PLATFORM - Big Ideas : Smartphone App / Website

SMARTPHONE APP / Website  - My Tax Money Nanaimo

Alternative (perhaps more palatable) Name

• Informed Nanaimo

I personally like My Tax Money Nanaimo because it gets to the heart of the App's purpose. 

To give Residents a quick and easy way to get transparency and keep track of how the City is using and plans to use their money. 

Description 

A Smartphone App for Residents to quickly scan through key pieces of City Information. 

Philosophy Behind App

The City functions thanks to YOUR Money. You should be able to find out, with the ease of modern technology (in this case a Smartphone App) exactly how your money is being used in the operation of your City. 

Content

• Current Salaries : City Council and City Staff 
• Past Raises : City Council and City Staff
• Voting Records : City Council
• City Finances : Operating Budget, Budget Deficits, Current Debt, Strategic Reserves
• City Projects : Most critically how much they will Cost

Precedent : Nanaimo Recycles Smartphone App

The City of Nanaimo has already produced a very useful Smartphone App which many Residents find valuable to remind them of their Garbage and Recycling schedules, and where to take items they are unsure of how to either dispose of or where to take for proper recycling. 

Precedent : MyCity Website

The City has a very useful Online Site for Residents to track their User Rates fees. 

The existence of both the "Nanaimo Recycles" App and the "MyCity" Website clearly demonstrates that the City has the ability to both create a useful Smartphone App and to supply Residents with historical and up to date information about financial matters which directly apply to them. 

PLATFORM - Big Ideas : Experts Debate

Description

Two Experts on a particular issue that is relevant to the City and Nanaimo Tax Payers are invited to the City to  answer Resident's questions and Debate. 

Why Have Experts Debate?

Complex problems have many facets to them. If City Council is going to use Tax Payers money to address problems, then Tax Payers should gain perspective on the problem from both sides of the issue. 

Example Debate : Kate Raworth vs Bjorn Lomborg - "Will Nanaimo Becoming A Smart City Genuinely Benefit Its Citizens And The Planet?"

Kate Raworth is the creator of the "Donut Economy" and the inspiration for Nanaimo's current Official Community Plan. She is author of the best-selling book Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist.

Bjorn Lomborg is former director of the Danish government's Environmental Assessment Institute in Copenhagen and author of the best-selling and controversial book The Skeptical Environmentalist.

How It Works

• 2 Experts are invited to discuss an issue affecting the City. 
• 1 Expert from one side of the issue and 1 Expert from the other side of the issue. 
• Both Experts will be present at a City Council meeting. 
• City Council will ask the Experts questions sent in by Nanaimo Residents. 
• Each Expert will present their perspective on the question. 
• The Experts will be allowed to Debate each other on questions following standard Debate Rules (perhaps those used in Oxford debates). 
• The Questions / Debate will be recorded and made available for Nanaimo Citizens to watch. 

PLATFORM - Covid or another Crisis Response : Choice Between Freedom and Supposed "Security" - I Choose Freedom

 Unvaxxed

• Yes I am "Unvaxxed". 
• As a Society, we need to take a close look at ourselves and how quickly, when we were afraid, when we were unsure, when we didn't want to be ostracized, we were willing to turn our backs on our fellow Canadians because they chose to exercise their Bodily Autonomy
• What one chooses to put in one's body should never be a question. The answer should always be, loudly and proudly : My Body. My Choice. 

A Promise : City Hall Staff (and something important for Nanaimo Citizens to take note of)

• I will NEVER make a Vaccine or any other potential externality become a Condition of Employment. 
• Now, to City Council's credit during the Pandemic, no member of City Staff was given an ultimatum between taking the Vaccine and losing their job. Credit where credit is due.
• But, to reiterate and reemphasize, if the next "Crisis" occurs, I will NEVER force a member of City Staff to choose between their livelihood and a controversial act that is for the theoretical "greater good". I stand staunchly opposed to Collectivist Thinking. 
• The Rights of the Individual Shall Not Be Impugned.

The Next Crisis : Climate Lockdowns

• Already there is talk among Global Leaders and Global Elites, commenting on the apparent decrease in CO2 when much of the Global Population was Locked Down
• There is already discussion about Global Lockdowns being a viable solution to slowing down Climate Change
• If I am elected to City Council, in whatever capacity I am able, I will push back against Lockdowns for theoretical crises
• In such an instance, I would welcome an Expert Debate, and City Council and Nanaimo Residents, could get perspective on both sides of the idea of "Locking Society Down to Slow Down Climate Change". I believe, the arguments against the idea will carry the day handily. 

PLATFORM - Relationship with First Nations People

 The "Unceded Land" Mantra

• I strongly dislike hearing the acknowledgment before every, single, City Council meeting that we are all, every Nanaimo Resident, living on the "Unceded Land" of the Snunymeux First Nations
• I believe this is technically true, though I am not a Historian, and I do not know what treaties were signed in earlier years. An opportunity for an Expert Debate : Is Nanaimo Unceded Territory?
• The word Unceded is a synonym for "Stolen". Every time Nanaimo Residents hear the Mantra, they are being told, they are being CONDITIONED to internalize the idea that they are living on someone else's stolen land. Psychologically this is not a healthy belief to internalize, nor is it remotely fair. 
• The people living in Nanaimo today had nothing to do with Colonialism, or the Residential Schools, or the Flawed Treaty System. 
• Individuals are responsible for their OWN actions and those for whom they are legally responsible (one's children). No one should feel responsible for the actions of their ancestors, or even more so, the actions of people who lived on the land they occupy decades or centuries ago. 

Renaming City Structures, Streets, Signs, Landmarks to Traditional Snunymeux Names

I would welcome an "Expert Debate : Should Contemporary Names of City Structures and their Historical Significance Be Eliminated to Make Room for New Names that Reflect the Culture of People's Who Were Present Before?"

I believe it is essential to learn History, to learn from History, and strive to avoid the mistakes that were made historically, but I do not believe that Modern people should accept guilt or responsibility for actions that were done by their ancestors. 

Nanaimo has Historical names for its streets, buildings, landmarks. Renaming them is denying the history that encompasses their name. Someone should not be forced to change their name because it is considered the "Progressive", "Conciliatory" thing to do. 

I believe in Individual Liberty and Personal Freedom and Private Property and Respect for History. 

Now, if a new structure in Nanaimo is available to be named, and the owner or relevant party CHOOSES to bequeath the structure a traditional, First Nations name, I am 100% in favor of that. 

For me, it is always about Freedom of Choice, and the absence of the use of Force. 

What happened to First Nations peoples was wrong, but we move forward, not dwelling on the past.