again, having
[26:40] Speaker 2: the lists from a previous run is such an advantage
[26:43] Speaker 2: to any candidate, but especially in Ward 2. It's no secret,
[26:49] Speaker 2: I think Ward 2 has the worst turnout in the city.
[26:54] Speaker 2: And so even more important for a candidate to know
[26:58] Speaker 2: where they should be putting their effort and where they
[27:01] Speaker 2: should be devoting resources. And so even having a sense
[27:05] Speaker 2: of who votes and what neighborhoods vote and what parts
[27:08] Speaker 2: of that ward you should pay attention to is a
[27:11] Speaker 2: big advantage. Also, Frazier, I supported him and I'll support
[27:17] Speaker 2: him again. He was an excellent candidate in that by-election.
[27:21] Speaker 2: He has a terrific track record in the community, has
[27:23] Speaker 2: done a ton of work, you know, going back to
[27:27] Speaker 2: his days at United Way and beyond as a consultant. Also,
[27:31] Speaker 2: I think it's it's really valuable for the city to
[27:34] Speaker 2: have a real policy person around the table. And you know,
[27:39] Speaker 2: Fraser Fathers has he went to.
[27:40] Speaker 4: School for that.
[27:41] Speaker 2: You can't take that away from him. So, you know,
[27:44] Speaker 2: all signs point to, I think, a fairly smooth ride
[27:48] Speaker 2: for fathers.
[27:49] Speaker 4: In this race.
[27:50] Speaker 2: I don't expect too many surprises. Jabbour and Markham are
[27:54] Speaker 2: not names that are familiar to me. Cynthia Van Vruwerf
[27:59] Speaker 2: was a candidate in Ward 3, did not move a
[28:02] Speaker 2: significant number of votes in 2022. Don't expect that to change.
[28:06] Speaker 1: Mm-hmm. So maybe we start with getting all the ones
[28:10] Speaker 1: that we think are likely to win and are not
[28:13] Speaker 1: going to necessarily need to hustle as much. Not saying
[28:17] Speaker 1: that he's not going to, but we can maybe take
[28:20] Speaker 1: an hour of his time and get him back on
[28:22] Speaker 1: and get some perspective. We'll get him on to RCP.
[28:25] Speaker 1: He can take an hour. He can take an hour
[28:26] Speaker 1: to do that for us. Speaking of what I think
[28:30] Speaker 1: is probably a safe seat, let's move on to Ward 3.
[28:34] Speaker 1: We've got Rinaldo Agostino, one-term city councillor looking for re-election.
[28:44] Speaker 1: We've got Rabia Kerma, Randall Sekuchi, and Spiro Spiliadis, so
[28:48] Speaker 1: four candidates in that ward. I'm going to call Ward
[28:52] Speaker 1: 3 a pretty safe seat for Rinaldo Agostino. I think,
[28:56] Speaker 1: you know, certainly, you know, he's a I consider him
[29:00] Speaker 1: a friend, so I'll put that right out there right
[29:02] Speaker 1: at the beginning. And, you know, I had my reservations
[29:07] Speaker 1: when he ran, to be honest with you. I didn't
[29:10] Speaker 1: want that for him. And so I take a different
[29:12] Speaker 1: look at politics. It's like, I don't know if I
[29:14] Speaker 1: want my, you know, somebody to be in there. And
[29:16] Speaker 1: I also didn't know whether converting this life of being
[29:21] Speaker 1: an independent business person who really, you know, marches to
[29:25] Speaker 1: the beat of his own drum in so many ways,
[29:28] Speaker 1: Could really, you know, be happy even. But got to
[29:33] Speaker 1: say this, I don't know. He's got to be the
[29:37] Speaker 1: hardest working councillor not to take away from anyone else.
[29:40] Speaker 1: Certainly Ward 3 has the most issues out of any
[29:43] Speaker 1: ward in the city. And he's been all over it.
[29:48] Speaker 1: He has absolutely hustled in these last four years and is,
[29:51] Speaker 1: besides everything, very deserving, I think, of re-election. Um, just
[29:56] Speaker 1: for the amount of work that he's put in. I
[29:57] Speaker 1: also really like his straightforward and honesty and how direct
[30:01] Speaker 1: he is on, on the responses that he gives. I mean,
[30:03] Speaker 1: agree with him or not agree with him on approach. Um,
[30:07] Speaker 1: you know, what you see is what you get there.
[30:11] Speaker 2: Um, so I completely agree. I don't think there's any,
[30:15] Speaker 2: anybody else is going to touch Agostino. Um, he's, you know, my,
[30:19] Speaker 2: I run a business in ward three and, uh, I
[30:22] Speaker 2: did not support Rinaldo in 2022. Um, I support him now.
[30:28] Speaker 2: I think he's been an excellent representative. I agree with
[30:31] Speaker 2: everything you said, Pat. I think, um, the, the, you know, the,
[30:36] Speaker 2: the impact that, that, uh, that unique approach has had
[30:41] Speaker 2: on the unique community of ward three, I think is, um,
[30:45] Speaker 2: There's really something a little bit magical about it. It
[30:47] Speaker 2: certainly wasn't what I expected to see. And, you know,
[30:52] Speaker 2: I expect him to get his seat. And what I'm
[30:56] Speaker 2: really interested in is what the next council looks like
[31:01] Speaker 2: and how Agostino finds his way there in what I
[31:05] Speaker 2: expect to be a pretty different dynamic than 22 to 26.
[31:10] Speaker 1: I agree. I think the next four years will be
[31:12] Speaker 1: really interesting for Ronaldo and Ward 3. I got to
[31:16] Speaker 1: tell you a quick story. This was about six weeks ago,
[31:20] Speaker 1: maybe eight weeks ago. I was downtown where you just
[31:25] Speaker 1: have to turn a corner and you see Ronaldo. But
[31:29] Speaker 1: there was a bus driver sort of heading down, making
[31:32] Speaker 1: a left onto University. And bright, nice summer day. And
[31:38] Speaker 1: the bus driver leans out and says, run for mayor,
[31:42] Speaker 1: you know, and yelling over at Ronaldo. And I thought, ah, ha, ha, ha.
[31:46] Speaker 1: So we're going down up, up a lot. And all
[31:49] Speaker 1: of a sudden this other bus comes down, a completely
[31:52] Speaker 1: different bus driver, Ronaldo run for mayor. I'm like, what
[31:57] Speaker 1: is that? So I don't know if that's allowed by
[31:59] Speaker 1: the union. So I don't want to get into any
[32:00] Speaker 1: bus drivers into, but he's got the bus driver vote locked.
[32:04] Speaker 1: If he ever ran, ran for mayor. And in fact,
[32:06] Speaker 1: you know, there were actually folks that were, we're saying
[32:09] Speaker 1: he should run for mayor. I mean, talk about a
[32:11] Speaker 1: completely different approach than what we have, but we'll see
[32:15] Speaker 1: what the next four years bring and what Ronaldo's going
[32:18] Speaker 1: to do in board three. Well, you know, we're assuming,
[32:21] Speaker 1: but yeah. So we'll have him on the show too.
