Orleans Star interview
Candidate: Craig MacAulay, OCT
Age: 68
Education: two university degrees, the school of hard knocks
Occupation: FREE bike-taxi pilot, retired teacher, pundit
# of Children: 2 (ages 31, 34)
Bilingual: Oui
1. How will your past experience make you an effective city councillor?
An effective councillor provides good value to the long-suffering taxpayer. Being a City of Ottawa politician should be an honour and a sacred responsibility rather than a way to accumulate personal wealth and power. I will work at City Hall FOR FREE until the REAL election in 2022. Now that’s value!
If elected I will put the $210K salary, the $500K office-budget slush fund, the $12K car allowance, the overly generous benefits and all the other perks of power into a BIG POT that will be spent democratically and transparently IN CUMBERLAND WARD.
So NO money for me and NO personal power either. ALL political decisions will be decided upon by the people of Cumberland ward, not by me. And certainly not by the developers who finance the mayor and some of the other candidates in this by-election.
2. Please list the extent of your volunteer activities.
- ten years of piloting the Bells Corners FREE Bike-taxi
- community association president, rink operator, building manager, bike coop treasurer, community activist, blogger, journalist, anti-politician
3. What is your position on whether or not the rural part of the ward should be merged with Osgoode Ward?
Ward boundaries should NOT be decided by gerrymandering politicians. Hopefully the voters of Osgoode will pay attention to this important issue (and many others) as the campaign grinds on.
Most insiders expect voter turnout to be less than 20%. Quelle honte! We candidates need to stir up some interest in this obscenely expensive fake election where the result seems sadly predictable.
4. Please list your top three priorities should you get elected; and B) Why is the first issue on your list your number one priority and what do you plan to do about it?
- Electoral reform via ranked-choice voting and limits on the power of big money.
- A sustainable, just and prosperous economy.
- More transparency and less corruption at City Hall.
Politicians should NOT be financed by the developers, contractors and consultants who benefit from council’s decisions.
Elections must be fair to be legitimate.
Old promises but still good:
Citizen questionaire (all candidates)
I’m running as an anti-politician on a ZERO-means-ZERO-means-ZERO platform. My first promise is I will spend ZERO money on my campaign and I will accept ZERO salary/pension/perks once elected.
That’s a savings of $500,000 annually for the taxpayer.
I’m taking over where Earl McRae of the Ottawa Sun left off.
Some may consider my campaign a big joke (myself included), but I have some VERY serious points to make, especially on electoral reform:
1) councillors should NOT accept donations from land speculators, developers, contractors and other big businesses that profit from council decisions.
2) councillors should support Ranked Choice Voting (ottawa123.ca)
3) community associations should be transparent, accountable and NOT used for personal financial gain (and certainly NOT creations of the councillor!)
Corruption and bullying is BAD, even when done by elected officials and high-ranking City bureaucrats.
I will make a detailed case that Rick Chiarelli has blundered badly, has NOT told the truth, has wasted TONS of tax dollars, and does NOT deserve re-election.
Stay tuned for more electoral promises!
Craig MacAulay, OCT (30 years in the trenches)
pilot, Bells Corners FREE Bike-taxi
treasurer, recyclore.org
outdoor rink operator/past president, LVCA
proud member, Citizens for Safe Cycling
blogger, bellscorners.wordpress.com
organizer, ecofair2014.weebly.com
admirer, ottawawatch.ca
Famous quotes: “I am NOT a politician.” “There IS such a thing as a free lunch.” “Want a ride? It’s free.”
College Ward 8 race
Campaign video
Twitter @ottawaowl
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Here are a few more promises in response to a request from the Ottawa Food Policy Council:
I PROMISE to actively engage with the community on decisions related to food at the municipal level.
I PROMISE to ensure a food lens will be used in City planning to assess equitable access to Good Food in all relevant growth, environment, and development plans.
I PROMISE to consider neighbourhood access to Good Food in all new development applications, zoning and by-law amendments, and social services/community planning.
I PROMISE to champion sustained funding for initiatives that ensure Good Food exists for all, economic development focused on food and farming, and the use of a Good Food lens for planning and policies.
But before committing any tax dollars to these excellent initiatives I would have to make sure that the residents of College Ward agree.
Don’t you LOVE community gardens?
This is at Bayshore – wish we had something similar in Bells Corners.
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I support http://ottawa.ihollaback.org/
What about YOU?
