The Sandor Report

Hello readers!  It has been a while since I last wrote, but I have a very exciting post this time around.  My survey series with the TVBDSB Trustee candidates was so successful that I have decided to periodically carry out interviews with groups and individuals in my homes of London and Guelph.  These interviews begin with this interview with His Worship Matt Brown, Mayor of London.  Spencer and Matt at a London Lightning game Spencer:  First and foremost, congratulations again on being sworn in as the Mayor of London.  Second, allow me to thank you again for agreeing to allow me to interview you for my blog.  Although I have a modest readership, I try to use my blog to provide insight into local politics in my two homes of London and Guelph. I have prepared a few questions for you to answer and have tried to strike a balance between providing you an opportunity to discuss your vision for London, and answer some questions that Londoners m...

With the Ontario municipal elections behind us, I would now like to make a request to all of the Councillor Elects, Mayor Elects and citizens everywhere.  For the next four years, would it be too much to ask to keep party politics out of municipal affairs? To set the record straight, there are no parties in local government.  You did not vote for a Liberal councillor or a Conservative mayor.  Likewise, to all of you newly elected officials, you do not represent a provincial or federal party.  Nevertheless, over the last 10 months of campaigning, I have heard countless times refrains such as "I'm not voting for a filthy Conservative for Mayor" or "Those scheming Liberals have taken over City Hall".  What's worse, candidates not only propagated this misconception by declaring that they would be a Conservative or Liberal politician, but in fact told citizens to vote along provincial or federal party lines. For higher levels of government, it may be easy ...

Recently I had the good fortune to join and develop content for a group working to have ranked-choice voting ("RCV") adopted in my hometown of London.  Although still in its infancy, 123London.ca  joins a growing number of similar movements across Ontario that want to see a move towards an electoral process that better reflects the realities of modern municipal politics.  If you don't know what ranked-choice voting (A.K.A. instant runoff voting, A.K.A. alternate vote) is, I highly recommend this YouTube video by CGPGrey which very concisely explains the process over just a few minutes of your time. Just don't forget to come back here when you are done watching!  Obviously I wouldn't have taken the time to get involved with this group unless I believed in the cause, and so, I am here to tell you why ranked-choice voting is beneficial for local elections. But - as Reading Rainbow taught us as children - you don't have to take my word for it! I tweeted last w...

This morning the London Free Press ran an article outlining Ward 7 candidate Josh Morgan's position that municipal candidates ought to be residents of the municipality that they are running in.  I have spoken to several people over the years who are of the understanding that municipal candidates and politicians are required to live in their electoral ward.  They have been surprised (and perhaps you will be too) to find out that this is not the case.  In fact, there are a number of misconceptions about municipal elections that you might be surprised to learn - such as the fact that elected politicians are not elected as representatives of their wards.  A quick look at some of these misconceptions might change the way you look at municipal elections and certainly lends some credence to the argument that the current electoral rules do not reflect the understanding and expectations of voters. We'll start with the most obvious misconception: that you need to live in th...

Just before Christmas, the George Morris Centre published a report that revolved around on the closings of the Heinz Leamington and Kellogg’s London plants as indicators of a transition in food manufacturing.  A number of points that the report raises seem to resonate well beyond the food industry.  A close look at the report suggests that cities in southwestern Ontario such as London need to fundamentally rethink the way they approach economic development.  The days of large plants employing many workers are on the way out and there is no going back.  Instead, the future of economic success lies in attracting many small firms producing speciality goods and employing fewer than 50 workers.  The George Morris report does not even make it past the introduction before pointing out that the food industry is in a state of transition and although we are seeing multiple plant closures, the industry is ripe with opportunity for investment for those willing to acc...

Many university and college students, like me, choose to rent an apartment rather than living at home or in residence.   Although many landlords do business honestly and legally, there are some who choose to take advantage of students and particularly international students who are unfamiliar with the legal rules surrounding rentals and play things fast and loose with the law.   A classmate and friend from overseas recently ran into such a problem with a landlord who attempted to charge a $300 ‘Cleaning Fee’ when she moved out.   This fee is of course an example of a landlord trying to do exactly what I just described (otherwise I wouldn’t be writing about it).   After checking with the Landlord and Tenant Board’s brochure on the matter my friend wrote a letter explaining to her landlord explaining why she won’t be paying the fee and why the landlord is not allowed to charge it.   With her permission I have included a modified version of her letter below. ...

Olivia Chow – the Federal NDP transportation critic – plans to introduce a motion in parliament this Tuesday asking the government to design and implement a strategy for funding municipal infrastructure and transit systems. On the surface this proposal seems to be a good one; after all, anyone who spends any amount of time driving or taking public transit in Canada is bound to have a least one example of crumbling roads, overfilled busses leaving riders at the curb, or long commute times.  Not only does investment into infrastructure and transit seem like a ‘no-brainer’ to the average Canadian, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) has also made requests to the government to increase infrastructure spending by $2.5 billion.  According to the CBC , the preliminary version of the motion reads as follows: That this House call on the government to commit in Budget 2013 to a long-term, predictable and accountable federal infrastructure plan in partnership wi...