[32:24] Speaker 3: Right away. Little known fact, those two bus drivers both
[32:27] Speaker 3: live in Tecumseh.
[32:28] Speaker 4: I don't know.
[32:31] Speaker 1: That's the thing we always talk about. It's very easy
[32:33] Speaker 1: to tell somebody to run and then, you know, and
[32:36] Speaker 1: then you say, well, will you vote for me? And
[32:38] Speaker 1: then it's like, well, I can't. Thank you. Let's go
[32:42] Speaker 1: on to Ward 4. Ward 4 is interesting. Not necessarily
[32:47] Speaker 1: because it's going to be shocking, but what we have
[32:51] Speaker 1: in Ward 4 is the decision by Mark McKenzie and
[32:54] Speaker 1: The incumbent not to run again. Those who remember in
[32:59] Speaker 1: the last election in Ward 4, Chris Holt, who held
[33:02] Speaker 1: that seat and a very popular councillor and RCP Rose
[33:07] Speaker 1: City Politics OG, like original, he ran for mayor. So
[33:15] Speaker 1: he vacated that seat. And that had a huge, I
[33:21] Speaker 1: can't remember how many, there were over 11, 12 people
[33:23] Speaker 1: running in that ward. Does anybody remember the number?
[33:26] Speaker 4: It was double digits, yeah. Yeah.
[33:31] Speaker 1: And Mark McKenzie sort of eked in. You know, when
[33:35] Speaker 1: you talk about go down the middle, I think that,
[33:38] Speaker 1: you know, Ward 4 is a lesson in splitting votes
[33:42] Speaker 1: and having a candidate go down the middle. Anyway, for
[33:45] Speaker 1: whatever reason, he indicated that he's not running again. I
[33:50] Speaker 1: found it interesting that he announced that he's not running
[33:52] Speaker 1: again after Chris Holt announced that he was running again.
[33:59] Speaker 1: And this is what I alluded to earlier, and I
[34:01] Speaker 1: think his words were to reclaim his seat. I think
[34:03] Speaker 1: that Chris Holt probably got some pushback about the manner
[34:06] Speaker 1: in which he has sort of framed his coming back,
[34:12] Speaker 1: seeking a re-election. But In taking a look, we've got
[34:16] Speaker 1: Mike Burton, Catherine Gariepi-Schultz, I hope I pronounced that correctly,
[34:22] Speaker 1: Rasha Zaid, who does have a website, so does Mike Burton.
[34:27] Speaker 1: And she had a lot of information I saw from
[34:29] Speaker 1: Rasha Zaid, and then Xander Moisenko. So much smaller field.
[34:36] Speaker 1: Either way, Chris Holt, sort of almost like an incumbent. Doug,
[34:42] Speaker 1: what do you think?
[34:43] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[34:43] Speaker 2: We've seen this movie before, uh, Bill Morrow ran for
[34:46] Speaker 2: mayor and then subsequently, um, ran again, um, to, to
[34:50] Speaker 2: reclaim a seat around the council table. So there's some
[34:53] Speaker 2: precedent for this. I'm, I'm sure it's happened before as well. Um,
[34:57] Speaker 2: I don't see, uh, uh, you know, I I'll, I'll
[35:01] Speaker 2: support Chris in this election. Um, I supported him for
[35:03] Speaker 2: mayor in 22. I certainly don't see him having a challenge, uh, here,
[35:08] Speaker 2: a difficult ride. I do want to call out a
[35:10] Speaker 2: couple of the candidates. I did look at, um, some
[35:13] Speaker 2: websites today. The folks who do have websites, Mike Burton
[35:17] Speaker 2: has an interesting history in the community. He's a longtime
[35:22] Speaker 2: volunteer and board member with the organization that runs the
[35:25] Speaker 2: 10 Friends Diner, which is quite interesting and definitely has
[35:29] Speaker 2: some roots in the community and has a message and
[35:33] Speaker 2: something to say. And Rasha Zayed, I don't know I
[35:38] Speaker 2: don't know the woman, I don't know her intentions, but
[35:41] Speaker 2: certainly looks to be a pretty good website, pretty good
[35:45] Speaker 2: social media presence.
[35:46] Speaker 4: So, you know, you don't know if someone is.
[35:52] Speaker 2: You don't know if someone is running to kind of start,
[35:55] Speaker 2: get started on knocking those doors, preparing themselves for when
[36:01] Speaker 2: a seat is open. You actually like to see that.
[36:04] Speaker 2: I think you like to see people sort of have
[36:07] Speaker 2: a plan, you know, if they want to be a counselor,
[36:09] Speaker 2: you start when the, you know, there's an incumbent in
[36:13] Speaker 2: place and take a shot at it and build up your,
[36:17] Speaker 2: your experience and build up your lists and, and, you know,
[36:22] Speaker 2: put yourself in a position to maybe be there to
[36:24] Speaker 2: challenge when the seat is open i think that's a
[36:26] Speaker 2: pretty smart thing to be doing uh you know um
[36:30] Speaker 2: chris holt's not that much older than us we're all
[36:33] Speaker 2: uh we're all gen xers and um but i would
[36:36] Speaker 2: imagine that you you don't look at chris and say
[36:38] Speaker 2: there's a guy who's gonna be there for four terms
[36:41] Speaker 2: so if someone is looking ahead and thinking that they
[36:44] Speaker 2: they may want to take a shot at it it
[36:46] Speaker 2: makes sense to start now and and i think sometimes
[36:49] Speaker 2: um you know, sometimes that you're, you're bummed out when
[36:52] Speaker 2: you look at award and that opportunity is missed and,
[36:56] Speaker 2: and there is not somebody who's sort of building for
[36:58] Speaker 2: the future because that's how we get, you know, that's
[37:01] Speaker 2: how we get good races later on.
[37:05] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[37:05] Speaker 3: I think it's a pretty safe bet that Chris is
[37:07] Speaker 3: going to win that one. Didn't Mike Burton run before
[37:09] Speaker 3: he ran.
[37:10] Speaker 4: In something before, didn't he? The name's familiar.
[37:13] Speaker 3: I feel like I, yeah, his name just seems pretty familiar.
[37:16] Speaker 3: It was interesting. Mark, Decided not to run again. I mean,
[37:20] Speaker 3: his whole, even from day one, even during the last campaign,
[37:23] Speaker 3: he was kind of mired in controversy. And he took
[37:28] Speaker 3: some pretty strong opinions, especially during COVID times. And he never,
[37:32] Speaker 3: to me, seemed very comfortable being a city councilor, period.
[37:35] Speaker 3: It really feels like, to me, he didn't even like
[37:38] Speaker 3: the job once he got it. That's a warning to
[37:41] Speaker 3: a lot of candidates who haven't done this before because
[37:43] Speaker 3: this job is probably a lot more work than you
[37:46] Speaker 3: think it's going to be. And for not enough money,
[37:49] Speaker 3: but that's a whole other show we can do. Yeah,
[37:51] Speaker 3: I think Chris will do well just because of who
[37:53] Speaker 3: he is. And yeah, I think it's the Bill Maher thing.