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/ottawa-votes-college-ward-candidates-answer-our-questions
bellscorners 
“I’m running as an anti-politician on a ZeroMeansZero platform. My first promise is I will spend ZERO money on my campaign and I will accept ZERO salary/pension/perks once elected.”
Unfortunately that will make it very hard for you to be elected.
Realistically, how do you feel about your chances?
– Maybe one in a thousand? One in 750 if the Ottawa Citizen endorses me, one in 500 if the Ottawa Sun gives me the thumbs up. Seriously though – stranger things have happened. If the chattering classes hone in on Rick’s flagrant abuses of power and take up my cause, if Guy delivers the CFRA crowd, if Scott does some damage, if Rick makes another huge blunder…
Your charm and personality, plus your honesty and pleas for honesty from the other candidates can’t do you any harm.
– Charm and personality? Team Rick minions think that I’m the devil incarnate for daring to challenge their firm grip on power.
But I AM honest, unlike Rick, Bill, Jen and their followers. It is NOT honest to use public resources for private gain and then lie about it.
Don’t forget that I used to be a member of Team RC myself, so I’ve heard Rick and Bill speak honestly off the record about what they REALLY think and believe, and it made me feel ill. Rick’s public brand of a jolly fiscal conservative is NOT the real man, and Bill’s angry right-wing views are pretty disturbing and NOT AT ALL representative of the opinions of the good folk of Westcliffe.
There are a few fallow lots in Lynwood and around BC; what would be the first step in establishing a community garden? I’d imagine this idea would take flight more enthusiastically on the west side of Moodie, where many properties are smaller and homes more densely packed. Most homes in LV are perched on large lots so I can’t see those residents aching for public gardens.
Go to the Just Food website – they have a workshop on how to start a community garden in Bells Corners.
Craig, I hate to say it – but I wish you were a bit more serious. I just looked at what the other candidates in College Ward are offering and my goodness it’s horrible!
For example, Guy Annable is running on the need to bring back weekly garbage pickups. When asked for his view on what the city should do to combat climate change he just responded with bad jokes. Is he serious?
And no need to get started on the crooked morally-questionable world of Rick Chiarelli!
So to me, you are the only real choice in the ward. But our ward is also very conservative and I think that a more serious campaign from you in terms promoting yourself and expecting to be paid would help your cause. I am sorry, but even in a perfect world I would want my councillor to be paid. How would you live?
I worry that your “I’ll-work-for-free-to-restore-trust-in-our-politicians” promise just makes you seem like NOT a real option to most voters. Still, you still have my vote. I love community gardens 🙂
– Ha! Ha! Don’t worry about me not getting paid – as a retired teacher with an unreduced indexed pension I’m all right Jack. Plus it’s virtually impossible to get elected without cash and connections, and my odds of actually winning are one in a thousand according to a Las Vegas bookie I consulted.
So I can promise a chicken in every pot and it’s extremely unlikely that I’ll ever have to deliver.
If the details of Rick’s misdeeds capture the big media’s attention he could be heading for a BIG fall. But don’t hold your breath waiting for it to happen – our electoral system is corrupt!
Mind you, it’s worse in every other country in the world. Guy would be beheaded and I’d be sent to Syrian prison if Rick wasn’t restrained by our proud democratic traditions.
If pigs start flying and I become the new Rick Ford I promise to keep my election promises, including the ZERO-means-ZERO-means-Zero pledges.
Thanks for your patience, Guy. Some on your comments on the “about” page weren’t showing up on the “main” page.
I just found a fix (reinstalling the comments “widget”) so now ALL recent comments show up on the “main” page, whether on the “about” page or the “my election promises” page. And soon I’ll be adding a “questions for Rick” page so please feel free to fire away. Normally I edit for grammar and spelling but because we’re opponents I’ll just automatically approve whatever you write. How’s that for being democratic and fair?
I may not agree with all your wacky ideas, Guy, and I don’t much like the company you keep, but you’re WAY less objectionable than Rick. Which isn’t saying much. So may the best clown “win” (i.e. finish second to the corrupt developer-funded Big Rick Machine).
Thanks to WordPress technical support – you people have a great free product. Sure, you stick your stupid ads at the end some of my posts and you don’t share any of the revenue with me, but that is TOTALLY fair, considering that I pay nothing for such a great product. And, if people don’t like the ads they just get a free wordpress account (and I can’t see any down side to that) and poof! the ads disappear. So stop your whining, dear readers and Guy.