Posted by auroracitizen on April 21, 2011
We have established this post to allow readers to ask Kassandra questions directly — it will be up to Kassandra whether to take the opportunity to respond.
Her website is: http://kassandrabidarian.ndp.ca/
Moderators will review the questions to ensure they are really questions and not simply an attempt to promote another candidate/party in the guise of a question. Anonymous comments will face a higher standard 🙂
Posted in Community Input, Politics | 93 Comments »
Posted by auroracitizen on April 21, 2011
We have established this post to allow readers to ask Lois questions directly — it will be up to Lois whether to take the opportunity to respond.
Her website is: http://www.loisbrown.ca/
Moderators will review the questions to ensure they are really questions and not simply an attempt to promote another candidate/party in the guise of a question. Anonymous comments will face a higher standard 🙂
Posted in Community Input, Politics | 9 Comments »
Posted by auroracitizen on April 21, 2011
Vanessa Long has engaged with readers on this site and we thank her for that. We have established this post to allow readers to ask Vanessa questions directly — it will be up to Vanessa whether to take the opportunity to respond.
Her website is: http://vanessalong.ca/
Moderators will review the questions to ensure they are really questions and not simply an attempt to promote another candidate/party in the guise of a question. Anonymous comments will face a higher standard 🙂
Posted in Community Input, Politics | 3 Comments »
Posted by auroracitizen on April 21, 2011
Kyle Peterson has engaged with readers on this site and we thank him for that. We have established this post to allow readers to ask Kyle questions directly — it will be up to Kyle whether to take the opportunity to respond.
His website is: http://kylepeterson.liberal.ca/
Moderators will review the questions to ensure they are really questions and not simply an attempt to promote another candidate/party in the guise of a question. Anonymous comments will face a higher standard 🙂
Posted in Community Input, Politics | 3 Comments »
Posted by auroracitizen on April 21, 2011
Candidates spend most of their time talking about national concerns as they relate to our local communities — however, what do you see as the local issues and what should individual candidates be talking about to address the unique issues and opportunities to bring value to Aurora.
Posted in Community Input, Politics | 8 Comments »
Posted by auroracitizen on April 21, 2011
People often debate about the value of strategic voting — whether to vote for the party or the candidate — if your favoured candidate is not projected to be the ruling party, should you still vote for them when they will potentially have little or no impact on the actions of the ruling party — or should you use your vote strategically to upset the part you dislike the most?
Posted in Community Input, Politics | 25 Comments »
Posted by auroracitizen on April 21, 2011
Many people believe this election is about whether to give Mr. Harper a majority mandate or continue with a minority government. In your opinion, is it in the best interest of Canadians to have a majority or a minority government in Ottawa?
Posted in Community Input, Politics | 2 Comments »
Posted by auroracitizen on April 21, 2011
Last night was a spirited event, well attended by supporters from all sides. In general, it was positive both for the audience and the candidates. Given the differing opinions it was nice to see 4 candidates — all passionate about their positions — engaged with each other in a respectful manner.
There were some good questions both from the panellists and from the floor. As always, the Yes/No questions were difficult to answer and left both candidates and audience wanting more.
Alison Collins-Mrakas did a very nice job moving things along and keeping the odd audience member in line who stepped out of bounds. Overall a very well run and enjoyable evening.
What were your thoughts? Did all the candidates acquit themselves well? Was their a clear winner?
Importantly, did any of their answers firm up your position or cause you to change your position?
Posted in Community Input, Politics | 22 Comments »
Posted by auroracitizen on April 14, 2011
An article appeared in the Auroran about our 2011 tax bill. Certainly we will be spending more of our hard-earned dollars to support the Town budget. However, another article may have also caught your eye — “Council Reduces Library request for more money — which indicated that Council had reduced their budget requisition by $30,500.
We are not offering an opinion on whether this cut was justified. We are asking your opinion on this and the larger issue. When looking at the budget, and the cuts – what items did you feel should have been cut and which do you think should have been saved. And of course, where do you think additional funds should have been allocated.
Balancing a budget is a delicate “balancing” act. But the one constant is dealing with “special interest” groups. These could be very small numbering 10’s of people or very large numbering 100’s (like sporting associations or the library users) — but they are all special interest groups since they don’t service the entire community like roads and sewers (yes we know some people may not drive — but you get the point).
The question is, how much “town” money do we spend on special interest groups and how much pressure do we put on them to be self-sustaining.
Food for thought? Grist for the Mill?
Posted in Budget | 10 Comments »
Posted by auroracitizen on April 13, 2011
A reader has suggested that we start to open a post after each Council meeting so that people can share their thoughts and ideas with each other and Council. Going forward we will try to do so. and label as above so you know which meeting to add comments to.
Posted in Discussion Topic, Town Council | 8 Comments »
Aurora Citizen 