[37:56] Speaker 3: Go away, try and come back. And it's pretty much
[37:59] Speaker 3: going to be a shoe-in for him. There were a
[38:00] Speaker 3: few candidates from the last election I wish would have
[38:02] Speaker 3: ran again, but I guess maybe next time.
[38:06] Speaker 1: Yeah, Christian Siapas being one of them and also voiced
[38:10] Speaker 1: around the Rose City Politics table. And hopefully we'll have
[38:12] Speaker 1: her on the show and to provide commentary as we
[38:16] Speaker 1: move forward Speaking of Chris, he's another one who probably
[38:22] Speaker 1: can come back on the show and not needing to
[38:24] Speaker 1: spend every waking minute necessarily thinking about the election and
[38:30] Speaker 1: knocking on those doors as much as maybe the other
[38:32] Speaker 1: candidates do because of just the nature of the race
[38:36] Speaker 1: for him right now. but I think it's interesting. I mean,
[38:39] Speaker 1: he ran against Drew Dilkins, right? Um, the, he was
[38:43] Speaker 1: a strong city councillor with, uh, very different perspectives brought
[38:48] Speaker 1: that he brought to the council table, uh, under, uh,
[38:51] Speaker 1: mayor Drew Dilkins, uh, you know, and he was the
[38:54] Speaker 1: colleague of Fred Francis, you know, um, around that table. So,
[38:59] Speaker 1: you know, I hope we have him on the show
[39:00] Speaker 1: and I'd be curious to see if he will be
[39:02] Speaker 1: open about, you know, who he supports, uh, for mayor and, uh,
[39:06] Speaker 1: And what that looks like and why. Like, again, you know,
[39:09] Speaker 1: here's an example. You know, six years ago, would Kripal
[39:14] Speaker 1: have backed Fred Francis? And would he today? Right? Like,
[39:21] Speaker 1: that's sort of an interesting dynamic that we have at
[39:24] Speaker 1: the mayor's level as well. I know that, folks at
[39:27] Speaker 1: the door, because the mayor's race is the contested race,
[39:30] Speaker 1: when people knock, candidates knock on their doors, a lot
[39:33] Speaker 1: of people will say, so who do you like for mayor?
[39:37] Speaker 1: When we do campaign training at the municipal level, we
[39:39] Speaker 1: talk about getting that question at the door. And that's
[39:42] Speaker 1: a very dangerous question to be answering at the door
[39:44] Speaker 1: because You know, you risk alienating a voter who's, you know,
[39:49] Speaker 1: really hot on a particular candidate. But it'll be interesting
[39:53] Speaker 1: to see what Chris tells us when he comes on
[39:54] Speaker 1: the show.
[39:55] Speaker 2: I just want to make one comment before we go
[39:58] Speaker 2: away from Ward 4 about Mark McKenzie. You know, McKenzie...
[40:02] Speaker 2: I mean, he chose not to run again.
[40:04] Speaker 4: He wasn't going to win.
[40:05] Speaker 2: Um, he would, you know, he wouldn't win in a
[40:08] Speaker 2: narrower field than he won in 22. Um, I don't
[40:12] Speaker 2: think it's controversial to say that McKenzie made many, many missteps, uh,
[40:16] Speaker 2: was not particularly, you know, did not particularly excel as
[40:20] Speaker 2: a counselor. But the point I want to make is that, um,
[40:23] Speaker 2: this guy was a half inch away from.
[40:26] Speaker 4: Being the MP and Windsor to come see.
[40:28] Speaker 2: And, and, you know, if things had gone only slightly differently,
[40:31] Speaker 2: he would be the MP right now. And I just
[40:33] Speaker 2: think it's good to think about that and think about, um,
[40:36] Speaker 2: how politics works and, and, um, you know, somebody who,
[40:40] Speaker 2: who maybe didn't quite cut it at the council table
[40:43] Speaker 2: could be a federal representative right now.
[40:45] Speaker 4: Very easily.
[40:46] Speaker 3: It goes back to my theory. Any moron could be
[40:49] Speaker 3: a politician.
[40:52] Speaker 4: You tried right, Don. What year did you run Don?
[40:56] Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaking of morons, uh, 2008 or something like that.
[41:01] Speaker 1: What if I still have one of your signs?
[41:03] Speaker 3: I got, I still got them downstairs. Never say never.
[41:05] Speaker 4: Hell yes.
[41:08] Speaker 1: Well, the nomination has closed. Let's move on to, to,
[41:10] Speaker 1: to ward five. And this goes back to Doug's point of,
[41:14] Speaker 1: you know, um, putting your, your name in a race,
[41:18] Speaker 1: even when there is an incumbent, even when there is
[41:21] Speaker 1: a strong incumbent, um, because it gets your name out there.
[41:26] Speaker 1: It shows that you're serious about what your intentions are
[41:29] Speaker 1: in terms of future possibilities of running. And so I'm
[41:35] Speaker 1: looking at the first person on the list out of
[41:38] Speaker 1: five in Ward 5 in alphabetical order, but also because
[41:44] Speaker 1: he's run twice before in Ward 5, and that's Ken Acton.
[41:47] Speaker 1: So Ken Acton, a sort of a known name in
[41:50] Speaker 1: Ward 5, ran twice This is the seat that is
[41:55] Speaker 1: an open seat because of the retirement of Ed Sleeman
[41:59] Speaker 1: and longtime beloved city councillor. I think, you know, some
[42:04] Speaker 1: folks were wondering whether he was going to run the
[42:06] Speaker 1: last time and he did. And even this time, I mean, this,
[42:09] Speaker 1: I think, you know, Ed and city council, it's been
[42:14] Speaker 1: in his heart. Here's a person who truly cared and Um, but, uh, I,
[42:21] Speaker 1: I hope that Ed has a lovely retirement and really enjoys,
[42:26] Speaker 1: you know, his friends and family and his community and
[42:29] Speaker 1: continues to be involved. Um, I think it's an interesting
[42:33] Speaker 1: seat to open up at council at this time that
[42:36] Speaker 1: will make a difference regardless of what other dynamics are
[42:39] Speaker 1: going on around council. So we've got Ken Acton who's
[42:41] Speaker 1: run before, Farah Ahmed, Alessandro Dudone, who I believe has
[42:46] Speaker 1: run before. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong. I think so. Yes.
[42:49] Speaker 1: Natasha Feghali, who announced pretty early, I believe. I think
[42:54] Speaker 1: she was the first one. And Shane Potvin, also a
[42:58] Speaker 1: well-known name in Fort City Ward 5. So that's an
[43:03] Speaker 1: interesting race because there are quite a few sort of
[43:06] Speaker 1: known names in an open seat. Don, what do you think?
[43:12] Speaker 3: Yeah, actually, I'm... Surprised there are more candidates running in
[43:17] Speaker 3: Ward 5. Anytime there's an open seat, usually 8,000 people
[43:20] Speaker 3: show up because they all want to run. I expect
[43:22] Speaker 3: there to be a lot more people running this time.
[43:27] Speaker 3: My little words on Ed. I think Ed was a
[43:29] Speaker 3: great counselor and I think he really cares about this community.
