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[Hubris Incalculable]

In my hometown, Civic Elections have started up, and "Urist McSchoolTeacher for Mayor" (or councillor, or school trustee) signs are everywhere. The interesting thing is, there's a few hand-painted signs here and there, with nothing more than "Travis for Mayor", with no surnames or any other information. This, of course, piqued my interest. Soon after, in the local newspaper, there was an article about all the different candidates' position on a rather controversial issue (into which i won't go right now), and in that article, i found the rest of the candidate's name: Travis J. Daleman. With the purpose of knowing more, I searched up that name on Teh Interwebz, and found that he is 17 years old (not even old enough to vote!), Is currently attending the local Uni, and claims to be the youngest person to run for office in Canada. Now, I have no idea whether or not to support this kid, but I am wishing him luck, and I hope that it breaks the succession of "heir apparent" ex-school-teachers who

Spoiler: minirant (click to show/hide)

have no idea what anything costs, so they put the city into deeper debt, and then, of course, the burden of this debt goes straight to the taxpayers.

anywho...

What do you think?

[redacted123]

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[kaijyuu]

Judging him by his age alone is absolutely presumptuous and unfair, I think.

Not much else to say, though.

[RedKing]

Or he might be humble enough to think, "Okay, I'd better find out how much stuff costs before I approve it," rather than thinking that because they're an adult who's had a long career, they obviously know what they're doing.

I wish the dude well.

[Hubris Incalculable]

To be honest I think a 17 year old as mayor is a pretty bad idea. I'm not sure why you think that if school teachers have no idea what anything costs, a university student has a better idea. In fact, I imagine that the 17 year old would plunge the city into far more debt as he tries to fulfil his idealistic views.

Like i said, i have no idea whether or not to support him (and it's unlikely i will), and i don't even have any idea who else to support with my vote. I just think its rather unusual, and it will at least break voter apathy.

EDIT: Here's a picture of the youngster:

[Necro910]

"But Mooooooooooooooom! I gotta go take the town out of debt!"
"NOT UNTIL YOU CLEAN YOUR ROOM, MISTER!"

To be honest I think a 17 year old as mayor is a pretty bad idea. I'm not sure why you think that if school teachers have no idea what anything costs, a university student has a better idea. In fact, I imagine that the 17 year old would plunge the city into far more debt as he tries to fulfil his idealistic views.

He's probably still in High School 

Also, I agree with this. He probably try to make a utopia, but then realize utopia means "no place" 

[Hubris Incalculable]

"But Mooooooooooooooom! I gotta go take the town out of debt!"
"NOT UNTIL YOU CLEAN YOUR ROOM, MISTER!"

To be honest I think a 17 year old as mayor is a pretty bad idea. I'm not sure why you think that if school teachers have no idea what anything costs, a university student has a better idea. In fact, I imagine that the 17 year old would plunge the city into far more debt as he tries to fulfil his idealistic views.

He's probably still in High School 

Also, I agree with this. He probably try to make a utopia, but then realize utopia means "no place" 

No, He's attending the University of the Fraser Valley.

[mainiac]

Canada elects ex-school teachers for mayor?  I envy you guys.

[Montague]

Well? What was the kid's opinion on this mentioned controversial topic?

Anyways, as for ex-school teachers, think about who'd you rather have in charge. Your current mayor or your old kindergarten teacher?

[Hubris Incalculable]

Well? What was the kid's opinion on this mentioned controversial topic?

Anyways, as for ex-school teachers, think about who'd you rather have in charge. Your current mayor or your old kindergarten teacher?

Let me clarify this school-teacher thing - the incumbent was principal of several local High Schools, and the rest are mostly high-school as well.

anyway, here's the article which he shows up in, which outlines what the controversy is and what his position is: link
edit: oh, and here's a better article about the P3 Water debate

[DJ]

For all we know this kid may have thousands of hours clocked on SimCity.

[Strife26]

Terribad idea. Maturity comes with age and experience, you know? Seems to me like a nice attempt to gain himself a nice little blurb to put on some application to whatever fancy-type shit there is for school-children to apply to in Canada.

[Realmfighter]

Terribad idea. Maturity comes with age and experience, you know?

Because obviously the older you are the more mature you get (Let's ignore all exceptions to this rule) and if it's not right to judge a large group of people because of a vague stereotype then I don't know what is.

[Virex]

Age is no guarantee for maturity, but a lack of age is a pretty good indicator of a lack of experience.  The problem however isn't so much that this guy has little experience with running a city, I'll assume he can get sufficient backup from the party bureau (if he's aligned with a party) and the municipality to get plans worked out. However, the problem is a lack of political experience, which means he would have trouble defending himself against more capable debaters, which is always a problem with new politicians. The last thing you want is a major who can't stand her ground in the council., or worse, one that is but a proxy for the most experienced council members.


I think trying to go directly for major without having been part of the city council for some time is ill advised, because as much as we'd like to pretend otherwise, contacts and political knowledge as well as debating skill are still the keys that open the kind of doors a major needs to open.

[Aqizzar]

I remember hearing about some town in Indiana or some place, like five years ago, where a teenager won a write-in vote for mayor or city council or something.  The Daily Show interviewed him.  I think the town refused to certify his victory or something, I dunno, the whole thing just disappeared so it couldn't have turned out too badly whatever the case.