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My final exam is tomorrow; as such blogging will resume on Tuesday.

Draft-A-Mayor: Mayor Francis leads online poll

The race is on in Windsor – at least online.

If an election were held today, Mayor Eddie Francis would capture 45% of the popular vote to win a third term in a three-way race with Councillors Bill Marra and Dave Brister receiving  33% and 22% respectively.

You can vote here at http://www.draftamayor.com/process-votes.asp?city=Windsor.

How these candidates were selected is beyond me and my own suggestion for a candidate (another test of the site) has not been accepted for unknown reasons.

A poll such as this one is as about as scientific as AM800’s, but it is a general gauge of the online public voting intentions.

The website started off with uncertainty though I unfortunately realised after emailing the link to dozens of contacts. 

When I first voted, I realised I could vote repeatedly – and did to make my point.  What got me curious initially to do so, was that Mayor Francis had around 88% of the vote – which was too high by any standards, so I searched for the way to flood the site with votes and found it without too much trouble by simply hitting “refresh” and then “Retry” repeatedly.

Before I first voted, Mayor Francis had around 126 votes to Bill Marra’s 9 and Councillor Brister’s 5 and lets just say the website got suddenly very busy after I voted.

I emailed the contact on the website to inform them of the flaw and they have since reset the vote and eliminated the loophole – hey, I may not be a supporter of the Mayor, but I do want an accurate reflection (well as accurate as an online voting poll can be).

The website is produced in partnership with Momemtuum and Strategy One.

Although too early to tell at this point, to me this confirms so far, my opinion of Councillor Marra – he has been generally invisible and has yet to really define himself should he seek the Mayor’s Chair. 

And Councillor Brister – he would be the upset vote allowing a three-way split to occur allowing Mayor Francis to win a third term if the election was today.  That could also work to Councillor Marra’s advantage as voting continues.

Although premature, as I had written back on September 21, 2009, these very early results support my question, if not Mayor Francis, then who?

To echo Mayor Edgar Francis’ statement with respect to the downtown canal proposal, if not Mayor Francis, then who?

While I personally do not support Mayor Edgar Francis – I do not dismiss all his ideas – only his reactionary and uncompromising dictatorial style – which does find its way to boardrooms as well as communities across not only the region but the nation as well.

While many of the councillors are hard-working caring citizens; as politicians, well that is another story. I echo Kirwood’s feelings that there really are no alternatives for Mayor on this council, from my perspective.

Councillor Marra, rumoured to make a run for the city’s highest elected position, has shown glimmers of hope throughout this term; but as a seasoned city councillor I have expected more from the largely invisible ward 4 councillor. I do believe his attempts to build consensus stand in stark contrast to Mayor Edgar Francis’ confrontational style; but I do not believe that in of itself is enough.

Does this mean I discount him entirely? No – but I do wonder about his ability to lead the next council as well as the city through what some economists predict will be a continued recession.

Which leaves us with Mayor Francis.

To blame the collapse of the local economy entirely on the Mayor would be deceitful – but how the Mayor has steered the good ship Windsor through these rocky waters can be.

Reactionary, obstructionist, combative and secretive are some of the words that quickly come to mind.

One can only rest on their laurels of reducing the city’s debt by $10-million a year for so long – a campaign message used extensively in 2006 and sure to be repeated if Chris Vander Doelen’s most recent column is any indication.

And true to form, all the campaign tactics of 2006 are presenting themselves again in an eerie sense of déjà-vu.

More hype. More diversion. More spin.

But little substance.

To politely rephrase a common saying; it’s the same hay, just a different bale.

However, having said that, I do express deep reservations in rejecting Mayor Francis for the sake of rejecting him in the absence of any real alternatives at this point – a sad statement of the reality of our local political scene.

Fresh on my mind is the voter disgust back in the 1990’s with the both the Progressive Conservatives and the Liberals and elected the disastrous NDP government with a solid majority – from which Ontario has never fully recovered.

In rejecting any elected official for the sake of rejecting them in support of the unknown is a huge risk.

Personally, I am finished with smooth talking officials more concerned with how their message is “marketed” than with actually accomplishing something of meaning.