[43:32] Speaker 3: I do think he probably stuck around too long. If
[43:35] Speaker 3: he had run again, he could have been our Mitch McConnell.
[43:40] Speaker 3: I think Ed deserves some credit for what he did.
[43:42] Speaker 3: Whether you liked his He kind of stood with the mayor,
[43:45] Speaker 3: and I think that bothered some people for a while.
[43:47] Speaker 3: But I do know he was very active with constituents.
[43:51] Speaker 3: If you had a problem and called him, he was
[43:53] Speaker 3: on it, and he was always like that. And I
[43:55] Speaker 3: think he did a great job in his time there.
[43:57] Speaker 3: And yeah, I think kudos to Ed and enjoy your retirement.
[44:01] Speaker 3: But yeah, as far as the new candidates, yeah, Ken's
[44:04] Speaker 3: looks interesting. I know Shane's been there. Like I said,
[44:07] Speaker 3: I'm surprised more known entities didn't show up. I mean,
[44:12] Speaker 3: you had some candidates for years of just chasing empty
[44:15] Speaker 3: wards everywhere, trying to win an election somehow. And, uh,
[44:18] Speaker 3: it seems like actually they didn't show up this time.
[44:20] Speaker 3: So yeah, it's going to be an interesting one. It's
[44:22] Speaker 3: a weird word. Uh, there's different economic levels in that word. And, uh,
[44:29] Speaker 3: so yeah, it'll be interesting to see who takes it
[44:30] Speaker 3: and from what kind of side of the tracks they're, uh,
[44:34] Speaker 3: they're candidates from.
[44:36] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[44:37] Speaker 2: Um, I always knew Ed Sleeman to be an endlessly
[44:41] Speaker 2: kind and courteous man. Always enjoyed my time with him.
[44:44] Speaker 2: We were critical of Ed on the show and sometimes
[44:47] Speaker 2: harshly so. And that just never changed the way that
[44:50] Speaker 2: he presented himself or the way he treated people and
[44:53] Speaker 2: really a class act. Ken Acton has the data. He
[44:58] Speaker 2: worked his ass off in 2022, made some serious inroads.
[45:03] Speaker 2: I expect this to be very challenging for anyone to
[45:07] Speaker 2: really take on Ken, although Shane Potvin certainly has a profile. And,
[45:13] Speaker 2: you know, one of the things that I look at
[45:15] Speaker 2: when I Google candidates is or when I'm looking into
[45:19] Speaker 2: candidates as you Google them and does anything come up
[45:22] Speaker 2: besides their candidacy, you know, and Shane Podvin is a
[45:26] Speaker 2: person who has been around this community for a long time.
[45:29] Speaker 2: He has been given to this community. Um, and I
[45:34] Speaker 2: think that will tell, I think he will, um, he
[45:37] Speaker 2: will make noise in this campaign. Although I don't know that, um,
[45:40] Speaker 2: it's going to be possible to overcome the advantage that
[45:43] Speaker 2: Ken Acton has because he ran previously, which is not
[45:47] Speaker 2: a comment on the, you know, the potential of either
[45:49] Speaker 2: person to be a solid, um, counselor or, or what
[45:52] Speaker 2: might happen there. Um, and, and, uh, you know, um,
[45:56] Speaker 2: who I miss in this race is Joey Wright. Joey
[45:59] Speaker 2: Wright is a past candidate who campaigned well, had some
[46:04] Speaker 2: interesting ideas, a person with, I think, a claim to some,
[46:08] Speaker 2: you know, to having made some important impacts as a
[46:11] Speaker 2: young person in Windsor and certainly a voice and a
[46:16] Speaker 2: presence that I would value in a campaign. So a little,
[46:20] Speaker 2: you know, I don't know what his circumstances are.
[46:22] Speaker 4: I don't know why not.
[46:23] Speaker 2: I just bring that name up because that's a person
[46:26] Speaker 2: who could have um, shown up in this race and, um,
[46:30] Speaker 2: and made an impact and maybe made an impact more than,
[46:33] Speaker 2: than anybody else besides Ken Acton. So it's, it's, uh,
[46:36] Speaker 2: you know, um, Joey, I don't know what you're doing
[46:38] Speaker 2: right now. Um, but, uh, but we, we note that
[46:41] Speaker 2: you're not there.
[46:44] Speaker 1: Speaking of open seats, we're moving on into ward six. Uh,
[46:48] Speaker 1: there are seven candidates, uh, running for an open seat, um,
[46:53] Speaker 1: vacated by Joanne Geniak many years ago. At the council table,
[46:59] Speaker 1: a lot of good things were said about Joanne Geniak
[47:02] Speaker 1: as well in terms of her institutional memory, et cetera. Also,
[47:07] Speaker 1: we've been very critical of Joanne on this show. I
[47:09] Speaker 1: think we've been, we criticize everybody on this show.
[47:12] Speaker 3: If you don't get a hit from us, you weren't important.
[47:16] Speaker 1: That's right. So, you know, interesting, long time. You know,
[47:21] Speaker 1: at some point, I think there is something to be said.
[47:24] Speaker 1: This is true for Ed as well. And that is
[47:28] Speaker 1: sort of the life cycle of being on council and
[47:32] Speaker 1: the renewal that's absolutely necessary. And I've often felt that
[47:36] Speaker 1: we do not do a good enough job at nurturing
[47:39] Speaker 1: leadership in our community. And I think I can even
[47:44] Speaker 1: pinpoint sort of the administration where that actually started, where
[47:48] Speaker 1: I think it was intentional to keep people down. But
[47:52] Speaker 1: when you keep people down because you need to rise up,
[47:56] Speaker 1: you keep really good people down and good things happening
[47:58] Speaker 1: in your community. And then when they're needed, they're not there.
[48:02] Speaker 1: So in any event, having said that, I think that
[48:06] Speaker 1: it's nice to see an open seat in Ward 6.
[48:10] Speaker 1: You know, Ed Sleeman and Joanne Juniak were both very
[48:15] Speaker 1: much aligned with how the mayor needed his votes to
[48:19] Speaker 1: line up in order to get some things through. And
[48:21] Speaker 1: this is before and even after strong mayor powers. So
[48:26] Speaker 1: no matter what we see happen in terms of the
[48:29] Speaker 1: mayor's change, a mayor seat, I think those two seats
[48:34] Speaker 1: represent a pretty significant change in the dynamic around the
[48:38] Speaker 1: council table, no matter what. But running in Ward 6,
[48:41] Speaker 1: we've got Nick Juergens, Dennis Marrier, Hiral Munim, Wendy Nicholson,
[48:49] Speaker 1: Jeremy Renaud, Kasson Saka, and Owen Smith. Any names stand
[48:55] Speaker 1: out to you? Jeremy Renaud stands out to me. I
[48:58] Speaker 1: know the name Wendy Nicholson in terms of her work
[49:00] Speaker 1: in the community as well. Still trying to find out
[49:03] Speaker 1: a little bit more about the others. Anyone else?
[49:06] Speaker 2: Well, Renaud, in 2022, Renaud secured 32.88% of the vote
[49:09] Speaker 2: against Joanne Gignac. That's over 2,200 votes. If he equals that. performance,
[49:21] Speaker 2: he will crush this race. So I just bring that
[49:25] Speaker 2: up and, you know, to try to make it real
[49:27] Speaker 2: for folks listening, what the advantage is to having run before,
[49:31] Speaker 2: to having had people mark their ex next to your
[49:35] Speaker 2: name on a ballot before.
[49:37] Speaker 4: I mean, there is.
[49:39] Speaker 2: There is so much ground for Mr. Renault to go
[49:42] Speaker 2: out and and work and he knows where to go
[49:46] Speaker 2: and he knows where people will be receptive. And in
[49:48] Speaker 2: many cases, he knows exactly who voted for him. And
[49:52] Speaker 2: and so that's going to be an advantage that is
[49:54] Speaker 2: very difficult to overcome, especially in a race that's so crowded.
[50:00] Speaker 2: You know, I don't recognize these names. There's not a
[50:04] Speaker 2: lot of websites or social media presence for folks in
[50:08] Speaker 2: Ward 6. It's just a really going to be really
[50:11] Speaker 2: difficult in such a crowded field to distinguish yourself as
[50:15] Speaker 2: a new candidate. I think this is a really like,
[50:18] Speaker 2: you know, it's early. Nominations just closed. We don't know
[50:22] Speaker 2: what people are going to do. It's certainly possible for
[50:26] Speaker 2: there to be a surprise in an open seat. These
[50:28] Speaker 2: are not incumbents. You know, we talk about a few people,
[50:30] Speaker 2: Acton and Renault, who had good performances as challengers. That's
[50:35] Speaker 2: not the same as winning an election. But, you know,
[50:39] Speaker 2: you certainly think that Renault, I certainly think that Renault
[50:42] Speaker 2: has a tremendous advantage starting a race like this.
[50:46] Speaker 3: Agreed.
[50:48] Speaker 1: Sorry, don't know. Just want to plug in that, put
[50:51] Speaker 1: in here that, you know, we could have just like last, last, uh,
[50:54] Speaker 1: term we had two McKenzie's. We may end up with
[50:57] Speaker 1: two Renos on, on council. Go ahead, Don.
[51:01] Speaker 3: And ironically, they have the same hairstyle. Uh, yeah, I
[51:05] Speaker 3: think Jeremy's going to, uh, I agree with Doug. He's
[51:08] Speaker 3: been around for a while. He did really well, uh,
[51:10] Speaker 3: going up against Joanne, who was like going up against
[51:13] Speaker 3: Ronald Reagan at some point. Uh, To say some nice
[51:17] Speaker 3: things about Joanne, I thought Joanne was a great counselor.
[51:19] Speaker 3: I am actually surprised she didn't progress along the way
[51:23] Speaker 3: to actually being the mayor at some point. I know
[51:26] Speaker 3: she ran federally or provincially for the conservatives at one point,
[51:30] Speaker 3: which I think was a horrible mistake because it went terrible. Yeah,
[51:34] Speaker 3: I'm surprised Joanne never got to the mayor chair. I
[51:37] Speaker 3: think her and I kind of align on that. the
[51:41] Speaker 3: political spectrum of things and not that she was a
[51:43] Speaker 3: great counselor. She didn't like spending money. That was for sure.
[51:45] Speaker 3: That's always been the knock on her that she didn't
[51:47] Speaker 3: want to spend money on anything. Uh, but yeah, thanks
[51:50] Speaker 3: for your service. Did a great job for many years. And, uh, yeah,
[51:54] Speaker 3: like I hope you enjoy your retirement.
[51:55] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[51:56] Speaker 3: I think, I think Jeremy's a shoe in here. I don't,
[51:58] Speaker 3: I don't really know any of these other candidates. And
[52:00] Speaker 3: I will say if you're kind of an unknown entity
[52:02] Speaker 3: out there, not just in this ward, uh, you know,
[52:05] Speaker 3: when you signed up to run, to be a candidate,
[52:08] Speaker 3: you should already have your website and all that stuff
[52:10] Speaker 3: locked down and ready to go because, you know, I
[52:13] Speaker 3: did 10 minutes of searching and just trying to get
[52:15] Speaker 3: some information on all the candidates and more than half
[52:17] Speaker 3: of them don't have anything you can't find. So I just,
[52:20] Speaker 3: I can't take them seriously as a candidate. So yeah,
[52:25] Speaker 3: in this word, I don't know. I think Jeremy's pretty
[52:26] Speaker 3: much a shoe on it.
[52:27] Speaker 1: And even if you don't have your website up and
[52:29] Speaker 1: your stuff, you know, ready, but when you file, you know,
[52:32] Speaker 1: by the close of nominations, you know, who are you like?
[52:35] Speaker 4: So, yeah. This is just an opportune moment to note
[52:42] Speaker 4: to folks listening.
[52:44] Speaker 2: If you're really mad at us, don't write. If you're
[52:48] Speaker 2: a candidate and you're really mad at us for having
[52:50] Speaker 2: said any of that stuff, you know, you can you
[52:54] Speaker 2: can not engage.
[52:55] Speaker 4: That's OK.
[52:56] Speaker 2: You know, we welcome candidates on the show, but we've
[52:59] Speaker 2: had certainly had folks get big mad before about learning
[53:04] Speaker 2: their political ABCs on from Rose city politics and not
[53:07] Speaker 2: enjoying it. And I just wanted to, you know, preempt that,
[53:11] Speaker 2: but yeah.
[53:13] Speaker 3: I disagree. I actually encourage them to write. Cause I mean,
[53:15] Speaker 3: I'm not going to write back, but I love to
[53:19] Speaker 3: see that. Hey, I mean, that'd be awesome.
[53:21] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[53:22] Speaker 1: We miss the hate.
[53:24] Speaker 4: Yeah, well, there's plenty coming.
[53:26] Speaker 1: We're going to try to keep this tight, right?
[53:28] Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, we've got to move along.
[53:30] Speaker 1: Ward 7, let's do this. Angelo Marinani returning, you know,
[53:36] Speaker 1: incumbent to face off with Beth Ann Prince, a really
[53:40] Speaker 1: interesting name to enter the race, and Victoria. Soluad, and
[53:44] Speaker 1: I hope I pronounced that name correctly. Maybe over the
[53:47] Speaker 1: course of time, we'll know for sure. Here's, you know, here's,
[53:50] Speaker 1: everyone here's got a website. Ward 7's got their websites
[53:54] Speaker 1: in order. Three candidates. Three candidates is an interesting race
[53:57] Speaker 1: because you get to, you know, it's enough to be
[53:59] Speaker 1: able to sort of like read up on everybody, right?
[54:02] Speaker 1: Like when you've got 11, you start to confuse everybody.
[54:05] Speaker 1: Is that the one? But three's an interesting number. And
[54:09] Speaker 1: Beth Ann Prince, of course, a no-name candidate. Angelo, here's
[54:13] Speaker 1: a candidate who ran many, many, many. How many times
[54:16] Speaker 1: did Angelo run before he eventually found his his way
[54:20] Speaker 1: onto the seat? What are your thoughts on this? Let's
[54:23] Speaker 1: go to Doug.
[54:25] Speaker 2: So I agree with you. I think a three way
[54:28] Speaker 2: race like this is nice. And I actually wish we
[54:31] Speaker 2: had runoffs in council races because I think it would
[54:35] Speaker 2: give more of an opportunity for different voices to be
[54:37] Speaker 2: heard and without. worrying about having that chilling effect and
[54:42] Speaker 2: spreading the, um, spreading the field too thin. Um, I think, uh,
[54:47] Speaker 2: it's interesting to me that so many names.
[54:51] Speaker 4: From the past have chosen not to run in ward seven.
[54:53] Speaker 2: Um, the, you know, even go back to 22 and
[54:57] Speaker 2: you look at, um, we had Greg LeMay, Juin Gill,
[55:01] Speaker 2: who had previously held the seat. Um, you know, so, um,
[55:05] Speaker 2: It's interesting to me that there is, you know, there
[55:09] Speaker 2: is an opportunity here, I think, for folks to come
[55:13] Speaker 2: in and challenge Marignani. I do think that's possible. I
[55:17] Speaker 2: think he has incumbency and he has that incumbency advantage,
[55:20] Speaker 2: but I don't think that, you know, the history of
[55:22] Speaker 2: this ward and the history of Marignani is that, you know,
[55:27] Speaker 2: he's not run away with it. And so I don't
[55:31] Speaker 2: expect that to be different this time, especially with Beth
[55:34] Speaker 2: Ann Prince running, who certainly has some heft in the community.
[55:38] Speaker 2: And if the campaign is what it could be, I
[55:44] Speaker 2: think that there could be a serious challenge to Marignane here.
[55:47] Speaker 2: And that's interesting and good. I am curious. I don't
[55:53] Speaker 2: make it out to Ward 7 very often. I would
[55:56] Speaker 2: be really curious to hear from residents in Ward 7
[56:00] Speaker 2: what kind of job they thought Marignane did. how they
[56:03] Speaker 2: perceived his time on council. It seemed to me that
[56:07] Speaker 2: he had a very, like, a narrow number of, like,
[56:10] Speaker 2: set issues that were very important to him, you know,
[56:13] Speaker 2: that seemed to relate very distinctly to the ward and
[56:17] Speaker 2: what people wanted. And so, you know, I would really
[56:20] Speaker 2: like to hear from Ward 7 residents and understand how
[56:23] Speaker 2: that has landed and whether he has you know, um,
[56:26] Speaker 2: has taken the, um, the opportunity granted to him by,
[56:30] Speaker 2: by being the winner in 22 and, and really, um,
[56:34] Speaker 2: built up the incumbency advantage that, that will let him, uh, uh,
[56:38] Speaker 2: hold the seat.
[56:40] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[56:41] Speaker 3: Word seven is pretty interesting because again, like you had mentioned,
[56:44] Speaker 3: you know, Angelo has the advantage of being the incumbent
[56:47] Speaker 3: and we all know, especially in municipal elections that beating
[56:50] Speaker 3: an incumbent, unless they, you know, kick kittens on the way.
[56:54] Speaker 3: is very difficult. This one, there's two serious candidates. I
[56:58] Speaker 3: don't know a lot about Victoria, but looking at her website,
[57:02] Speaker 3: she seems like a pretty serious candidate. I think what's
[57:05] Speaker 3: interesting about Ward 7 is every election, it tends to
[57:09] Speaker 3: change a lot, and that's because there's a huge amount
[57:11] Speaker 3: of development that goes on in Ward 7 because there's
[57:14] Speaker 3: still land out there. So if you look at the
[57:16] Speaker 3: area around Banwal, they're still building hundreds of houses out there.
[57:20] Speaker 3: And especially, there's going to be a lot of renters
[57:22] Speaker 3: out there that I don't think uh, candidates had to
[57:25] Speaker 3: deal with before. It was easy to just go knock
[57:26] Speaker 3: on doors on houses, but you know, off Lowe's on far,
[57:29] Speaker 3: he built all those, uh, apartment condos over there. There's
[57:32] Speaker 3: a lot of residents over there who are new to
[57:33] Speaker 3: the area. So I think, you know, even though Angelo
[57:37] Speaker 3: is the incumbent, he's always been in kind of tight races.
[57:40] Speaker 3: And I do agree. I thought, you know, someone like
[57:41] Speaker 3: you and Gil or somebody would run again and they didn't. Uh,
[57:45] Speaker 3: but I, I don't, I think he has the advantage.
[57:47] Speaker 3: I don't think he's a shoe in like some of
[57:49] Speaker 3: the other candidates. So I think he's has a chance
[57:51] Speaker 3: of being beatable if, uh, you know, if these other
[57:54] Speaker 3: candidates do pretty well. And Angelo, I don't know, he
[57:57] Speaker 3: kind of, Ward 7, I mean, there isn't, you know,
[58:00] Speaker 3: it's not the most exciting ward in the planet. There
[58:03] Speaker 3: goes the hate mail again. Yeah, you boring asses out
[58:09] Speaker 3: in Ward 7. Write Doug and tell him what a
[58:12] Speaker 3: horrible person he is. It's, you know, aside from like,
[58:15] Speaker 3: you know, Sandpoint Beach obviously has been huge, huge problems
[58:18] Speaker 3: with that and they're trying to redevelop and that's what
[58:19] Speaker 3: people stop dying out there. And the band wall roads
[58:23] Speaker 3: seems to be the constant thing at every campaign. Uh,
[58:26] Speaker 3: so yeah, I think someone can come in and actually
[58:30] Speaker 3: beat Angelo if he doesn't work hard enough. So I
[58:32] Speaker 3: think he's got a serious, he's got a serious campaign.
[58:34] Speaker 3: He has to run much less so than some of
[58:36] Speaker 3: the other incumbents. I would think this is going to
[58:38] Speaker 3: be the closest.
[58:38] Speaker 1: I'm not surprised that you and Gil didn't, um, didn't
[58:41] Speaker 1: run again. In fact, you know, um, Jewan Guild beat
[58:45] Speaker 1: Angelo and then boom, right? Like one term Jewan did
[58:49] Speaker 1: not impress, I think is really what happened, his constituents
[58:53] Speaker 1: and they tossed. So that's your Ward 7 in a nutshell.
[58:58] Speaker 1: So they're capable of doing that. I do think that
[59:02] Speaker 1: while three is a lovely number, whether we've got a
[59:04] Speaker 1: situation here where two strong candidates running against Angelo might
[59:12] Speaker 1: split those other votes, and we see Angelo benefiting from that.
[59:18] Speaker 1: So it'll be interesting to watch what emerges. Let's move
[59:22] Speaker 1: on to Ward 8. We've got a two-way race, speaking about,
[59:25] Speaker 1: you know, going from a three-way race to a two-way race.
[59:28] Speaker 1: What does that look like in terms of Gary Kashuk
[59:32] Speaker 1: coming back to run as an incumbent and Kevin Racine,
[59:37] Speaker 1: Ward 8? Doug?
[59:39] Speaker 2: So Kashuk secured 60% of the vote in 22, and
[59:44] Speaker 2: that was a two-way race against Gemma Gray Hall, who
[59:47] Speaker 2: certainly had some name recognition, had some experience, had run
[59:52] Speaker 2: in the ward before, had run at different levels before.
[59:56] Speaker 4: 60-40 was how that election went.
[59:59] Speaker 2: I don't really see any reason for Gary Kashak's vote
[1:00:05] Speaker 2: to recede.
[1:00:05] Speaker 4: I think.
[1:00:08] Speaker 2: That he has done exactly what his constituents expect. I
[1:00:12] Speaker 2: think he's the type of person that, not unlike Ed Sleeman,
[1:00:18] Speaker 2: you know, ward campaigns and ward politics is personal. And
[1:00:25] Speaker 2: it is about the people that you see at the
[1:00:28] Speaker 2: coffee shop and the people that you run into on
[1:00:30] Speaker 2: the street. It's not a writing level or national or
[1:00:33] Speaker 2: provincial level politics. And Gary Kashak has a presence in
[1:00:37] Speaker 2: his community. that I think is maybe not visible if
[1:00:41] Speaker 2: you live in other parts of the city.
[1:00:44] Speaker 4: Gary gave me.
[1:00:48] Speaker 2: A tour of Ward 8 a few years back, and
[1:00:51] Speaker 2: I don't remember the reason for that, but it was interesting.
[1:00:54] Speaker 2: But one thing I certainly remember is reception that Gary
[1:00:58] Speaker 2: gets when he walks into a room or a building there.
[1:01:02] Speaker 2: So it's pretty tough for Kevin Racine to take.
[1:01:07] Speaker 4: Him out, I think.
[1:01:09] Speaker 2: However, maybe it's an opportunity to do what we were
[1:01:12] Speaker 2: talking about, knock some doors, meet some people, learn the ropes,
[1:01:16] Speaker 2: and be in a position to challenge in the future.
[1:01:19] Speaker 4: Always good to see people doing that.
[1:01:26] Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't much add that. Gary seems pretty much
[1:01:28] Speaker 3: like he's doing a good job. People like him. Kevin
[1:01:30] Speaker 3: Racine seems like, you know, on paper, he looks like
[1:01:33] Speaker 3: a serious candidate and could at some point. It's just,
[1:01:36] Speaker 3: it's going to be too hard in a two-man race to,
[1:01:39] Speaker 3: you know, unseat Gary. He got a large percentage of
[1:01:42] Speaker 3: vote again against Gemma, who was actually a pretty well-known candidate.
[1:01:46] Speaker 3: So it's looking pretty good. But yeah, I agree. I
[1:01:50] Speaker 3: don't think Ken should quit. I think he should keep
[1:01:52] Speaker 3: running because he has a pretty good resume from the
[1:01:54] Speaker 3: looks of it for a politician.
[1:01:56] Speaker 1: He should get his website up. And I am surprised
[1:01:58] Speaker 1: to see that Gemma didn't run again. I'm a little
[1:02:01] Speaker 1: surprised about that. I think, Gary, I think you're right
[1:02:05] Speaker 1: in comparing him to Ed in all the good ways
[1:02:09] Speaker 1: because he's also very thoughtful. He's been a very thoughtful
[1:02:14] Speaker 1: counsellor around that table. So I think a hard one,
[1:02:20] Speaker 1: but a two-way race makes things a little different. Speaking
[1:02:23] Speaker 1: of two-way races, let's move on to.
[1:02:26] Speaker 1: Ward 9, where we have Kieran McKenzie and Soham Patel.
[1:02:33] Speaker 1: Not a name that I know. Kieran McKenzie certainly is
[1:02:35] Speaker 1: a name that we know, both because he's the incumbent
[1:02:39] Speaker 1: and also he's a Rose City Politics literally founding member OG.
[1:02:44] Speaker 1: And another one we'll add to the list of having
[1:02:46] Speaker 1: him come on because I think he will have time
[1:02:50] Speaker 1: in his day for us if we need it. Thoughts
[1:02:54] Speaker 1: on Ward 9 before we move on to Ward 10?
[1:02:56] Speaker 1: Not to be dismissive, I'm just looking at the time.
[1:03:00] Speaker 3: Yeah, I think Kieran's a pretty safe bet. It's too
[1:03:03] Speaker 3: bad that more candidates were running because to go back
[1:03:05] Speaker 3: to your comments on Ronaldo and Ward 3 about how
[1:03:08] Speaker 3: hard he works, Kieran is the biggest slacker around the
[1:03:11] Speaker 3: city council table. I've never seen such a low-energy guy
[1:03:15] Speaker 3: put zero effort into being a city councilor. It's a
[1:03:21] Speaker 3: shame there's no serious competition. Oh, man.
[1:03:26] Speaker 1: It's the way he was trained having worked with the NDP.
[1:03:32] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[1:03:33] Speaker 4: Oh, my God.
[1:03:34] Speaker 1: When you're in opposition, baby.
[1:03:37] Speaker 3: Literally trained.
[1:03:38] Speaker 1: All right.
[1:03:39] Speaker 3: All right. Okay. All right.
[1:03:40] Speaker 1: All right.
[1:03:41] Speaker 3: Sorry, buddy. I'm just kidding around.
[1:03:43] Speaker 1: We love you. We'll have you on the show. War 10.
[1:03:47] Speaker 1: We've got Jim Morrison running. Now, here's an incumbent who's
[1:03:50] Speaker 1: facing some pretty strong contenders in the sense that these
[1:03:55] Speaker 1: folks have run before. And, you know, I think it'll
[1:04:00] Speaker 1: be interesting. I think that the fact that there are
[1:04:03] Speaker 1: four actually helps Jim Morrison. I was a little more,
[1:04:06] Speaker 1: I don't know, concerned, my concern, but if there were two,
[1:04:12] Speaker 1: only because I, you know, first of all, there's, you know,
[1:04:17] Speaker 1: I think it's a race to watch. I still think
[1:04:19] Speaker 1: Jim Morrison has the advantage for all the reasons that
[1:04:22] Speaker 1: I'm sure Doug's going to share with us in terms
[1:04:24] Speaker 1: of data and possibly, you know, knowing where the voters are.
[1:04:29] Speaker 1: But Jim Morrison, you know, and Jim, unlike Ed, sometimes
[1:04:34] Speaker 1: get puffy with us when we talked about Jim. We
[1:04:37] Speaker 1: haven't always agreed with Jim, just like we haven't agreed
[1:04:39] Speaker 1: with everyone. But to his credit, Jim has also voted
[1:04:43] Speaker 1: along the lines of principle in many cases, so much so,
[1:04:49] Speaker 1: you know, in terms of what's good for Windsor, taking
[1:04:52] Speaker 1: a big picture look at that. that, um, perhaps, um,
[1:04:56] Speaker 1: that could, you know, pockets of his word could be,
[1:05:00] Speaker 1: could have been pissed off at him is what I'm
[1:05:02] Speaker 1: saying in, in, for a lot of the right reasons, uh,
[1:05:05] Speaker 1: in terms of the big picture, but, um, four-way race,
[1:05:09] Speaker 1: Mark Misanovic, um, uh, has run before, um, works hard
[1:05:15] Speaker 1: in during election campaigns, at least Adam Ibrahim, I think
[1:05:18] Speaker 1: was the first to file, um, among at least the
[1:05:21] Speaker 1: other three. And then Wally Chachak also has run, before
[1:05:25] Speaker 1: and a name that's known in Ward 10. Thoughts on
[1:05:29] Speaker 1: Jim and the other candidates and any risk to Jim's
[1:05:33] Speaker 1: seat here? I'm going to go to Doug on the
[1:05:35] Speaker 1: data first.
[1:05:37] Speaker 2: So I'm always happy to run into Jim and chat
[1:05:41] Speaker 2: with Jim, enjoy Jim's company. Jim is probably the weakest
[1:05:46] Speaker 2: incumbent around the table in that he has never exceeded
[1:05:51] Speaker 2: 30% of the vote. He has always faced a crowded field.
[1:05:56] Speaker 2: And so I think that's a challenge. I have not
[1:06:01] Speaker 2: personally seen Mr. Morrison's data, but if I had to guess,
[1:06:05] Speaker 2: I would guess that the makeup of his voters changes
[1:06:09] Speaker 2: from the first time he was elected and to the
[1:06:11] Speaker 2: second and so forth. And I don't think he can
[1:06:14] Speaker 2: take anyone on his list for granted anymore.
[1:06:16] Speaker 4: In 2022, Morrison won with 1,377 votes. That's 29.69%.
[1:06:17] Speaker 2: Mark Masanovich had 1,239 votes, 150 votes behind, 26.7%. Wally
[1:06:19] Speaker 2: Chachak also in that race at 20%, 947 votes. The
[1:06:21] Speaker 2: fourth name in that race in 22 was Paul Borelli.
[1:06:41] Speaker 2: And Paul Borelli had a significant chunk of the vote.
[1:06:44] Speaker 2: And so you got to ask yourself, where would that
[1:06:48] Speaker 2: where would that vote land? Would that vote land with
[1:06:51] Speaker 2: Jim Morrison? You know, I also think that campaigns matter
[1:06:54] Speaker 2: in in specifically in this race. I think you have
[1:07:00] Speaker 2: four experienced people. all of whom have their own lists,
[1:07:04] Speaker 2: all of whom have their own fundraising.
[1:07:08] Speaker 4: Sources.
[1:07:09] Speaker 2: There are going to be four serious campaigns in Ward 10.
[1:07:13] Speaker 2: I don't know that there's any other ward that will
[1:07:15] Speaker 2: have four serious campaigns in it. Um, so, so that's
[1:07:19] Speaker 2: something I think like, I think that Morrison is in
[1:07:21] Speaker 2: for a tougher tangle than, than you might think. Um,
[1:07:25] Speaker 2: I do think that, you know, if we were, if
[1:07:27] Speaker 2: we were going to put money on it, he probably
[1:07:29] Speaker 2: wins because of that incumbency advantage, but it's, it's no
[1:07:33] Speaker 2: shoe in for sure. And, uh, um, I, I would
[1:07:36] Speaker 2: assume that Mr. Morrison knows that and is good planning
[1:07:39] Speaker 2: on working his butt off.
[1:07:40] Speaker 1: Right. I think in terms of, yeah, you go ahead, Don.
[1:07:45] Speaker 3: Well, I don't much to add to that. I think, yeah,
[1:07:47] Speaker 3: I agree. Jim's going to have a tough race out there.
[1:07:49] Speaker 3: All those other candidates have been serious candidates in the
[1:07:52] Speaker 3: past and got numbers. I mean, yeah, it's easy to
[1:07:54] Speaker 3: be a candidate. I was a candidate and didn't get
[1:07:56] Speaker 3: any numbers. So, yeah, these are serious candidates he's running against.
[1:08:00] Speaker 3: It should be interesting. Jim's going to have to get
[1:08:01] Speaker 3: out there and work. And wouldn't it be nice to
[1:08:04] Speaker 3: have Paul Morelli back in the race? That would make
[1:08:06] Speaker 3: this show so much more entertaining.
[1:08:09] Speaker 1: Well, I think it's interesting that... I think it's interesting
[1:08:13] Speaker 1: that we have four open seats, theoretically three plus the
[1:08:17] Speaker 1: Ward 4 seat. So we're going to see, you know,
[1:08:21] Speaker 1: three new people for sure. Technically, maybe four if you
[1:08:27] Speaker 1: look at it, depending on how you consider Chris Holt.
[1:08:29] Speaker 1: But three new faces around the table. And we look
[1:08:32] Speaker 1: like we have, you know, somewhat of a race. Certainly
[1:08:35] Speaker 1: nothing to be taken for granted in Wards 7, possibly
[1:08:39] Speaker 1: 8 and 10. So, you know, as much as you
[1:08:45] Speaker 1: sort of see, oh, this is pretty sure, this is
[1:08:47] Speaker 1: pretty sure, like we went through one and two and three,
[1:08:49] Speaker 1: or at least two and three and nine, you know,
[1:08:54] Speaker 1: it's going to be an interesting election season, I think, overall.
[1:08:59] Speaker 4: I'm excited. There's lots to watch here.
[1:09:02] Speaker 2: There's so many, man, I knew as soon as we
[1:09:05] Speaker 2: did one of these shows, I was going to be
[1:09:06] Speaker 2: chomping at the bit to do more. There's so many
[1:09:09] Speaker 2: directions to take this conversation. There's so many things for
[1:09:12] Speaker 2: us to unpack over the coming weeks and months.
[1:09:15] Speaker 4: I'm really excited for this campaign. It's going to be fun.
[1:09:19] Speaker 1: All right, so great. Why don't we commit to doing
[1:09:22] Speaker 1: it again, bringing on some more voices. We have our
[1:09:28] Speaker 1: list of, you know, revolving guest hosts. We have contacts
[1:09:35] Speaker 1: and candidates. Those candidates who don't send us hate mail
[1:09:42] Speaker 1: can reach out to us if you want to be
[1:09:44] Speaker 1: on the show. So between now and at least Election Day,
[1:09:48] Speaker 1: October 26, we'll be here. We're not going to commit
[1:09:51] Speaker 1: to how often, but we'll try to be pretty regular,
[1:09:55] Speaker 1: talking about the campaign, the candidates, the issues that matter
[1:09:58] Speaker 1: to folks. And as I said, we'll invite some familiar
[1:10:01] Speaker 1: voices and some new ones and the candidates themselves to
[1:10:05] Speaker 1: give them a chance to talk about, you know, why
[1:10:07] Speaker 1: they're running, what they're promising, giving us a chance to
[1:10:10] Speaker 1: grill them and ask questions along the way. And most
[1:10:13] Speaker 1: of all, we hope that you, the listeners, will join us,
[1:10:17] Speaker 1: whether you're new or old hat to listening to the RCP.
[1:10:21] Speaker 1: And there's a lot of politics between now and October 26.
[1:10:24] Speaker 1: So see you soon. I hope not.

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